Google plans to open its first physical store in New York, where it will make its products available to the public.
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The company is set to open its first brick-and-mortar store on Thursday, on the ground floor of its Manhattan headquarters in the Chelsea neighborhood. The store will carry a full range of Google gadgets, including Pixel, Nest home appliances and Fitbit wearable fitness products, the company said.
Inside, buyers can try devices and subscription services, while existing customers can receive on‑site repairs of damaged products. The 5,000‑square‑foot store will include rooms where customers can experience «real‑life scenarios» in which Google products can be useful, the company said.
Some products outside of Google and tools bearing the Google brand, such as t‑shirts, hats and dog toys, will also be sold in the store.
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The store is Google's latest attempt to expand the chain of stores the company has opened in recent years.
Since Google began selling smartphones under the Google brand in 2016, it has expanded the types of devices it has for sale. It has also acquired Fitbit and Nest. Nest was a separate subsidiary of Google's parent company, Alphabet.
Although Google has invested heavily in the hardware sector, it still lags behind in advertising and the rapidly growing field of cloud computing. Google has not made any comment regarding whether it had plans to open more stores.
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The history of technology companies that have opened retail stores is mixed. Apple stores stand out as a great success, upgrading the brand and offering a showcase for new products. Microsoft, on the other hand, stated that it closed all its stores last year, more than a decade after it began opening retail stores to boost its product momentum.
