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Since many warehouses were not built in the same time period, The Foundry was able to achieve a similar look using three different colors of mortar with the same brick. The mortar colors used in this project are gray, white and black, and the application is intentionally imperfect in places to add to the authenticity of an older building. Five Below operates stores merchandised to serve primarily kids and teens and the adults who purchase products for them. At leading chains like Home Depot and Lowe’s, BOPUS accounts for about half and more than half, respectively, of online sales. Consumer shopping patterns suggest that an increasing number of shoppers embrace the benefits of researching products and home-related project knowhow online, but often still prefer the convenience and timeliness of retrieving items from stores. Indeed, one of the most salient components of the overall e-commerce discussion has been the future of retail stores, with many arguing that online commerce will ultimately render physical retail locations largely obsolete.
So, if you are one of the many millions of consumers who still enjoys shopping in retail stores, even during the holidays, worry not, as physical stores are very unlikely to go away, and could even get a lot better. To be clear, stores are shuttering, particularly as a larger portion of overall retail sales shift online. Adobe reported that, on Black Friday this year, online sales rose year-on-year 2.3% to $9.12 billion, achieving a new record for the day. Per data compiled by the United States Census Bureau and reported monthly, online sales now account for about 18% of overall retail spending in the US, up from just 10% 10 years ago.
White Brick: Gray Mortar, White Mortar, Buff Mortar
Pairing the whitest sand with the lightest mortar coloring will help achieve the best monochromatic look you desire. Interestingly, following a spike in online shopping early in the pandemic, e-commerce sales growth has normalized, and is now tracking largely consistent with pre-pandemic levels, suggesting that as stores re-opened, consumers again embraced physical shopping. But I believe that accelerating store closures is a healthy rationalization, making way for stores that are better operators, and in no way suggestive of looming, total demise of physical retail. Physical stores have and will continue to play an integral role in driving near and longer-term growth in retail spending, including online.
I have long believed that calls for the demise of retail stores are very premature, if not misplaced, and have argued that online commerce should ultimately serve to enhance legacy, consumer business models — retailers that use or are based on brick-and-mortar stores. But, increasingly, such enterprises are likely to remain relatively rare and/or narrow in scope, focusing on specific products and smaller, more dispersed bases of target consumers. They will effectively fill voids left under-addressed by larger, physical stores hampered by needs for expansive, repetitive stocks of inventory.
MORTAR MATTERS
For instance, home furnishing brand and retailer Lovesac operates a chain of showrooms and kiosks located throughout the US. The showrooms carry virtually no “take with” product, and sales that occur within the locations are transacted via e-commerce, just as they would be if a consumer is purchasing a product online at home. They serve as a way to help showcase the company’s seating options, with the goal to generate more profitable sales online. Lululemon is expanding the reach of its product offering, in the US and in markets across the globe, by strategically opening new company-operated stores that can leverage e-commerce infrastructure.
You can see that the same color brick with different mortar colors can create a drastically different look to a brick veneer. You also may note that the color of the brick can be accentuated by the mortar itself. For example, if you use a gray brick with a gray mortar vs a buff mortar, you will either draw attention to the grays in the brick or the buffs and brown undertones that may be across the face of the brick.
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The proliferation and success of buy online, pick up in store serves as a key testament of consumers’ desire to continue to shop in stores, even while also embracing online commerce. Feature a “Grapevine” joint for added texture or a “Concave” for a smoother final appearance. Different mortar colors and jointing create different looks and effects, so take time to find what works best for your brick design. The best way to bring out the color you desire most in your brick is by properly mixing the right color mortar with the right color sand. Mortar colors are affected by the type and color of sand used in the mixing process. So, if you are looking for a dark, bold mortar, your sand base should also be a dark base for your mortar color selection.
We invite you to come experience the uniquely soothing feel of our stores, please enjoy your time at Brick & Mortar Home ” The House” and Brick & Mortar Home and Outdoor. A family owned and operated business, our vignettes are indeed timeless as well as fashionable to accentuate the look of any room in your home. Whether you’re looking for those perfect decorative pieces, a luxurious living room ensemble, or that one piece to complete the look of your home.
What’s more, physical retail stores serve as well-located billboards for retailers, helping to bolster awareness among shoppers and mitigate marketing expenses. And in many cases, retail stores have — or are in the process of — morphing into showrooms, designed more to display products and offer potential consumers physical touch points than to actually sell items outright. For the past couple of decades, I’ve worked on Wall Street as a stock analyst covering consumer and retail, and an expansive collection of the most recognized and powerful companies within the sectors.
The company’s stores and online capabilities work in concert to showcase and sell an expanding product offering. This strategy contrasts with more established brands that have to dismantle wholesale partnerships in order to focus more on e-commerce. Home Depot and Lowe’s, among others, facilitate outsized growth of BOPUS-related sales with well-designed, content-heavy websites and in-store capabilities, such as product lockers, which make it easier for consumers to pick their items up in the store. No matter the starting point, some of the most consumer friendly and powerful retail and consumer business models offer core consumers the flexibility of shopping both online and in-store.
With the holiday shopping season now upon us, it’s once again evident that no broader shift within the consumer landscape has been more significant than the transition in spending to online. When building a home or commercial structure, you may not consider mortar color to have as drastic of an impact as you think it will until you see it in person. Beyond bonding bricks together, mortar is every bit a design element as the brick. One great example of how mortar can be used creatively is The Foundry Cinema and Bowl in Winter Park, Colorado. The developers of this property wanted the building to have the look and feel of an aged warehouse and were able to achieve that with different colors of mortar. Across the consumer landscape, successful omni-channel models are taking shape differently.
