Lowe’s needs to nail New York City.
The home improvement giant’s stomping ground has long been sprawling shopping centers with mega-parking lots, but in a couple of weeks Big Apple shoppers will get a taste of suburbia when Lowe’s opens its first store in Manhattan on the Upper West Side.
Anchoring the corner of Broadway and West 68th Street, in a former Food Emporium space, Lowe’s is unveiling what it describes as a “test store,” a smaller format that will be a model for other urban stores across the country.
The chain is opening a second Manhattan outlet in September in Chelsea. The Mooresville, NC-based retailer with its nearly 1,840-strong chain has operated a store in Brooklyn for 13 years.
“We couldn’t have opened this several years ago,” said Jonathan Luster, vice president of market concept development, adding, “We’ve started to leverage our network of stores, connecting them to the online business and to each other.”
The city stores are about a quarter of the size of a typical 100,000 -square-foot Lowe’s and will offer different products and services aimed at urban dwellers, including:
- Curbside pickup and checkout for trade workers;
- A garage department that focuses on sporting goods such as bike racks rather than lawn mowers;
- Appliances built for smaller kitchens like an 18-inch dishwasher and a 24-inch, two-drawer fridge;
- A storage department offering removable closet organizers;
- Interior designers who make house calls.
- Second item
- Third itemShoppers can get same-day delivery for $21 and next-day delivery for bigger items.
But most of the furniture and appliances will come from the chain’s 10 nearby stores in the ’burbs, which Luskin described as “fulfillment centers” for the cramped city stores.
Lowe’s is not only taking on Home Depot, which operates two stores in Manhattan, one across town on the Upper East Side, but also a bevy of neighborhood hardware stores.
Lowe’s will undoubtedly lure business away with its sleek presentation, which has a self-automated key-cutting machine among other staples of hardware stores.
“I’m not scared,” said Babacar Fall, a manager of 25 years at Gartner Hardware on W. 72nd Street. “I remember when Bed Bath & Beyond and Gracious Home opened here. I have good customers who support me.”