CHICAGO — AT&T has opened a 10,000-square-foot flagship store on Chicago’s Miracle Mile designed to showcase present and future wireless technologies and services.
The interactive showroom, which opened last week, features more than 100 digital displays, some located on an 18-foot-high “Connect Wall,” to help customers explore products, apps and content.
The store also provides the first retail demos of the carrier’s Digital Life home security and automation services, and features a “connected” 2012 Nissan Leaf to show how coming wireless technologies will improve navigation and automotive safety.
Visitors to the store’s Explorer Lounge can also belly up to an Apps Bar where “app-tenders” can provide one-on-one and group demos for display on multiple video monitors.
Other sections of the showroom highlight music and mobile gaming, as well as the carrier’s AT&T U-verse TV, landline and Internet services.
In addition, products, apps and accessories are merchandised by lifestyle within separate fitness, productivity, sharing and Chicagoland boutiques. The latter include exclusive Chicagothemed accessories by area artists, as well as local apps and other products unique to The Windy City.
“Customers will be not only be able to interact with and purchase our products, but they will also experience the forefront of evolving wireless technology and see how AT&T is leading it,” said Paul Roth, president, AT&T retail sales and service. “Every aspect and every innovation of our Michigan Avenue store has been designed with the customer experience in mind. From the design and layout of the store, to the way we display products and services, to the instore technology and our brand ambassadors, everything is an extension of our goal to be the nation’s premier retailer.”
AT&T operates more than 2,300 retail stores nationwide.
The new flagship is located along North Michigan Avenue, a mecca for engaging retail environments that also include a Pop Art-inspired Best Buy, Garmin’s lone company-operated showroom, an Apple Store, and Virgin Mobile’s prototype experiential boutique in nearby Lincoln Park (see TWICE, Aug. 6).