This weekend, my Yorkshire-born dad nearly dropped his wallet when he realised he’d just paid £60 to take his granddaughter pumpkin picking. Once upon a time, farms sold pumpkins to supermarkets for pennies. Now they make more money charging families to pick them themselves. It’s a perfect snapshot of how retail has changed: people aren’t paying for the product anymore – they’re paying for the experience.
In a world where anything can be ordered online and delivered by tomorrow, the high street has had to reinvent itself. Stores can no longer compete on convenience, so they’re competing on experience. To get people through the door, you have to offer something they can’t get on a screen.
That’s why Sports Direct’s new 90,000-square-foot flagship isn’t just a shop – it’s a gym. Inside you’ll find Everlast fitness studios, HYROX training zones, pilates classes, saunas and even ice baths. Reebok has partnered with F45 to launch co-branded fitness spaces, while Nike is opening workout studios around the world.
As one retail analyst put it: “Retail had to evolve or die. Turns out the answer was making stores into destinations instead of warehouses with checkout counters.”
It’s part of a wider trend: the shift from selling products to staging experiences. Where traditional retail was transactional, experiential retail is emotional and participatory. You don’t just buy trainers – you test them in a run club. You don’t just browse furniture – you spend an hour lounging in it with a coffee.
Several forces have driven this transformation. Online shopping killed convenience as a differentiator. Consumers increasingly seek meaning, connection and community. And retailers, squeezed by rising costs, have realised that the best way to survive is to make shopping social, sensory and shareable.
Across the industry, we’re seeing creative reinventions:
- Wellness spaces: gyms, yoga studios and recovery pods embedded in stores.
- Brand collaborations: fashion labels hosting art events, tech brands running workshops, grocers turning aisles into supper clubs.
- Destination retail: from pumpkin farms to immersive showrooms, the experience itself becomes the product.
The new success metric isn’t “units sold” but “time spent.” Retailers now measure engagement, not just transactions. And while big players like Nike and Frasers Group are leading the way, smaller brands are following suit – using pop-ups, events and collaborations to make each visit memorable.
Back at the pumpkin patch, that £60 trip didn’t just buy a pumpkin. It bought a story, a family photo, a day out. The same principle is reshaping the high street. The stores that survive will be the ones that give people something to do, not just something to buy.