My Experience at Sony’s Flagship…

Concept Store at Upper Canada Mall

Pictures by David Susilo

Newmarket; September, 2011 – WOW!  That’s the first thing popped up in my mind when I saw the new Sony Store.  Located at Upper Canada shopping mall in Newmarket, the 2,800-square foot Sony Store features a modern minimalistic yet highly functional architecture and design, making it a unique destination at which consumers and hobbyists such as myself can explore and experience the complete Sony line-up, including electronics, games, movies, music, network services and even future technologies such as the HMZ-T1 Head Mounted Display

The inviting nature of the store lit with LED daylight-colour-temperature lights is amazing.  Unlike most stores, the amount of light is just perfect.  Not too much like the big box stores and not too little like the older Sony stores.  Imagine Apple Store… only better… Much better.

On one side of the store the wall is filled with Sony’s TV lineup from the top-of-the-line 65” 929-series XBR all the way down to the very basic.  Comparison between model lineup be it TV, camcorder, BD players, are prominently written so there won’t be any confusion for both the buyer and the staff.

On the other side of the store the wall is filled with the complete lineup of Sony headphones where prospective buyer can just listen to each model of headphones and if need be, plug their own music player to find the best headphones for their need.  Another interesting, simple yet ingenious concept is the mirror above the headphones.  This way I can see how the headphones will look on my head – and my daughter is right, lime-green headphone is just not for me 🙂

When I first came in, none of the staff knew that I’m a technology specialist and a writer; they all assume I’m just a regular customer.  Imagine my surprise to be greeted by hyper knowledgeable, super friendly, and well spoken staff whom all exude confidence without any hint of trying to sell any item but only to educate the customer.

Imagine if all store visit experience can be like this.  So… who’s next in line?  Pioneer? Yamaha? What a breath of fresh air in the world where confused staff and hard sell is all too common.

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