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.
Giles Turnbull is a freelance writer in England. He also writes for the Press Association and The Morning News. You can find out more at his website, and follow him on Twitter @gilest.
6 responses to “Google Just Opened Its First Chrome Store In London”
That was fast – You guys only waited a week after the other blogs posted about it.
FAIL. Now if Google were serious about what they are trying to do (which I assume is raise awareness of their products and services) they have put this in the wrong place. They are probably already preaching to the converted on Totts Road, far better would have been to go somewhere more mainstream.
Hmmm, interesting indeed. Surely they sell somehting other than JUST chromebooks like…I dunno, accessories?