New Year’s is over, but on the third floor of the Palisades Center Mall in West Nyack, NY, countdowns are heard through the entire galaxy as the next big idea in experiential retailing is poised to take off.
Robot Galaxy, a new retail concept bringing robots to life borrows a page from the playbook of Build-a-Bear and American Girl, but blends in some testosterone-infused elements that appeal to the male crowd. In the store, each robot built has its own liftoff music as it soars to Saturn in a 12-foot elevator fixture- hence the noisy countdowns turning the heads of mall-goers.
The buzz around Robot Galaxy has been huge, specifically on TV. When Rachael Ray featured the robots as a great gift idea on her show the week before Christmas, sales doubled from the previous month the day the show aired. The Today Show and Fox’s Tony Senecal’s Holiday Gift Guide have also featured Robot Galaxy.
The concept was first featured on Donny Deutsch on The Big Idea show in August of 2007, two months prior to the first stores’ opening at the Raceway Mall in Freehold, NJ and Palisades Center Mall in West Nyack, NY. Founder Oliver Mitchell explained to that it was his own son who prompted the idea. “Every Sunday I’m going into the mall with my daughters and my son. We go to Build-a-Bear, American Girl, and all my son wants to do is throw the dolls out the window. He’s so frustrated there’s nothing there for him. I love robots, he loves robots…we combined [the stores] together,” Mitchell told Deutsch.
Advertisement
In the stores, young shoppers are able to choose one of five characters from a coinciding comic book to build their own robot, collecting flexors and extenders (or arms and legs). Battery and voice packs coincide with their owners declaring, “I belong to Timmy.” Depending upon merchandise elements, robots range in price from $27 to $75. Robot lovers take their robots to a ring of computers, register and name him, and then get the robot ready for liftoff.
To lift off the idea, Mitchell approached Ken Pilot, former President of The Gap and CEO of J. Crew. With Mitchell’s passion and Pilot’s retail expertise, the duo created Robot Galaxy. “It’s more than just retail, it’s entertainment,” said Pilot, whose goal is to open up 70 stores within the next five years.
After robots are complete and brought to life, they’re boxed up and taken home. But the experience doesn’t end there. Taking a cue from the Webkinz phenomen, Robot Galaxy customers can take part in an online experience, playing games and racking up points to ascend in the virtual world. Eventually, Robot Galaxy hopes to enable robot lovers to interact, creating a social network within the site.
Of the in-store experience, Pilot said, “There will be commotion. There will be energy, there will be light.”
The quarterly comic book, where all characters originate from the rings of Saturn, will introduce a new character at least once a year, expanding the plethora of robot choices. Presently, the comic book is sold in stores and online, but comic book retailers will carry it within three months.
Robot Galaxy got in on the gift card boom, driving “tremendous” gift card sales in-store and online during the holiday season. The store also offers birthday parties and friendly employees who interact with the children and teach them all about their new robots.
