Customers at Eddie Bauer can test clothing in Ice Box
Baby, it’s cold inside. That’s what’s cool at the newly redesigned and relocated Eddie Bauer store at Easton Town Center, whose signature feature is the Eddie Bauer Ice Box.
Only the second of its kind, the 8-foot-by-8-foot Ice Box exists to allow customers to test the outdoor retailer’s outerwear in temperatures as cold as 10 degrees and in a simulated wind chill, thanks to
high-powered fans.
The Ice Box concept is something that company founder and namesake Eddie Bauer used to test his products. In the 1950s, Bauer would send employees into commercial cold storage lockers in downtown Seattle as part of the testing process when developing his down outerwear and gear.
“Our founder patented the first down jacket” in 1940, said store manager Eric Gorenz as he pulled a thin down coat off a display rack next to the cold room. “This has the best down so it doesn’t need to be thick. We know that the biggest, thickest jacket might not be the best.”
The glass-walled Ice Box is positioned just inside and to the left of the front door so that passersby can see inside.
It’s a bit of marketing that sets Eddie Bauer apart from its numerous rivals in the neighborhood that include REI, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Field & Stream and L.L. Bean.
“It helps them stand out against the competition, particularly in the Easton area,” said local retail analyst Chris Boring.
And it gives shoppers an incentive to visit in person rather than clicking “buy.”
“This is an experience you can only get in the store, so it’s also a response to the growing e-commerce competition in sportswear,” Boring said.
“All retailers are looking for something that will cause the customer to come in the shop rather than order online — because if you come in to shop, you’re liable to buy more. If you buy a coat, you might buy gloves, you might buy a hat.”
The relocated Easton store, at about 4,500 square feet, is smaller than the former 7,500-squarefoot location across the street. But the new store’s floor plan has nooks and crannies and “an awesome vaulted ceiling entry” that make it seem big, Gorenz said.
The smaller footprint is something that is occurring more frequently among retailers as companies realize that their online operation allows them to keep less inventory in stores, Boring said.
The store also features new design elements that include concrete, metal and reclaimed wood.
“It’s kind of a modern reinterpretation of the old store,” Gorenz said. “Other Eddie Bauer stores have this feel, but this is such a unique layout. The product just pops here in a way it didn’t in the old store.”
Despite the smaller size, the store features a wide selection of Eddie Bauer products and includes such brands as First Ascent, Motion activewear, Travex travel apparel and the Sport Shop collection for fishing and field.
“If you want, we can outfit you for a Mount Everest climb,” Gorenz said.
In addition, because Columbus has long been used as a test market for retailers, “we often have a unique product mix,” he said.
“There’s stuff here you won’t find online or in that color elsewhere. And here in Columbus anything scarlet and gray flies out the door, so we make sure to get plenty of everything in reds and grays.”