M&M’s World: Sugar rush

Imagine a store where the staff are lined up inside the entrance as the doors open and whoop and cheer as the first customers make their way in. Could be pretty frightening if you weren’t expecting it, or you might be glancing over your shoulder to try and work out what the fuss is about.

This was the prospect for shoppers at the recently opened M&M store on London’s Leicester Square last week, and although some of those entering looked a little bemused, the effect was greeted with a general sense of good humour. Indeed, in spite of a fairly average July morning last week, there were a few souls who had been waiting some time for the chance to get inside.

What they were queuing up to take a look at was the first M&M store outside the US (and there are only three there) and a building conversion that had seen £10m being lavished on the former Swiss Centre – the destination that nobody ever seemed too sure about – why it was there or what it was for.

Now it is a four-level shrine to devotees of brightly coloured sweets that have been a US brand beacon, courtesy of Mars, for decades.

Sweetness and light

It is also, according to Susan Saideman, president of Mars Retail Group, an opportunity for the brand to extend its reach in this country as well as being a sizable “retail proposition”.

Whichever is in fact the case, more than 35,000 sq ft over two basements, a ground floor and a first floor equate to an act of faith at a time when few are prepared to invest on this scale. Saideman comments: “I think the key thing is that in this economy when times are tough, we’re bringing something over that’s been very successful in the US.”

But how do you go about turning some, admittedly, brightly coloured sweets into a retail experience that will fill a space this size?

The answer would seem to involve giving shoppers choice. There are 22 different colours of M&M’s and this is a quintessentially North American brand. A lot can therefore be done to ring the changes as far as giving shoppers opportunities to customise their selections in-store, but probably the first task is to cement the link between M&M’s and London.

Leicester Square actually has relatively little to do with everyday London, other than as a destination for blockbuster premieres. For the most part, this is tourist central and according to Mars, 27 million people pass through the area every year.

What they are in search of is a little piece of Britishness and therefore the decision to turn the M&M’s logo into a Union-Jacked lightbox and place this in a prominent position on the window line seems canny.

Walk through the doors and to gain access to the ground floor, you have to pass through the side of a double-decker London bus. It is odd that with Tower Bridge, the Gherkin and the London Eye all established as icons for the UK capital, the red double-decker continues to serve as shorthand for it, but M&M’s is only following the path pursued by Hamleys a few years ago. Once through this, the ground floor is largely a decompression zone prior to the main events, which can be found in the two basement levels.

Bussed it

For those still in need of a London fix, however, a staircase at the back of the ground floor takes shoppers up to a small mezzanine level where M&M’s logoed key rings, mugs and suchlike can be purchased for a modest consideration. At the official opening party last week, Boris Johnson, mayor of London, commented: “The opening of the world’s largest M&M’s store with the creation of 180 new jobs clearly demonstrates London’s position as a top class city.”

London’s position in the global league seems assured, so perhaps it’s a moot point whether the arrival of an M&M’s flagship seals the deal.

Characterful experience

Moving from the mezzanine to the upper of the two basements, however, you begin to get a sense of what the M&M’s experience is all about. This is by far the largest of the four floors. It houses everything from the “famous” wall of chocolate – long glass dispensers each containing a single colour of the 22 that are on offer and arranged along the perimeter, allowing shoppers to buy as many of a particular kind as required, to a lot of themed apparel.

It is a long brightly coloured space and at every turn there are niches and semi-discrete spaces, each filled with a different homage to the “world’s best known chocolate brand”, as Saideman puts it.

At the back of the floor, one of the many life size anthropomorphic sweet ‘characters’ is seated in what looks like a mock-up of an open top Aston Martin. And for those for whom this is insufficient, there are people dressed as individual M&M’s who wander the shop – it is very American and the influence of Disney is never far away. But when the number of UK people who board planes to spend a week in Orlando is considered, there is a ready market for this kind of thing.

Heading down to the lower basement, via the impressive spiral staircase that gives views up through the whole of the store and lets a high level of natural daylight into the shop, you enter the realm of the M&M’s lab. This is where shoppers can get a technician in a glass-fronted, sealed room to mix particular bespoke sweets on command. This may be simple stuff, but it is about theatre and personalising the offer for each visitor. More life-size M&M’s here too – standing in a row, catwalk style.

All in all, if you like M&M’s then this will be a very exciting experience and even if you’re not interested, it’s easy to see how shoppers, locals and tourists alike will be caught up in this.

It is quite hard, given the relatively low unit price (although there is a small roller-coaster sculpture filled with M&M characters on sale at £775), to see how this show pony will ever come close to break even, but there again, as an advert for the brand this is strong and when you consider nearby Nike Town and even Bose, there is good form for the approach. It’s an interesting addition to the central London retail landscape.