New Rest Stops for Millennials

Maybe it’s time to rethink the supermarket common spaces.

Around Holiday Time you can see the stores and malls loaded with tired shoppers resting their feet and taking a break on those plastic or concrete benches, that’s about to change.

Brands like Kit Kat, Muji and Leinenkugel beer are creating new kind of rest stops and mostly for Millenials. Kit Kat has installed Break Machines attached to a bench which monitors how long you sit. When you rest for at least one minute, the Break Machine rewards you with a free Kit Kat. How effective is it? Well, the brand received more than 600,000 visits to its social media channels as a result.

Muji, the Japanese department store, has created a tranquil sanctuary in its Cooper Union NY location and right here in its store on Main Street in Santa Monica. They also released the Muji to Realx App to share soothing sounds and even a crackling fire. Their efforts are being rewarded as according to the Cassandra Report 70% of youth say loud and busy stores turn them off and they seek retail atmospheres that provide a calm atmosphere.

And having a beer with friends just got better in Brooklyn and Austin where Leinenkugel teamed up with Airbnb to take two apartments and transform them into Leinie Lounges with free beer and bean-bag toss games.

The next time you take a look at your supermarket, maybe it’s time to rethink the common spaces and those ugly benches and build on these trends to see how you can extend your brand with these valuable shoppers who are looking for a more relaxing shopping experience. There is a reason the Grocerant trend is growing, are you part of it?