LawArk

By Gary L. Cole AIA, Esq.

Retail Marketing in Taipei

     Shopping and retail development should be fun, right?  That’s what a client who approached me some months ago about a new retail concept believed.  It was based on a very simple premise:  that in the U. S. shopping – a most ancient of human activities – had become over the past couple decades dull, mass-produced, uninspired and cut off from its social foundation.  Understaffed with bored clerks, no energy and no fun.  I agreed – who really looks forward to shopping at the local power center anymore? 

     As we developed the concept’s business model, its legal structure and its architectural design concept – with me wearing both architect’s and attorney’s hats – I suggested we put together a travel blog to chronicle his upcoming two-month trip throughout Asia, India and Europe where he’s meeting with agents and manufacturers to promote his ideas.  That travel blog, launched in late January 2010, can be found at http://www.globalshoppingblog.com/

     My client, Chase A. Wolf, is no stranger to retail or development.  In the 1980s he was Chicago development legend Arthur Rubloff’s protégé and absorbed many of the values his mentor passed on.  And despite his love of all things Apple computer-related, his genial and engaging personality, and his integrity – a very canny, swift and calculating business machine resides and operates between Chase’s ears.  Some of you in my LinkedIn contacts know Chase and have worked with him.  If anyone can make his new retail concept work – on paper and in practice – it’s Chase.     

     Chase’s travel blog – Adventures From Somewhere – is a chronicle of his travels and observations about the cultures and the people he encounters, a way of branding and promoting his new retail concept – which is best expressed in “A Shopping Manifesto” on the site – and a way for the business leaders he’ll be meeting with to understand his ideas before they even meet him.

Chase and Some New Friends in the Markets of Taipei

     LawArk’s readers may enjoy reading Chase’s posts – a blending of business and pleasure. 

     After all, who doesn’t want business to be fun?