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“There is nothing more wonderful than a list, instrument of wondrous hypotyposis.”
― Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose
Eco, the great Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist was right – we might not know what hypotyposis means (for that matter, what is a semiotician?) but like a top sailor we all do like a good list.
I think about lists the whole time: my favourite wines, foods, books, people, writers, movies, musicians. Professionally I am asked constantly for my list of favourite airports.
The great thing about lists is that you will seemingly never find someone whose list agrees with yours. Companies such as Amazon exploit the concept of ‘list-mania’ superbly.
So… to keep things on a travel retail level, what are your favourite (let’s say, top 5) airport speciality/standalone retail stores and why?
We’re offering tickets in Dubai Duty Free’s ‘Finest Surprise’ draw, (featuring the chance to win a luxury car) for the best five ‘Top 5s’.
Your nominations can include luxury brand stores, news & books, destination merchandise – anything really.
All entries please by Wednesday 19 September to Martin@TheMoodieReport, marked ‘My Top 5’. You must work in the travel retail industry to participate.
To get those creative juices flowing, here are ten (not in ranking order) of my favourite speciality stores that I’ve visited in recent months. I’m not sure if they are my definitive global top ten (I can think of at least 15 others that would contest such a list), but they’re certainly right out of the top drawer.
1. Jo Malone. London Gatwick Airport: A gorgeous boutique that would not look out of place in London’s Bond Street. It’s spacious, beautifully merchandised, bright, vibrant and full of wonderful products.
2. Lindt boutique, Zürich Airport: For aficionados, this sumptuous Nuance-run store is travel retail’s equivalent of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
3. The Collection, Abu Dhabi International Airport: I like the way DFS Group’s upscale wines & spirits boutique store sets the tone when one arrives at Terminal 3. Passengers encounter this offer before the more prosaic main Arrivals duty free shop and it just oozes the image that Abu Dhabi Airports Company is so keen to convey.
4. World of Whiskies (Heathrow and Gatwick Airports, various terminals): It’s been around a long time now but the concept still works brilliantly. That’s because the product range is both broad and eclectic and the service is arguably among the very best you’ll find in travel retail.
5. Korea Cultural Traditional Experience Center: The name perfectly encapsulates the proposition – a blend of culture, tradition and consumer experience. It’s beautifully laid out with some of the classiest destination merchandise I have ever seen at an airport.
6. Vine & Leaf, Singapore Changi Airport: Gebr Heinemann’s debut at Changi, this classy 98sq m store offers a selection of over 500 fine wines and cigars. It includes a wine tasting bar equipped with an enomatic (the third word in this Blog that I’ve never heard of…) machine for sampling premium wines, an interactive touch screen and iPads for easy access to product ‘edutainment’ (ugly word, nice concept).
7. Expo Fine Art Gallery, Heathrow Airport T5: An oustanding landside attraction at T5, packed with fine original art and sculptures, generally British-themed. It’s exactly what the much-cited, less often executed concept of Sense of Place is all about. I love this place and often wish it was airside so I could spend more time there.
8. The Cocoa Trees: An ebullient, technicolour retail explosion that shows our industry that confectionery retailing need not be (as it so often is) dull and boring.
9. Shanghai Tang, Hong Kong International Airport: The only reason it’s showing at nine in my list is that I’m simply writing them down in the order I think of them. A great brand brought to life in just the right way. It’s a joy to shop here.
10. The Irish Whiskey Collection, Dublin Airport Terminal 2: Dublin Airport Authority wanted to create “an amazing shop window for Irish whiskey”. It’s done just that and in the process grown Irish whiskey sales by around +40%. It’s a treasure trove of some 125 different products in a beautifully merchandised 80sq m store.
But hey, that’s just an off the cuff list that probably reflects my travel pattern of recent months. Let’s know your thoughts.
What about the great destination merchandise stores of the world, the brilliant stand-alone shops in Australian and New Zealand airports, the atmospheric local product outlets of some smaller Mediterranean airports, the great cigar offers from the Middle East, the innovative stand-alone concepts of airports in Taipei and Bangkok?
We’ll publish the winners in a forthcoming edition of The Moodie Report e-Zine, plus the best of the rest.