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| Brookstone Store at Northbrook Court |
Last month, I posted about the demise of Toy R Us and Carson Pirie Scott in The Nostalgia of Closed Stores. Actually, I never liked Toys R Us. I found them chaotic and messy. I resisted going there unless it was an absolute necessity. As for Carson’s, I actually liked their stores because they always had a “take an Extra 60% off of the already 30% off marked price” sale. It seemed like everything was being sold below cost. So, in my view, it was only a matter of time before they went under.
As for Brookstone, I loved the chain the first time I stepped foot in one back in the 1980s at Fairlane Mall in Dearborn, MI. They simply had the coolest gadgets and gift ideas at every price range. I really thought they had great concept. It was like an adult toy store. In the 80s and 90s, if I was going to a birthday lunch or dinner for a work friend and I felt close enough to buy them a gift, I would usually go to Brookstone and buy them something unique there. There was always something that fit my budget. Over the years, I have also received gifts from there which have included a pair of compact binoculars and a variety of different golf gadgets. For myself, I bought a telescopic back scratcher, a dart gun to kill flies, and a slew of travel products. The travel products included a leather case to for ties, another leather case for my travel documents and passport, a money belt, and transformers for the different currents and plug configurations.
Over the years, I am guilty of doing the same thing every devotee of all failed stores do or don’t do… I visited their stores less and less. The last time I was in a Brookstone at a mall was in 2010. I had just bought an iPad2 at the Apple store at Northbrook Court, a very nice mall near my home. I went across the hallway to Brookstone store and bought a case with the Wi-Fi keyboard/case for it. The Apple Store had not yet realized the value of selling a full line of accessories for all their products. Even then, before their first bankruptcy, the Brookstone sales clerk said that most of their business was from folks who just bought an iPad at Apple and came over to them to buy a case.
Other than that, I have only visited their airport store at O’Hare almost every time I fly. Not oddly, one of the articles I read on the Brookstone bankruptcy, in The Verge, referred to Brookstone as “that place you go while waiting for your airplane to board.” Most of the time I go into the airport store just to see what they might have in the spirit of what first made Brookstone a favorite of mine. But, that is not what the airport outlets are. They are travel stores for luggage and related items. I have bought ear plugs for airplanes and converters/adapters as that seems to be the one thing I forget to pack with great regularity.
The bottom-line is this. Brookstone is going under simply because they have not been able to keep their edge that attracted customers like me in the first place. Cool gadgets of all kinds are not the exclusive domain of Brookstone anymore. The internet, and by the internet I mean Amazon.com, is loaded with them. Everything is available everywhere. Brookstone had things exclusive to them and was known as a place where you could touch and try every cool gadget. That is no longer the case. Like every other failed retail chain they were unable to retain their edge and make a transition to e-commerce world. Consider this, I am or was a quasi-loyal/regular Brookstone customer and the first time I ever visited their website was today while writing this post.
I will miss the what Brookstone once was but I understand why they are in the dire straits that forced them into this second bankruptcy. And, I will continue to look for their stores in airport when I forget to pack my charger or converter.
Thanks for the memories Brookstone.
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