TWEEN POP
There has been a lot of snickering going on in our buying office of late. This has to do with all the attention we are paying to the newest tween phenomenons. The vibe is a bit different around here, as our day is typically spent looking at classic rock tee shirts and pop culture fashion. Now we are expanding our education and learning about Hannah Montana, Cheetah Girls, High School Musical and the Jonas Brothers. Our stores have been begging for merchandise to keep up with young customer demands. So much to the protests of my sophisticated group, I declared that we are going to ‘the young side’.
To win the argument democratically, I regaled my team with stories of long ago I would go to a 7-Eleven, buy the latest Tiger Beat with allowance money and read every statistic about David Cassidy, Peter Brady and Leif Garret. Suddenly my buyers remembered their crushes on Corey Feldman, Corey Haim and Ralph Macchio (and anyone who was in The Outsiders). That created a little more enthusiasm for the project. Once we got samples for t-shirts, bags, caps, candy and other accessories, we realized we would make moms and tweens very happy and that made us smile. Now everyone can find something cool & trendy to wear while shopping in our Virgin Megastores. First delivery is coming in late April. As Miley says” I can’t wait to see you again”.
Ciao, Maureen
The Classic Tee
I’m not going to lie- my favorite outfit for work, to go out in or just lounge around the house is a pair of jeans and a great Rock Tee. Because I’m in the biz, my closet is full of all sorts of music-inspired tops. My rock tees get the best shelves, and I even sort by color and sleeve length (yes, I worked at the LIMITED when I was in college- who didn’t). Anyway, I mix my tees with Levi’s, flats and a hoodie for the trip to the mall, movies or our local pub and it’s perfect. Not too much effort but still a cool ensemble. My favorite tees include anything BEATLES, Rolling Stones, AC/DC and Queen. Every now & then I go retro 80’s and wear Blondie, Iggy, or classic Madonna. Now I wish I hadn’t thrown away my WHAM concert tee (hey! don’t judge).
I love the new vintage washes that we offer in the store- the shirts look like I’ve have had them forever. And most of the tees are under $30- so it’s my guilty pleasure. My husband totally loves my job- since he wears a medium; he gets all the vendor samples. But when I travel to our stores, I can’t help buying more shirts for him. He loves the rock tees, but his absolute favorite that I’ve purchased so far is from the movie The Big Lebowski- “I don’t roll on Shabbas”- huh?? It must be a guy thing.
Scratch Nirvana. Oh Nevermind.
So a couple of years ago we worked with folks at Epson and GestureTek, a digital signage company, to create this interactive floor display in two of our Megastores…one in our Times Square location and the other in our Hollywood and Highland store. The system projects imagery from the sleeve of Nirvana’s perennially popular album “Nevermind” onto a durable floor mat. It’s basic in design, but very unique to customers because as they walk across the mat or even just wave their hand over it, it instantly reacts to their movements…allowing them to manipulate the swimming baby in pursuit of a dollar bill. Anything from creating ripples in the water, make the baby bob in the water, make the dollar bill float around – or even activate a song sample from the album – all can be done just by walking across the mat.
Now to be honest – we thought it was time to make room for something new. After all we’ve had this screen in place since late 2005. But just a week before we were going to take it down, one of our managers noticed that the Nirvana baby had been the inspiration for quite a few recent YouTube videos. Little did we know that secretly folks had been coming into the store to make their own mini-movie of our interactive floating bambino?
All this to say – how can we break down the inspiration of a new YouTube Phenom?
So – we’ve decided to let it stay put for now…and in case you can’t make it out to the store check out the various clips below! The last one is my personal favorite…it has the best sound, if you ask me.
Cheers,
Dee
Ms. Jackson if You¹re Nasty
It was a fantastic event last night at our Hollywood and Highland Megastore,
with Janet Jackson on hand to meet her fans and sign autographs of her
latest project ³Discipline.² She even arrived an hour and half hours early,
which allowed her to meet with more fans! There was a lot of excitement
throughout the week people camped out to be first in line to meet her,
made I LOVE JANET signs and choreographed dance along Hollywood Blvd. while
they waited in anticipation. Janet was very sweet with her fans and gave
some personal attention to our 2 VIP Winners, Boris & Sergio from Lancaster,
Ca. Her management team was very easy to work with as well which is always
a relief for our store¹s management team. We secured a signed Janet Banner
for our charity, Virgin Unite, and some additional signed posters to use for
part of our PRIDE promotions in the upcoming months as well. The store sold
503 of the Deluxe version and 177 of the regular version.
Folks over at her management team informed us they were way more impressed
with our event than with Best Buy¹s event on Tuesday! A big thank you for
our team over at Hollywood & Highland you handled everything beautifully!
Cheers,
Dee
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