Edible Apple

Et tu, Google?

Apple’s retail initiative was a stroke of genius and it’s no wonder that other companies have tried to emulate Apple’s retail success. First there was Microsoft whose own line of retail stores are, not too surprisingly, eerily similar to Apple’s. What’s more, Microsoft is seemingly positioning its own retail stores to be located extremely close to Apple’s.

And now we have Google entering the retail fray as well.

Google recently opened up its first Google store in London inside the Tottenham Court Road PC World.

As it stands now, the ‘store within a store’ is quite small, measuring in at only 285 square feet. As for what you can pick up there, the store only sells Google Chromebooks along with various accessories like headphones. The store is, to be fair, an experiment of sorts and will be open for three months leading up to and through Christmas.

The London Evening Standard reports:

But if the low-key experiment is successful Google could follow its great rival Apple in opening permanent stores around the world.

Unlike the hugely hyped launch of the first Apple Store in Regent Street, very few customers were even aware of the Google shop – officially known as “the Chromezone” – and there were certainly no queues round the block.

Arvind Desikan, head of consumer marketing at Google UK, said: “It is our first foray into physical retail. This is a new channel for us and it’s still very, very early days. It’s something Google is going to play with and see where it leads.”

Google is planning to open up a second ‘store’ in the Lakeside shopping center located in Essex this coming Friday. Indeed, even more of these makeshift stores are set to open around the globe over the next few months.

“We’ve put a lot of effort into making it feel welcoming, homely and, dare I say it, ‘Googley'”, a Google spokesperson said.