EE opens first ‘experience store’ in Cardiff

UK operator EE will open what it’s calling an ‘experience store’ in Cardiff on Monday, designed chiefly it seems to let customers play around with new tech.

EE rather grandiosely says the new store ‘reinvents the role of the traditional phone shop’ and is ‘a vote of confidence in the Welsh high street.’ More specifically, what the shop comprises of is four different ‘zones’ all of which in some way shape or form are designed to get people using or looking at tech products.

The Welcome Zone seems to be just the shopfront, but with a changeable digital window canvas, while the Gaming Zone does what it says on the tin and lets people have a blast on various consoles. Base Camp meanwhile offers sofas, free tea and coffee, work benches and ‘collaborative worktops’, and Tech Live lets people play around with and buy new technology products.

It also has a couple of ‘room sets’ where customers can see some teched-up living room and home office set ups in action. The operator is planning to open more of these stores over the course of the next year, which the release says is part of its new retail strategy ‘which seeks to reinvent the role of retail in the telco industry putting innovation, personal experience, and community service front and centre.’

“We have enjoyed being a part of the local community in Cardiff for over ten years and so we are excited to now be bringing the first of our Experience stores to our Cardiff customers, offering them the chance to interact with the latest connected technology,” said Asif Aziz OBE, Retail Director at EE.

“Our vision is for each of our EE stores to be so much more than a traditional phone shop. We know that our customers want innovative and exciting retail experiences that give them a reason to visit time and time again. We have therefore redesigned our stores to ensure EE continues to offer the most personal, customer-focused service on the high street, helping people get more out of their connected lives and allowing them to see what the future’s got in store.”

The overall impression is one of a tech shop with an emphasis on being able to sample the products, morphed with elements of Starbucks and a well-equipped youth club, which is presumably all in the service of selling mobile and broadband contracts alongside some of the gadgets on display.

In an age where high-street shopping is on the decline, eaten alive in increments by Amazon and left reeling from the battering it took during covid, if nothing else its nice to see a firm come up with some fresh ideas around the traditional retail experience.

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