Thoughts regarding expensive locations and retail items:
A recent concern that I read in one of the many posts this weekend was in regard to the expensive rent locations in Chicago, MGM, London, and the planned Times Square and other London (DisneyWorld was not mentioned). I think that there was concern that these locations could not be as successful due to the much higher rent and development costs than malls. Concern was also raised because no figures regarding Chicago River North have been released, which may be a harbinger for bad results at this location.
However, others have said that RAIN needs to really establish its brand name like Hard Rock and Planet Hollywood in order to be the only successful Rainforest theme restaurant. I agree with this, because establishing an extremely popular brand will do wonders for retail. These more expensive locations will provide that type of exposure, so even if they are not as profitable, they will greatly expand the brand's presence.
Much has been said about RAIN needing to improve its retail, but little has been said about how except reducing the amount of clothing. I think that at these more upscale locations, they should provide more upscale merchandise. Instead of your normal t-shirt, get an Adidas RAIN workout outfit or Calvin Klein Rainforest Cafe boxers. The UCLA Store has Adidas and many other quality brands make UCLA merchandise, so why not RAIN? Selling lots of green merchandise is a good idea because it is the color most associated with the rainforest and it is also currently a very popular color. This will make it easier for them to focus on items which don't need to be fully customized, like green Adidas sandals. The merchandise should be more focused on each location based on demographics as well as climate for clothing (shorts will sell at SCP in winter, but not in Chicago, etc.). Also, they should avoid selling the same merchandise which is found in every other store (Nature Co., World of Science, Store of Knowledge, etc.) unless it is a very popular item. For their more upscale stores, they could tap into the Pottery Barn/Z Gallerie/Restoration Hardware/Anthropologie niche by selling candles, picture frames, and the thousands of other items those other stores are selling like crazy. A forest-scented, ten dollar, green candle with the RAIN logo incorporated somehow would do much better at SCP than another t-shirt. RAIN is in a position where they could really dominate the retail market if they provided exciting, innovative products, but if they don't change the retail quickly, the image of will be difficult to change. RAIN is in a unique position to other theme restaurants because there are so many more retail ideas relating to rainforests than there are to Hard Rock or Hollywood (although I have thought that they could do well selling music and videos if they merged with a company with a retail presence in those areas).
I am out of ideas for now, so I'll end it here.
-Dylan
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