How to create a customer experience around cheese ?

I visited Beecher’s handmade cheese store in New-York. The guys of Beecher’s are on a mission : they want to change the way American people eat. To succeed in this hard mission, they opened an experiential store in Manhattan.

It’s so unique that it deserved a post on this blog.

Like many food stores in New-York (and in US in general), the store comprises a selling-over-the-counter and a lunch/diner area.

What is unique however is the large space occupied by the “cheese factory”. Customers can see in real-time the manufacturing process and even enjoy it for the first floor mezzanine.

In a city like New York where each square foot is worth a lot of money, making such a large area a non-selling space is a very courageous decision. It reminds us of another experiential food store, Zaabar in Brussels. As you may remember Zaabar is a chocolate store which has a large chocolate manufacturing area integrated in its store downtown Brussels.

Interestingly both Beecher’s and Zaabar chose to make the manufacturing process visible from the outside of the store. That way pedestrians can enjoy the spectacle and get triggered to enter the store and learn more about the brand.