Micro- MIXING PURPOSE: LEADERS: SCALE: FACT:
Too incubate new businesses and sustain existing ones through the co-location of mutually supportive uses. Entrepreneurs Property Owners Business Improvement Districts Block || Building The simplest form of retail micro- mixing is the coffee shop inside the book store, something corporations figured out long ago.
By mixing multiple businesses in a single retail space, micro-mixing provides entrepreneurial shop owners an opportunity to mitigate the high overhead costs associated with opening a new venture. This tactical retailing technique combines complimentary uses and activities that can be used by existing retailers as well as cooperative and startup incubator spaces. The best use of the micro-mixing technique can create some of the most exciting and memorable shopping experiences. The success of large format bookstores in the 1990’s and 2000’s illustrated the mutually beneficial relationship that exists between a coffee shop and a bookstore. These two uses together, a latte and a new book, seem to fit together naturally. Today, more unconventional and perhaps more exciting mixes are emerging. In Denver, Salvagetti Bicycle Workshop has included an espresso bar on its sales floor. In New York, Barbershops are selling clothing, and jewelry stores are selling Vietnamese sandwiches. In Providence, a craft co-op store is running a gallery out of the back of house space and a coffee shop is selling potted plants and gardening supplies. All of these operators are creatively maximizing the return on their space’s floor area by working together with complimentary retailers. At its core, micro-mixing is a “buddy system” economic development strategy that helps small businesses grow incrementally. By using clever merchandising and efficient space planning, existing retail spaces can quickly be adapted to handle multiple users or businesses. Thus, micro-mixing provides an easy opportunity to test new ideas. If successful, micro-mixing tenants can one day strike out on their own.
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URBANISM
Salvagetti Bicycle Workshop Credit: Panoramio user chachafish
Happy Coffee Espresso Window Credit: Jonathan Shikes