If retail stores are good enough for Apple, they’re good enough for Google.
The search engine company – wait, is it that any more? – quietly opened a mini-sized retail outlet of its own last week, tucked inside a larger consumer electronics store in London’s geekiest shopping street, Tottenham Court Road.
For those of you who’ve never been there, there’s a stretch of TCR (as it’s sometimes known) lined on both sides with electronics stores. Some of them are pretty awful, crammed with overpriced plastic tat in the hope of luring in unknowing tourists. But some of the shops along there do stock the good stuff: authentic parts for people who like to build their own computers, the latest new craziness imported from abroad, and reconditioned or second-hand bargains. It pays to shop around when you visit TCR.
Anyway, Google’s new Chrome Zone is tucked inside a corner of a branch of UK computer chain store PC World.
What does it sell? Chromebooks, of course. Just Chromebooks.
This is Google’s very first toe in the water when it comes to meatspace retail. It will be very interesting to see if it succeeds.
