el-toned hues. With walls and display stands covered in long, rectangular tiles laid in a straight stack pattern, the design immediately brings to mind an actual kitchen and dining room, rather than a big box where retail goods are typically displayed. This is evidenced by a side room dubbed the ‘Building a Bigger Table Room,’ which features a large dining table surrounded by purple velvet chairs and lavender drapery hanging from the ceiling. Three sides of the room are covered in mirrors to create infinite reflections intended to “welcomeeveryone to have a seat at the table,” the Our Place team says. Launched in 2019, Our Place is a direct-to-consumer cookware brand that offers a variety of tableware and multi-use cooking tools, such as the brand’s bestselling Always Pan, which is designed to replace eight traditional pieces of cookware. Contact Sports New York City, NY At first glance, Contact Sports appears to be just another highend sportswear store in the heart of SoHo. But upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that the equipment sold here is for adult-only activities. Founded by husband-and-wife duo Justin and Chelsea Kerzner, Contact Sports is a new entrant on the burgeoning sexual wellness scene, with a mission to make the experience of shopping at an adult store less intimidating for the average consumer. The pair worked with Ringo Studio founder Madelynn Ringo, who regularly designs retail spaces for hip brands such as Glossier and Our Place to create an elevated setting for sex toys andaccessories from brands like Maude, Kiki de Montparnasse and Lelo. Upon entering the space, customers are greeted by a 15-foot wall of freshly cut roses, which is part of the store’s full-service rose shop and a nod to the brand’s logo – a single red rose that appears on its apparel and accessories line. A Jonathan de Pas, Donato d’Urbino and Paolo Lomazzi baseball glove chair completes the ’70s locker room look and feel. Pop Up Grocer New York City, NY While New York City is known for its bodegas and other niche grocery stores catering to specific communities, there is no place quite like the Millennial and Gen Z-approved Pop Up Grocer. After opening temporary locations in Denver, Washington DC Miami, Chicago, and Brooklyn, the travelingpop-up grocery store opened its first permanent store in Greenwich Village, one of New York City’s trendiest neighborhoods, in March. Located on 205 Bleecker Street, the store was brought to life by architectural and design firm Porto Architects. Pop Up Grocer curates a variety of food and lifestyle goods and features an impressive assortment of LGBTQIA+, BIPOC and women-owned brands. The products on the shelves are just as colorful and eye-catching as the store itself. With its retro-looking checkerboard floor, bright-white walls, and shelves showcasing products under categories like “Happy Hour,” “Boosters + Blends,” “Bites + Chews,” and “Puffs + Crunch,” the new-age grocery store looks like something straight out of a comic book or funky cartoon. Ceremonia New York City, NY The bright yellow shop located at 413 Broome Street in New York City is all about putting the ‘ceremony’ back into hair care. Upon first walking into the flagship, customers encounter Ceremonia’s colorful range of hair care products, artfully arranged on the shelves and niches that have been built into the store’s earthy clay walls. It looks and feels more like a luxe villa in South America than a typical retail shop. Tropical flowers and framed artwork throughout the space lend even more of a welcoming and artistic touch. The centerpiece of the store is a sink carved out of stone, with products and fluffy white towels stationed nearby for customers to test Ceremonia’s product offering in a relaxing manner. Designed by Cuban architect Adalberto Angulo and the team at New York-based interior studio Casa Angulo, the SoHo shop marks the brand’s first brick-and-mortar location. Opened in July, it comes less than a year after Ceremonia became the first Latinx-owned hair care brand to be stocked by Sephora both in-store and online. Good American Los Angeles, CA Good American, the size-inclusive apparel brand founded by Khloé Kardashian and Emma Grede, has opened its first brick-and-mortar store, located at Westfield Century City Mall in Los Angeles. The store has a pared-back color palette, dominated by warm neutral tones and pops of deep blue, andan entire wall of denim, the brand’s signature product, designed by the LA-based and female-owned custom millwork studio Friends x Family. In keeping with the brand’s size-inclusive apparel offering, the store features mannequins of all shapesand sizes, as well as size-inclusive fitting rooms. A brand rep states that the smallest fitting room in thestore is still 75 percent larger than dressing rooms in traditional stores. The fitting rooms are also equipped with iPads, so customers can review the brand’s size guide and request different sizes to try on. Good American plans to open a second brick-and-mortar location in Las Vegas later this year, and will belaunching in Dillard’s in the coming months. Sweetgreen Naperville, IL Fast casual salad chain Sweetgreen opened its first restaurant powered by automation in May. The store, located in the Chicago suburb of Naperville, Illinois, features the retailer’s Infinite Kitchen technology, which is capable of making customised bowls of salad to order with a bare minimum of human intervention. After the customer places their order – either through the Sweetgreen app, a self-service kiosk, or the restaurant’s host – their bowl moves along a conveyor belt, stopping at various dispensers filled with dressings, grains, arugula, cherry tomatoes, goat cheese and other ingredients. At each station, their bowl is rotated slightly to ensure the ingredients are evenly distributed, and at the end of the conveyor belt, it is hand-mixed by a team member. More delicate ingredients, such as herbs, avocado, and fish are added by hand at the end. In addition to the Infinite Kitchen technology, the store also features a new tasting counter, brand-storytelling digital screens and a display area where customers can shop exclusive merchandise. Sweetgreen has stated that it plans to open a second automated restaurant this year, and expects all of its restaurants to be automated eventually. Cult Gaia New York City, NY LA-based fashion and accessories brand Cult Gaia opened its first stand-alone location in New York at 60 Wooster Street in the heart of SoHo, one of the city’s most fashionable neighborhoods. Created by design and architecture firm Sugarhouse, the store encompasses three rooms across 1,900sqft, which display the brand’s colorful and feminine accessories and clothing pieces. The rooms are separated by long colonnades, giving customers the sensation of walking into a well-worn cave or dimly lit Romanesque temple. The brand’s brightly colored products pop out against the earthy limestone and beige plaster surfacesthat make up the store’s neutral color palette. In addition to soft overhead lighting, there is plentyof natural light coming in through the windows, which provide a view of Wooster Street’s fashionable visitors. This story first appeared in the September 2023 issue of Inside Retail US magazine.