The company has opened a 400 square foot gallery at the Nordstrom store located at The Grove in Los Angeles. “The Nordstrom shopper embodies a lifestyle that parallels that of many Tesla owners — people who are forward-thinking, savvy, and curious to explore the latest and best trends,” according to a Tesla spokesperson.
The gallery will be located on the first floor of the department store. Once inside, shoppers will get a first-hand look at Tesla’s Model X electric SUV, one of the vehicle maker’s signature products. The vehicle features innovative falcon wing doors for access to second and third row seats, as well as all of the stunning technological advancements we’ve come to expect from a Tesla product.
Tesla has employed the gallery concept at a number of locations in wealthy communities, including high-end malls, but this one is on the smaller end of the scale for a typical Tesla gallery, which measures between 2,000 and 4,000 square feet. All told, Tesla lists about 100 stores and galleries across the United States, but sales are not actually completed on site. The galleries serve as a showcase, but things may be different at The Grove.
The spokesperson would go on to add that Tesla is “working on obtaining a sales license for this location, which will allow us to not only demonstrate the vehicles, but to actually sell them as well.”
On the Nordstrom side, the Tesla gallery is yet another way to engage with customers from a company that has always placed the highest-priority on customer service and satisfaction.
“We are investing in lots of ways to make our stores even more compelling and we hope customers want to visit our stores because we always have something new,” shared Nordstrom spokesman Dan Evans.
No additional galleries in Nordstrom are planned at this time, but Evans said the company is “certainly open to the possibility.” Tesla vehicles come with a healthy price tag, so the gallery concept featuring its vehicles would only be feasible in higher-end locales, but it certainly gives other retailers and malls something to think about.
There are plenty of retailers looking to reduce their physical footprints due to changing consumer habits, which leaves the stores and malls with plenty of space to fill. A retailer that previously required huge amounts of space and now finds itself wondering how to fill all of it could take a page from the Nordstrom playbook, and examine relationships with other merchants for small showroom style spaces within their stores.
