One news story that interested me this weekend was news that musician and music producer Joel Plaskett was opening up an Emporium in the front part of a commercial space he owns. The back part is occupied by his recording studio, but on October 10th he will add three new tenants that compliment his own business and each other. In the front part of the Emporium he will house a vinyl record shop, a coffee and baked goods shop, and a hair cutting salon. You can read more about the Emporium on the New Scotland Yard website.

An emporium is like a small mall but owing to its smallness you have more control over the ambiance that you want to create in that space. The strength of this particular business model would seem to depend upon the careful selection of businesses that you want to have co-occupy the commercial space. Joel's first choice of occupant was probably Taz Records which has a long history of selling Vinyl records successfully even after all the big music stores have gone under selling music in more modern formats. Taz Records will compliment his studio business and his studio business will compliment Taz Records.

For many, browsing a good collection of vinyl records is even more pleasurable with coffee and people picking up a coffee might like to spend some time lounging in a vinyl record shop.

If I have to wait for my name to be called for a haircut, I would like to be able to have a coffee and perhaps browse some records. If I'm going to a coffee shop with some time to kill, maybe I'll be reminded of the haircut I should get.

The point is we can make up stories about how one business might compliment another business in an emporium. We can do this for a mall also, but it is harder to get it all working together and with the overall ambiance you might want to project.

In Joel's emporium he has a personal connection with many of the owners - they are not simply tenents, they are band mates and long time music acquaintances. Joel is already talking about hosting music events in the emporium which will help to create the type of music loving ambiance he wants to project.

It is too early to tell whether Joel's latest venture will be a success but I suspect he has found a better recipe for success than simply renting his commercial space out to whoever wants it. The emporium concept allows him to stack more functions in his commercial space and by making them somewhat complementary with each other and with his music studio business he is probably on a surer path to success than opting to simply rent out the space to the highest bidder. Joel as the proprietor of the emporium might also be generating more rental income for his space than if he rented only to one owner.

I'll end this blog with a bit of the lyrically clever and melodic music that Joel Plaskett is known for.