Google to open first physical store in New York this summer

Google will open its own physical store for the sale of products. The store will be located in the Chelsea neighborhood in the American city of New York. Customers can ‘experience products and services’ and buy them.

Google will display and sell its Pixel smartphones, Nest products, Fitbit watches and Pixelbooks in the store. Customers can also pick up online orders in the physical store. In “various immersive ways,” customers can experience how the products and services work in-store, Google writes.

In-store are product experts to help customers with issues and make repairs, such as a broken Pixel smartphone screen. There will also be how-to workshops for visitors throughout the year. In Chelsea, the neighborhood where the physical Google Store will open, Google also has an urban campus, where more than 11,000 Google employees live, according to the company.

According to Google, opening a physical store is an important step in the company’s hardware journey. For the time being, it will remain at one store, Google has not yet mentioned plans for more locations.

The design of the Google store resembles that of the stores of, for example, Apple and Microsoft. Apple has had physical stores around the world for decades. Microsoft also had physical stores since 2009, mainly in the United States, but last year the company decided to close all of them and refocus on online sales.