retail rituals

mornin’ merry makers 🫳🫴🧰🛠️🛎️💆🏻‍♀️

if you’ve been a longtime reader, you may remember that once upon a time, this newsie did a deep dive on love languages.

at the time of writing, there was no retail tie.

but i’ve realized there’s a very strong tie between retail and the love languages.

specifically, acts of service. that deeply human need to be taken care of. to have someone else handle the thing that's been weighing on you. to feel like someone's got your back to solve a problem.

retail, when done right, speaks this love language fluently.

the best retail experiences are acts of service wrapped in commerce. sometimes you pay for them directly (that eye exam, that makeover). sometimes they're given freely (that styling advice, that technical support). but they all deliver on something you can’t (or don’t want to) necessarily do at home by yourself.

i’ve noticed that more and more “stores” are focusing on service centers.

which makes so much sense because services become retail rituals that transform shopping from a transaction into a tradition. the appointments, consultations, & experiences that literally require a human body to show up in a specific place at a specific time to take care of another human being.

this isn't just a nice-to-have anymore.

it's becoming a core part of profitable retail business models.

why landlords love this (& you should too)

landlords aren’t chasing footsteps more and more. specifically from services.

you’ve made it to the good part 😎