Echoing Retro Retail Meets the Joy Economy in Global Store Openings, Vol 2: 2024, more brands presented feel-good salves for unstable times in the form of tongue-in-cheek culinary-centred concepts, showcasing limited-edition collectables/collections. Channelling the theatrics of grocery stores and classic American diners, some of the (kitschier) pop-ups poked fun at consumerism, while others leant into the comfort of nostalgic visual tropes.

Tapping into the premise of retail-brand-as-service-provider (and vice versa), several smart jewellery, fashion and beauty brands reimagined themselves via highly stylised, uniquely curated hybrid environments for adjacent activities, including tattoo artistry, piercing and even a “Skin Studio”.

Diverging from the grander retail-meets-hospitality concepts spotlit in Gastro-Designs Premiumising the Daily Caffeine Fix in Global Store Openings: Vol 1, 2024, this quarter also revealed a rise in imaginative smaller-scale in-store cafés. Micro- or mini-hangout hubs for starting off, dropping in or finishing up, these include informal double-duty spaces (think coffee-bar-cum-cashier-desk) and casual co-working store lounges.

With the global cannabis market projected to grow by 34% annually from $57.18bn in 2023 to $444.34bn by 2030, associated store designs continue to diversify. Aesthetically opposite new designs include an ostentatious strip-club-style coffeeshop by Snoop Dogg, American rapper and founder of cannabis dispensary SWED (Smoke Weed Every Day), and a minimalist, travel-inspired destination by American brand The Travel Agency.

The power of retail to honour or support placemaking also returns this quarter, with a number of inspiring locality-focused designs. Some seamlessly assimilate into their surroundings or host locations; others take a more visually dramatic approach, creatively reinterpreting the landscape or extrapolating location-specific traditions or customs.

Reinvigorating mall-based flagship design, two brands exhibit inspirational superstore-sized destinations using semi-underground spaces. Both play on the drama of descending into a cavernous interior – but with enough light to create a sense of serenity and mystique.

Chiming with consumers’ ongoing craving for dopamine hits amidst the permacrisis (see Reclaiming Play: Brands Offer Kidults Joyful Escapism) and the Paris 2024 Olympics (see Olympic Store Openings and Olympics & Paralympics 2024: 10 Big Ideas for Sports Marketing), several new concepts exhibit the allure of sports-centred retail “interventions” and participation-inciting play spaces to make quotidian life more exciting.