Roomplace Opens New Store in Indianapolis
Furniture World News Desk on
9/5/2017
Connie Post recently announced the grand opening of the newest RoomPlace store in Indianapolis this summer.
“We see this new store, and in particular the new warehouse here, as being the key to us being able to dominate the Indianapolis market,” says Bruce Berman, chairman of the 25-store chain. “For years we’ve just been using a local architect to do whatever was needed to get new stores ready to open, and it was o.k., because we went with a completely open floor plan. But that open floor plan really didn’t highlight anything, so rather than doing another trial and error on our own, we wanted to turn it over to someone who could help us develop a new look for our stores moving forward. We went with Connie Post and her Affordable Design team based on previous successes with her and because I felt she was someone who would be able to create the iconic elements we needed to help reinforce our brand throughout the chain without having to do complete remodels to all the stores.”
The Indianapolis store will showcase an aisle that RoomPlace chief executive Paul Adams calls “eye-popping.” To achieve an urban industrial vibe that both suited and brought excitement to the inner-city neighborhood, the Affordable Design team stacked 168 shipping pallets in a stair-stepped design and topped the stacks with light green plexi-glass. “The pallets form a fashion runway down the center of the store on which we display cool products,” Post describes. The presentation is lit from above with modern drum shades that play off the brand’s blue/green logo.
“Throughout the process, Connie and I had a lot of discussions about ‘pop’ and where it should fall and where it shouldn’t fall,” admits Adams. “Some of it scares you on paper, but it absolutely stuns you in person. I’m a big believer in the idea that architecture should support the furniture, not become the story, and in the end the store absolutely sparkles. Indianapolis has been missing an inspirational, aspirational store and now RoomPlace fulfills that need. There is something to see everywhere you turn, but it’s not overwhelming. The space is easy to walk and work, with great visibility and people are excited to see what’s next. Where people here were more, ‘Let’s buy the brown couch because it’s safe,’ now they are buying color and eclectic mixings of furniture. They see it, and they say, ‘You know what? I really like that! That’s what I’m going to do!”
“When I first started in the business years ago, stores like ours were doing 3 or 4 percent of their business in bedding,” Berman relates, “and we found out that we were missing a giant opportunity. In the same way that bedding is a very important category in furniture stores now, we think that decorative accessories are the next big opportunity for growth. At RoomPlace, up to this point, we’ve been selling accessories almost by accident. Now, thanks to Connie, our presentation on the decorative side is a lot more like what you see in the lifestyle-type stores.”
More about Connie Post: Renowned as a retail design strategist, author, trend translator and developer of both product and brands, Connie Post has built a career on understanding where consumers are, what they want most, and where they are going next. As the standard bearer of visual marketing in the home furnishings industry for the past three decades, she is responsible for the look of more than 20 million square feet of retail and wholesale space around the globe. Driven by a design philosophy that relentlessly emphasizes affordability and return-on-investment (ROI), her firm—Connie Post Affordable Design—is committed to providing retailers and manufacturers with fresh and innovative environments that elevate the guest experience. For more information, visit www.conniepost.com.