Vitamin Shoppe’s New Innovation Store Includes Clever Product Look-Up Screen

October 11, 2019 by Dave Haynes

This is the newly-opened innovation store/store of the future for Vitamin Shoppe, which sells guess what.

The store in Edgewater, NJ (pretty much across the Hudson from the Harlem district of NYC) has been updated with a new design and layout, but I mention this job because the store does a couple of things with digital display.

The store and its designers worked in an interactive screen using tech from Addison, Texas-based Spacee that recognizes any product in the store and triggers information on it to the screen.

“Shoppers can quickly view usage guides, nutrition facts, customer reviews, current promotions and additional recommended products on screen,” says a press release. “Enlarged labels are also shown, making small labeling text easier to read.”

I particularly like this application. Vitamins and supplements stores are mainstream retailers these days – at least the chains – but their products are nowhere near as familiar as what’s in the aisles of drug chains and neighborhood supermarkets. Somebody staring and squinting at a little plastic container of Pygeum and Saw Palmetto, wondering what the hell it is or whether it will address what ails them, would undoubtedly welcome a little/lot more information, and in larger text they could read without a magnifying glass.

There is also a big 2 by 2 LCD video wall at cash, used to display “inspiring and educational brand content.” The press release says it is a 100-inch LED, but that’s an LCD wall (presumably with LED backlighting).