2017Issue2_Alabama_v6

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OUTSIDE THE BOX NEW RETAIL PERSPECTIVES

Retail Waterloo

Alive Kicking &

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Remember the old neighborhood video stores that cropped up in every town and seemed to die out as quickly with the advent of streaming services? Well, they’re still around thanks to increased demand and some new strategies. There are still about 100 video store holdouts across the U.S. selling DVDs Blu-Ray and even VHS tapes – many of them in places were you find a large locavore population. Places like Video Free Brooklyn in New York, Vulcan Video in Austin, Texas and Movie Madness in Portland, Ore., have become one-stop shops for popular and obscure films you would need to get from multiple streaming services like Netflix or Hulu and movie props and accessories.

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H o t J a v a Turns out you can teach an old dog new tricks. In this case, an English bulldog – new tricks. The former Eurostar terminal at London’s Waterloo Station is being refitted for 135,000 square feet of retail space on three floors. But the project isn’t just for the benefit of commuters. British Railways and the Department of Transportation want to make Waterloo station as much a retail destination as the High Street.

Global supplies of coffee are tightening, but demand is at record levels. Research indicates that Americans are becoming addicted to the beverage at an earlier age – even in China – as demand dwindles among older consumers.

Remember Boston Market – the darling of the fast casual dining industry? The chain has been pretty quiet of late, but that may be coming to an end. The company hired a new ad agency, The Richards Group, to get back some of the luster it lost to Chick-fil-A. Plans include new branding and creative strategy.

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