In pictures: Samsung’s King’s Cross store – a new take on tech

Today, Samsung opened a new store. Not much unusual about that perhaps, but this one measures 20,000 sq ft, it’s in Coal Drops Yard – the top-end shopping scheme in a converted Victorian storage shed at London’s King’s Cross – and it has been a long time coming.

Coal Drops Yard opened its doors at the end of October and was hailed as an innovative destination. But there have been grumbles from the largely designer retail tenants about the lack of footfall ever since.

There was, however, one major omission at the launch: the massive unit where the two halves of the development’s upper level ‘kiss’, forming an impressive glazed unit beneath designer Thomas Heatherwick’s swirling slate roof, was signally empty.

The space had long been earmarked for Samsung, but nothing appeared to be happening and it has taken about nine months for the Korean tech giant to fit out and open the doors of a new ‘experience’ store. Has it been worth it?

Not holding back

The first thing that should perhaps be said is that whatever views may be held on the rights and wrongs of Coal Drops Yard, the Samsung store is the development’s keystone. Its arrival gives the whole a sense of completeness that was very obviously missing. Whether that will be sufficient to restore the fortunes of the mall remains to be seen. This is certainly a store that is different not just from its neighbours, but from the overwhelming majority of tech stores in London at present.

Walk through the doors and what is immediately apparent is that Samsung has not held back as far as bells and whistles are concerned. The architecture helps, but while the view through the floor-to-ceiling windows across central London is winsome, there is a lot more to it.

From the outset, the Samsung guide on hand is at pains to stress that this is not a ‘shop’. Yes, items can be viewed, purchased online and delivered to the shopper’s home, but the space is, apparently, not about selling things in situ.

What that means is that it is a ‘showcase’, a glimpse of what the future will hold for people’s homes and the sort of entertainment that they might feel inclined to invest in.

There are just two other Samsung ‘showcases’: in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and Frankfurt, Germany. London, being the newest, is the whizziest. There is plenty for tech fans to play with or admire.

Sit on one of the plush-looking sofas near the entrance and a selfie will, of course, be made available. The difference between this and the kiosks that tend to be found in most fashion stores is that rather than viewing yourself on a small screen, the images appear on a framed picture on the wall (one of several).

And for those who want it, a Munch version of themselves (there are many options of artist and background) with a corresponding background duly appears.

There is a sitting room filled with connected Samsung items, illustrating how the internet of things works and from there it’s straight into a gaming area that looks like the reception room of an upmarket Docklands apartment.

Digital playground

If the attractions of all this pall, there is also a ‘concept car’ that can be driven, virtually. It will tell users when they are getting tired, answer the front doorbell and suchlike, and it looks space-age. It’s just one of several gaming spaces in the showcase and if a break is still required there is a fashionable-looking Origin café offering lattes, croissants and similar.

There are also simple workstations where shoppers can sit down and trawl through their emails while taking in the view.

The question is, what’s the point? Although Samsung will not say how much has been spent on the showcase, the LED lighting alone will have cost more than the equipment for a whole block of ‘connected housing’ and, given the current status of Coal Drops Yard, that may seem pricey.

But Tanya Weller, director of Samsung King’s Cross, says: “People are still discovering it as a destination and if you look at the brands that are coming in the next couple of years, we are very confident about being here.”

Is this simply a digital playground – a very good one – bearing the name Samsung, or is it a clever, if expensive, piece of relationship building that puts Samsung in with a shout for being the leader of the tech retail pack?

Although there any many Apple stores that are eye-catching works of design, they are first and foremost shops and the idea of a digital playground comes in second and very much as part of the prime purpose. They are closer to the Samsung ‘experience store’ in New York’s Meatpacking district and to the idea of a brand acting as a retailer.

The King’s Cross showcase is different and can variously be seen either as a piece of digital flimflam, or a real opportunity of seeing what lies ahead.

The other retailers at Coal Drops Yard must hope it is the former and that it will act, if nothing else, as a footfall magnet.