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An American office supply retailing company is piloting a co-working space in one of its stores to repurpose otherwise unused empty space
Spotted: As online sales continue to grow, big-box retailers are being left with a lot of real estate that they no longer have a use for. Rather than selling these properties, some retailers are thinking up new uses for them. One of these is US retailer Office Depot, which is repurposing some of its buildings into co-working spaces.
Office Depot is seeing growing revenue, but much of this growth is in buy-online-pickup-in-store. This growth leaves a lot of space in the brick-and-mortar stores under-utilised. The company has therefore decided to pilot innovative ways to use the store footprint. The first of these is the introduction of Workonomy Hub, a new co-working space located in the Los Gatos store. Workonomy was developed in partnership with co-working developer Proximity. It features open ‘hot desks’, private offices, a lounge with a Starbucks kiosk, super-fast Internet, a bookable conference room, business services and, of course, easy access to office supplies.
At Springwise, we have seen a big growth in co-working, spurred by the rise of the gig economy. Recent innovations have included a co-working space that includes a school, and a platform that provides co-workers with free accommodation.
Office Depot has seen its services revenue grow 28 percent year on year. By developing co-working spaces in its stores, the company is also positioning them to serve as service hubs. The co-working spaces could act as further customer acquisition channel for its services offerings. Early results demonstrate that the Workonomy Hub is driving higher sales for services and products compared to the company’s average store. The repurposing of vacant retail space for co-working and service hubs is also a growing trend. This trend is likely to continue growing, as more retail sales move online, and as gig workers seek affordable office space. In what other ways could big box stores convert into new spaces?
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