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Best Buy has become a haven for tech makers to show off products without the hassle of opening a brick-and-mortar shop. Current host to Samsung and Microsoft brand stores, the big box retailer's latest settler is Google.
Following the debut of its New York-based pop-up—open in Soho until Dec. 31—the Web giant recently launched a new experience in select Best Buy locations across North America, starting with Canada.
As reported by TechCrunch, Google Shop provides a more permanent showroom, highlighting gadgets such as the Chromecast Ultra streaming dongle and Daydream View VR headset.
Visitors can meander the modular store-within-a-store, typing on Chromebook laptops, browsing the Web on Pixel smartphones, and chatting with the Google Home smart speaker.
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"We love it when people can come in, discover, play and have fun and it just happens to be with technology," Janell Fischer, director of retail marketing for Google, told TechCrunch. "So we've really tried to layer on lots of different immersive sorts of experiences, some that are direct demonstrations of the product and product features, but some that are more exploratory and fun."
Experiences like the multi-screen interactive "Portal" display or workshops with YouTubers like TheSorryGirls—on hand for last week's debut event in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga.
Branded accessories are also on sale, and questions can be answered by "Google Guides," full-time Google-contracted staff who offer tutorials and classes like "How to plan holiday travel with Google Assistant."
According to Fischer, a former member of Apple's retail organization, "the great thing about this space" is its adaptability: Older-generation products can be replaced with new ones, while digital content is easily updated remotely, ensuring new apps are "specific to this space."
"We'll learn a lot from the people that we have coming to this shop and we really want to look at adapting the content to the audience," Fischer added.
Neither Google nor Best Buy immediately responded to PCMag's request for comment.
In 2013, Google hosted a holiday pop-up shop in Bryant Park, intended to show off the Nexus 7, Chromebook, Chromecast, and Google Play store. The company also previously had stores in New York, San Francisco, and other cities as part of its Google Glass sales pitch.
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