[iamphilrae]

This is why I feel the high street is failing. It is assumed that a single store’s value is in the products it directly sells. And if it’s making a loss... shut it down!

A store itself should be an “experience”. You go in, play with products, be inspired and get an appetite for them.

Sure you may leave the store empty handed — just like 99% of people that walk into an Apple store. But if the store convinces you that you want... no _need_ their product, you can then buy later from their online store.

People and businesses really need to think of all sales and PR channels of a business as a whole, not a subset of each part. Only then will we see initiatives like this Pi store start to revive the high street.

[Intermernet]

The problem is, for every hour that a customer is being convinced, a staff member is being payed. This works for Apple, as they have ridiculous profit margins, and huge numbers of prospective customers.

This doesn't work for RPi if they want to sell at the online rate, unless they have huge positive conversion on add-ons and up-sells.

I presume the people running the store have calculated these prospective rates and have determined them to be likely enough to open the store, but time will tell.

I wish them all the luck in the world!