In the past, many department stores featured a coffee counter or soda fountain, where shoppers could rest their feet and review their purchases. But stores began moving away from such space allocations, especially when customers could just head down the mall to the food court.
Some department stores are bringing the idea back, though with a twist. At select Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, and Bloomingdale’s stores, unique restaurants attract just as many visitors as the fashions on the racks.
Saks Fifth Avenue’s SFA café sits at the top of Rockefeller Center, offering a spectacular view of New York City. The café serves expensive lunch treats, like a BLT frittata for $19 or carrot cake for $9.50.
Le Train Bleu at Bloomingdale’s, a sophisticated restaurant built like a railway car, offers extra space dedicated just to Big Brown Bags, the large shopping bags that serious Bloomingdale’s shoppers tote with them. In addition, Bloomingdale’s offers a more casual Forty Carrots restaurant, which serves healthy, original, plain flavor yogurt for $5.50 for eight ounces.
The BG restaurant at Bergdorf Goodman instead is the perfect place for tea, served with small sandwiches, scones, and desserts, of course.
Most of these cuisine temptations appear in flagship stores in New York. They embody the atmosphere the stores hope to create across their brand image. From shopping at the store to dining in the store, a customer experiences the lifestyle of a wealthy New Yorker, sipping tea atop the Big Apple.
Discussion Questions:
What is the purpose of offering food in a department store?
Source: Dick Scanlan, “Lingerie on 6; Lobster on 9,” The New York Times, December 29, 2011.
Grewal Levy Marketing News 
One major purpose of offering food in a department store is the fact that it will keep the customers in the store for longer periods of time. Customers can take a break and relax while still being within a store which will allow them to think about their purchases as the article mentions, but also to think about anything else they may need. These restaurants are conveniently located within department stores with advertisements all around so customers can easily see what else is offered that they may pick up after eating. Food also relaxes a customer and puts more energy back into them so they may want to keep shopping afterwards whereas before they sat down to eat they may have been exhausted and not in the mood to shop. Overall, this is a smart move on department stores.
The idea of offering small restaurants in major department stores is ingenious. By making high priced, unique foods available, department stores are directly targeting several different types of customers. Not only do they attract more of the “rich high fashion” shoppers, but also those looking to eat healthfully and consumers looking for more of an experience while shopping. While these department stores are adding more behind their brand name and the shopping experience, they are also filling needs (such as hunger, lack of energy, or lack of time) thus creating effectiveness.
The idea of offering high priced unique foods in department stores is ingenious. This not only creates more about the company to market, but it will also attract more customers as this addition amplifies effectiveness. Now, more than one need can be filled by shopping in only one store. Even if customers don’t care about whether or not this is effective, it adds more of an experience including extended sociability, a central place to admire purchases, and increased prestige. This is a great targeting strategy that should be implemented.