The New Consumer Society...

Consumer Society...The Adaptation

This is a different kind of consumer society; a rebellion  against the clone city: creative,local,and street wise, endlessly inventing and re-inventing the space to meet the inspiration of the moment and allowing opportunities to a succession of imaginative enterprises.

Time Bank Alternative Economic Model...

Stroom Den Haag

Stroom Den Hag and NAIM Bureau Europa, have launched a pop-up ‘time store’ called time/bank in Maastricht, Netherlands that is open now until October 2, 2011.opens the Dutch branch of the e-flux Time/Bank. This initiative by Anton Vidokle and Julieta Aranda is a perfect match with the Stroom program ‘Upcycling’ which investigates new perspectives in the creation of value and meaning. 

The current distrust of existing financial and economic systems and the radical cuts in art funding are an important driving force behind this parallel micro economy based on trust and solidarity. This initiative by Anton Vidokle and Julieta Aranda is a perfect match with the Stroom program ‘Upcycling’ which investigates new perspectives in the creation of value and meaning.

“Through Time/Bank, we hope to create an immaterial currency and a parallel micro-economy for the cultural community, one that is not geographically bound, and that will create a sense of worth for many of the exchanges that already take place within our field—particularly those that do not produce commodities and often escape the structures that validate only certain forms of exchange as significant or profitable.”

Conclusion

We all know that physical money would be worthless if we ceased to put any meaning into it, yet things like useful products and labor have always been worth something, that is why the Time/Bank pop-up shop is so culturally crucial. By trading in time, the Time/Bank pop-up shop does deal in principles of mutualism and the labor theory of value, but only through the concept of time. It forces us to reconsider what is really important in this life. People often get sidetrack by the ritual of making and spending money, but what if we just focused on the work and results that really matter?

Worlds first "Pop Up Mall" comes to London Town...

Worlds first Pop Up Mall...Take a sneaky peak!

Gone in a Flash...

Four days. That's how much time New Yorkers had to get a piece of the upscale design line Proenza Schouler at discount prices. On Feb. 2, the über-chic discount retail store Target (TGT) popped open a store in lower Manhattan, to display this latest high-fashion-at-low-prices design line. The store then closed on Feb. 5.

In a world of BlackBerries and instant messaging, there's a growing sense of haste in people's lives. In response, companies trying to get consumers' attention are trying to create a sense of urgency. For retailers, who need to get people into stores to try out their clothes, their shoes, and any other new products, the store itself is the new limited edition. So limited in fact that it may last a mere 96 hours. "There's a certain passion about things that shout 'act now!' and that has transpired into the way we shop too," says Claudine Gumbel, co-founder of Think PR, a New York fashion publicity firm.

These days, retailers are adopting the concept of a pop-up store with gusto. A pop-up store opens up at an empty retail location for a few days in a major city, or a mall, with great fanfare. And then, poof! It's gone. Last year, in November, Nike (NKE) opened a pop-up store in Soho for just four days for the sole purpose of selling 250 pairs of the Zoom LeBron IV NYC basketball shoes, named after the popular 22-year-old NBA All-Star LeBron James. The special edition shoes were priced at $250 each.

In May and June, Gap (GPS) kicked off a '60s style tour, where it used a school bus as a traveling pop-up store that made appearances in Los Angeles and New York and stopped at beaches on both coasts. Instead of seats, the bus sported shelves filled with t-shirts, flip-flops, and beach hats that people bought and paid for at a cash register near the driver's seat. Even the stodgy giant Wal-Mart (WMT) adopted the concept last April, when it showed its new fashion line Metro 7 in a Fashion Cabana in Miami's South Beach district, open for only two days.

BUDGET BUZZ

Retailers use pop-up stores to generate buzz and excitement around a new product launch, as in the case of Target's Proenza Schouler line. Sometimes, the stores are a great way for stores to check the pulse of consumers and try out new products. Usually, they are less costly than television ads, which can run in the millions of dollars to produce and broadcast, and the stores generate similar buzz and publicity for new brands.

Even nonretailers are giving it a try. The U.S. Potato Board, which represents American potato growers, opened a pop-up store in New York, during the week of Thanksgiving, for less than $200,000. The group, with the help of cartoon character Mr. Potato Head, promoted the message that potatoes contain more potassium than bananas as well as nutrients like folic acid and vitamin C.

"We were featured in The New York Times, in the network morning shows, and in many places," says Amy Kull, senior vice-president at communications firm Fleishman-Hillard. "We could never have bought that much media within that budget."

Innocent Spontaneous Fate...

Innocent Village Fete

Planned Spontaneity...

Planned Spontaneity
Making spontaneous decisions to go somewhere or do something is becoming the norm; often the only thing consumers are willing to plan is to be... spontaneous!
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