
photo: tafelhaus-hamburg.de
You can’t call him slow: Christian Rach, star cook from Hamburg, toured in recent years relentlessly in the German province of the country and helped restaurant owners to flavor their daily business again. With new recipes for food and marketing, often á la (last) minute before the business-soufflé fell apart. With his new initiative he seems to slow down at least geographically: Yesterday his new, weekly TV soap “Rachs Restaurant School” started on RTL Germany, the set is located in the Continue Reading »
Posted in Slowretail | Tagged Germany, Hamburg, Food, Initiative | Leave a Comment »

All the stores mentioned here in this blog since it’s start in 2007 are now easy to explore with the Slowretail worldmap. You’ll find blue pins for the concept stores listed in the concept store list and yellow pins for all Slowretail heroes presented in the blog posts, even on the German version of this blog. To be continued…
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The Slowretail blog exists more than two years now (by the way: also in German with even more content). The increasing click rates and the positive feedback on the initiative from around the world give us right: There is life beyond entrenched retail concepts and globally consistent store chains. We stand for the preservation of valuable examples in trade and promote traditional and innovative merchants as a communications platform. Now we are about to push our activities, not ‘fast’ but always gently and appreciatively to our real Slowretail main actors.
We are looking for substantive supporters, Slowretailers, to overwhelm us with examples of exciting retail from all over the world. You can tell us your favorite shops around the corner, traditional markets, kiosks, etc. Tell us about dealers eligible initiatives, advertising communities in the cities and municipalities, district festivals. From related books, studies, dissertations. Or you can sketch your ideal store of the future, as if it already existed, and what is unique about it.
As an aid for the collection of the facts of a Slowretail hero to be presented in the blog, you can download a simple checklist and submit it to us. If desired, you are mentioned in the post as “Slowretail scout” – or concealed. And if you like we can also talk about how you can become active as a guest author on the blog.
We love good retail and look forward to your support, that it no longer remains the exception in front of our doors.
Posted in Slowretail | Tagged Initiative | 1 Comment »

photo: Rajboori
An exciting example of linking traditional craftsmanship with modern lifestyle is the Indo-Canadian home-textile label Rajboori. Now, the industry experienced founder of the brand, Mitun Chakrabarti, wants to attract the European market and presents the collection at the trade fair Maison&Objet in Paris, Sept. 4th to 8th, 2009.

photo: Rajboori
Rajboori stands for traditional silk handicrafts from India.The colorful bedspreads, quilts and pillow covers are made from organic Peace Silk in small factories in India, manufactured all by hand. The design, which combines traditional designs with modern aspects, is unique and created by New York-based designer Stephen Burks.
Rajboori currently seeks for distribution partners and fairtrade-affine stores in Germany and neighboring countries. Here you’ll find the exhibition invitation Rajboori @ MaisonObjet for download, follow this link to the Rajboori blog.
Good luck & success, Mitun!

photo: Rajboori
Posted in Slowretail | Tagged Fair trade | 2 Comments »

The web-project Worldchanging recently gave some new interpretations of effective retail, beyond ancient rules like space-efficiency, low staff-costs and huge product margins.
Here is the post to be found.
Posted in Slowretail | Tagged Networks, Organisations | 2 Comments »
published in Springwise:

photo: A Vida Portuguesa
Taking a firm stand in the face of globalization, A Vida Portuguesa has tracked down Portugal’s unique brands and opened a store dedicated to products that have resisted the urge to keep up with changing times.
At the store, located in a former soap factory in Lisbon’s traditional-yet-hip neighbourhood of Chiado, customers can find over 1,000 products that have maintained their original packaging, that are made by hand, or that represent traditional Portuguese craftsmanship. Soaps, pencils, mugs, jewelry, notebooks, coffee, tea, blankets and even toothpaste—everything on stock holds a fragment of the nation’s collective memory. Some items are widely available and familiar throughout Portugal, while others were almost impossible to find and buy before the store opened. Continue Reading »
Posted in Slowretail | Tagged Concept Stores, Lisboa | 1 Comment »

photo: www.hamburg.de
Frans Prins is actively involved in new green lifestyle and he now starts a new fair for organic fashion in Berlin: thekey.to. Coinciding with the new Bread & Butter trade show at the former airport Tempelhof thekey.to will be held in early July 2009 at a secret location in Berlin.
Besides all the other embarrassing fairs for organic and fair traded fashion in Germany, this event finally promises real new spirit for the scene. Therefore, it is probably advisable to keep the vision-free, mid-aged eco-generation out: Only those who have the key to the event may enter.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Berlin, Organisations | Leave a Comment »

Barbie celebrates her 50th birthday at colette, March 9th-28th ! Barbie embodies glamour, fashion and feminity for over 5 decades. She naturally settles down at colette for her birthday, where designers make theirs her environment.
An amazing event for 50 years of success and for a tribute to the icon of the biggest designers.
Continue Reading »
Posted in Slowretail | Tagged Art, Concept Stores, Paris | 1 Comment »

photo: dunhill.com
For some reason the brand Alfred Dunhill is well known for tobacco-products today. But it’s more: It’s one of the rare worldwide pure men’s brands. Now Dunhill steps forward into it’s own past and opens amazing “Homes of Alfred Dunhill” worldwide – London, Shanghai and Tokyo have been realized already. Continue Reading »
Posted in Slowretail | Tagged Concept Stores, London, Luxury retail, Shanghai | Leave a Comment »

photo: www.reise-weblog.de
Now we have just a few weeks left before christmas and it’s time to name the most exciting christmas-markets in the world. Beyond sport-socks-traders and similar stuff.
The german commercial website www.weihnachtsmarkt-deutschland.de lists a lot of inspiring markets already, e.g. those which take place in castles.
Please add a comment with your favourite location below!
Posted in Slowretail | Tagged Food, Markets of the world | Leave a Comment »

photo: www.streetsblog.org
This report really reconfirms my statement: Let’s move around the corners and develop retail with sense and sustainability!
from: “Thomas Daily News International, issue Nov 21st, 2008:
Retail: Rents in global luxury locations keep on rising
Fifth Avenue in New York (€1,051/sqm/month), Causeway Bay in Hong Kong (€1,031/sqm/month) and the Champs Elysées in Paris (€644/sqm/month) are still the most expensive retail locations in the world. Continue Reading »
Posted in Slowretail | Tagged Critical stuff | Leave a Comment »