Mastic Fantastic
There's a new premium commodity in town, and its name is mastiha. Those of you with no ties to the Eastern Mediterranean or the Middle-East are forgiven for not knowing exactly what mastiha, or mastic gum, is. It's a product of the mastic tree, which is mainly cultivated on Chios, a Greek island in the Aegean Sea. Small cuts are made in the bark of the tree, the sap seeps out and congeals into 'tears' of resin, which are harvested and cleaned by hand.
Convenient for Women
Combining what our sister site trendwatching.com calls ‘Forever Trends’ (as in trends that will remain trends forever), Japanese convenience store Happily exclusively targets women. The thinking behind this concept? Convenience in a time-compressed world is priceless, and products specifically tailored to, oh, half of the earth’s population, make sense.
In Happily’s own words, the stores are ‘of, for and by women’. The first outlet, located in Tokyo’s Toranomon business district, offers cosmetics and nutritional supplements. Only 20 percent of the products are the same as those at conventional am/pm outlets. Clerks are all women, except at night.
Sweet! M&M's World Takes Top Honors
Candy maker's Orlando space is ISP/VM+SD Store of the Year (01-16-2007)
M&M’S World Orlando has been named 2006 Store of the Year in the 36th annual Institute of Store Planners/VM+SD International Store Design Competition. That award, and 23 other awards in various retail categories, were presented last night at the annual ISP/VM+SD gala in New York.