Dear M&M’s World…SoHo Is Not Times Square…
I was warmly greeted by M&M’s World prior to their official launch in SoHo last week and saw a street promoter outside my office.
The M&M’s World store is located at 434 Broadway and is expected to be open through September.
While touring their facility for a potential blog post to promote it, several questions arose:
- Is the space expected to be “finished” over the next week or so or are the concrete floors and temporary curtains staying? {UNFINISHED}
- Is the product mix expected to change or are all the items less than $20 including the $1 reusable bags and $10 t-shirts? {CHEAP}
- Is there always someone outside the store trying to solicit business into the store? {SOLICITATION – BAD!}
While the press release made it seem like the brand would pay homage to the history of SoHo…not much felt historic about the space. Here is a blurb from the press release:
The M&M’S World SoHo pop-up store will be located in 4,500 square feet of a historical building that dates back to 1910, and features an old-fashioned walk-in vault, which will be used as a special merchandising area.
It felt like someone from the corporate M&M’s team threw this together; spending hundreds of thousands on rent and not a penny on anything else.
On a positive note, the assistant store manager I met was extremely knowledgeable and friendly (from his past experience at the Gap) however, other pieces of this attempt to operate a pop-up failed. Penny wise and pound foolish.
Except my photo with Mrs. Brown:
Have you been to the M&M pop-up on Broadway and Howard? What did you think? E-mail me at Danielle@sohostrut.com.
