Amid the recent wave of retail closings, branded stores are finding an opening.

Many in the past have been short-term popups – Bravado, for example, opened a Beatles shop for 10 days last year in New York just before Christmas – two recent examples promise to have a longer life. Both the Rolling Stones store on London’s Carnaby Street and the licensed Sour Patch Kids location near the NYU campus in New York serve to market and burnish their respective brands amid the revenue they generate as they ride the wave of nostalgia that has surface amid COVID-19.

Immersive commerce
It’s a philosophy of immersive commerce similar to what we’ve seen in licensed restaurants, or in other physical brand experiences such as the “Stranger Things” drive-through experience planned to open in October in Los Angeles.

The It’Sugar candy chain opened the 3,300-sq.-ft. licensed Sour Patch Kids location earlier this month – a first for both Mondelez International and It’Sugar – and stocked it with candy, licensed products and a “Sweets Bar” that puts a sweet and sour spin on smoothies, cookies and  ice cream.

Neither Mondelez nor It’Sugar have immediate plans to expand the concept, which also marks the brand’s 35th anniversary. But it gives the candy maker a retail foothold in a city already home to the massive M&Ms store and Hershey’s Chocolate World on the northern part of Times Square.

Living the lifestyle
“We want to provide fans with new ways to experience ‘sour then sweet’,” says Danielle Freid, Brand Manager for Sour Patch Kids at Mondelez. “Whether it’s bringing the [Sour Patch] Kids personality to and attitude to tees and totes or re-imagining desserts with a sour spin, we want shoppers to feel immersed” in the brand’s lifestyle.

The Rolling Stones store – RS No.9 Carnaby —  is slated to open on Sept. 9, featuring Pantone’s “Stones Red” colors and exclusive merchandise. It’s also an extension of the band’s retail strategy that emerged last year in a seemingly unlikely pairing with Bergdorf Goodman for a pop-up shop at the New York store as part of the band’s No Filter tour.

Sony’s Joe Marziotto notes that the world’s only full-line dedicated Beatles retail store has been at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas since 2007 – a 2,700-sq.-ft. installation outside the entrance to the “Cirque Du Soleil Beatles LOVE.”

Some brands have used dedicated stores to deepen their connection with fans and further extend their reach in the market. The character brand Line Friends opened a New York store in Times Square in 2017, and followed that with a Los Angeles location last summer. (Both have had their businesses interrupted by the pandemic; the New York store is tentatively scheduled to reopen next month, but Los Angeles plans are up in the air.)