IT’S EXPENSIVE TO OPEN STORES IN NYC. HELP IS HERE.
I often imagine how fun it would be to open a store in New York City. Except for the lease negotiations part. And the giant security deposit part. And the storefront renovation and permitting part. And the whole to-do with hiring and training salespeople. Good lord.
But when Matt Scanlan, chief executive of New York City-based women’s clothing company Something Navy opened a Manhattan store earlier this month, he didn’t mess with any of those daunting tasks. “I just don’t know how to do that!” he admits.
Instead, he partnered with Leap, a New York-based company that provides just about everything needed to open and operate a store. You provide the merchandise, Leap pretty much does the rest.
It was Leap that located and signed the lease on Something Navy’s storefront at the corner of Madison Avenue and East 80th Street, renovated the space, designed the layout and installed the fixtures. The checkout system is provided by Leap, along with the data-analytics system. Shoppers have no idea that the stores’s salespeople are all hired, trained, and employed by LEAP.