Intel, Google to roll out pop-up retail stores, burnishing their brands

CBS

Google is adding a slew of pop-up retail locations to its mysterious barge as it rolls out a charm offensive aimed at convincing consumers to buy its gadgets this holiday season.

Jon Xavier: Web Producer- Silicon Valley Business Journal; Email | Twitter | Google+

Google and Intel are opening pop-up stores, getting in on a Silicon Valley retail trend we've been writing about extensively.
Retailers are snatching up vacant storefronts to hock their wares in what looks to be a very busy holiday season. Google announced this weekend that it's following suit, opening retail showrooms in six cities across the U.S. — New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, Sacramento, California, and Paramus, New Jersey. It announced these so-called "Winter Wonderlabs" on a new website, which also provided a peek at what customers can expect in-store.
Retail can be as much about brand awareness as sales, and the Wonderlabs seem to be following the model pioneered by Apple and Tesla — they're about the experience. It's a way to demonstrate how cool Google's gadgets are and why they'd be a perfect gift for a special someone this holiday season. Among other things, the showrooms will have a giant snow globe where you can use Google products to take a slow-motion video to send to your friends, a kind of high-tech holiday card.
Google's pop-up stores extend a retail strategy that began to take form with the Google barge in the San Francisco Bay, which was recently revealed as a technology showcase space.
Meanwhile, Intel is also making a foray into holiday showrooms. The first is set to open in New York City on Nov. 23, and Intel is promising more will follow, although it hasn't said where. These are likely to be almost entirely about the experience — although Intel chips power many things, the company doesn't have any consumer products of its own. Instead, the stores are going to show off the many laptops, tablets and mobile devices with Intel Inside. Each location will also play host to lectures by local tech luminaries, serve free coffee, and show free movies on Fridays.

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Jon Xavier is Web Producer at the Business Journal. His phone number is 408.299.1826.

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