Hipsters Will LOVE Shopping At this Reinvented Convenience Store
For the urban American commuter, convenience is everything. The process of getting to work on time can be stressful enough, so you want to make sure any stops you make along the way are definitely worth the extra time. Back in the day, the newsstand was a central hub of info where passersby were free to stock up on necessities and also get the 411 on what’s happening in the world that day. Now that we have iPhones and even door-to-door grocery delivery, you would think that the newsstand is practically defunct. According to two guys from NYC, however, that’s not the case. There’s a reinvented version in town, and it’s pretty freakin’ neat.
The brainchild of founders George Alan and Lex Kendall, and headed up by CEO Andrew Deitchman, founder of Mother New York, and CMO David Carson (founder of Heavy.com) it’s called The New Stand (clever play on words there, guys), and it’s definitely unlike whatever traditionally comes to mind when you think of a newsstand. Sure, they’ve got all the usual suspects, like gum, water and magazines, but they also stock hipper extras, like matcha-flavored KitKats, Blue Bottle Coffee and Yeti yoga mats. Not what you expected, right? The minds behind The New Stand told us, “It makes sense to have a place you go by every day to be a place you discover things.” And we couldn’t agree more — on a busy commute, those discoveries better be be pretty darn interesting.
Plus, if you want to get even more 21st century techie, The New Stand even has a smartphone app (free on iOS and Android) that allows members access to custom playlists, lets them load up their credit card to pay through the app and also acts as a “daily digest” for the hottest news content of the moment. The idea behind the app is that it acts literally like a digital newspaper. The New Stand’s objective is “combining your online and offline lives and making it very easy,” says George.
Right now there are only two shops, and they’re both in NYC, but the team hopes to expand somewhere down the line after they get these two stores right, Lex tells us. Fingers crossed we’ll be seeing more places like this around the country soon.
At the pace tech is improving, age-old institutions like newsstands indeed have to upgrade to version 2.0 or they’ll get left behind. In the end, what The New Stand team hopes visitors will take away from their place is that “while it’s a new and cool idea, it’s really meant to be for everybody. [It’s] something that acknowledges everyone likes things just a little bit better.”
It also serves as a reminder that in our fast-paced, go-go-go world, sometimes it’s nice to just slow down, take a short detour and play with an Instax camera once in a while.
What do you think of this 21st-century newsstand? Wanna see one in your town? Tweet us @BritandCo!
