NY Mag's The Strategist is launching its first 'in real life' retail store

New York Magazine's shopping-focused Strategist vertical is opening its first IRL (in real life) retail shop just in time for the holiday shopping season. The Strategist, an outgrowth of a section of the print magazine that's taken on a life of its own online, will launch a pop-up storefront called "I Found It at The Strategist" at 347 West Broadway (between Broome and Grand streets) in New York City's SoHo neighborhood on Nov. 8. It'll have a seven-week run set to end on Dec. 30. Store hours have yet to be determined, but will be announced on social channels, including The Strategist's Instagram. New York Media, the parent of New York Magazine, has been experimenting with various e-commerce initiatives, including an ongoing collaboration with Merch by Amazon to sell t-shirts inspired in part by viral headlines from The Cut, the company's fashion-focused vertical. The Strategist is calling the new brick-and-mortar initiative "a curated holiday pop-up" that will focus on lifestyle items ranging from skincare products to bed sheets. Beauty-related items will be presented in a "try-before-you-buy" product-testing format. Brands participating in the pop-up are slated to include Beautycounter, Cocokind, Corsx, East Fork, Freck, Herbivore, Incausa, Jaxon Lane, Kin Social, Ohii, Hairstory, LOLI Beauty, My Beauty Diary, Negative Underwear, Parachute, Peet Rivko, Rikumo, Scentbird, Sundays and TULA. Camilla Cho, general manager of e-commerce for New York Media, tells Ad Age that the pop-up concept "has been in the works for the past five months, starting with surveying the experiential/pop-up landscape and talking to various potential partners that could help execute our ideas." She notes that the brands that are part of the pop-up are each bringing approximately 10 to 15 SKUs"—stock keeping units (inventory codes for individual products under a single brand umbrella)—"which will come out to roughly 250 items carried in the store." The main point of the shop is its editorial imprimatur. "We'll be highlighting specific items that The Strategist has covered editorially in the past," Cho says. Over the years, The Strategist has become one of the most celebrated sub-brands in the New York Media stable—and in the glossy publishing world in general. In March, it was awarded its seventh National Magazine Award in the magazine-section category, with judges calling it an "elegantly orchestrated, relentlessly clever celebration of New York City's material world."

NY Mag's The Strategist is launching its first 'in real life' retail store

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