One portion of fame, please
- Simone Maas
- 2 dec 2015
- 3 minuten om te lezen
Everything is nowadays available for us consumers. There is almost no product you can’t get in store or online, or is there? ‘De laatste winkel’ is a new pop-up store in Amsterdam to fulfil your immaterial needs designed like real products. It’s the one and only place to buy things like ‘eternal fame’ or ‘being the best at something’.
What is it? Scriptwriter Robin van Gelder, entrepreneur Sebastiaan van Lunteren and graphic designer Joost Stoof came up with the idea to open this pop-up store. They were all irritated about the obsession of consuming, that dominates our society. With ‘De laatste winkel’ they spread two messages at ones. First of all this shop is the very last one, after this everything you can think of is offered. From then on one can buy immaterial goods just as one can buy a pound of cheese or a pair of shoes. Secondly it is a countermovement to the materialism that comes with capitalism. According to Robin, Sebastiaan and Joost, most people have forgotten that the immaterial things are way more important. By designing these feelings and needs and making them concrete, they hope to make people realise that these are the things that truly matter.
The store will open the 10th of December and will close 8 days later. For now, the designs of the products are still in progress. I could only find one example on the internet. It’s of ‘the endless minute’, shaped liked a little clock with arrows that don’t seem to move forward. This way people can escape reality for a while and enjoy this moment to the fullest.
Why is it cool? This store is probably the ultimate example of the megatrend ‘Experience Economy’, it takes it even further. In this case the experience isn’t in the product, you actually buy an experience. This can be a feeling or a gesture. Of course the immaterial thing comes with a cool material design but that is not the thing you are buying. The design is not even something to actually use, it just remembers you of a feeling you would like to experience. If you take a look at the example of the clock, you are buying an endless minute. The clock just reminds you of it. If you wanted to buy a working clock you would have gone shopping somewhere else.
-the endless minute-
Our basic needs are fulfilled and this is the next step. We have reached the last layer of the Maslov pyramid; self-development. Getting in control of our feelings and wanting to become a certain way, is part of this stage. ‘De laatste winkel’ is interesting for those that are looking for the extraordinary, for those that sometimes feel lost in the constant wave of information and for those who want to discover and explore themselves and their surroundings. It therefore attracts the groups: wonderlust, cool curation and serendipity seeking.
I don’t know to which group I belong but I do know that I would like to visit this store. As a future trendwatcher, I get inspired by this totally new idea of consuming. It spreads positivity and happiness, which to me is much more worth than every product you could ever buy!
Which sources did I use?
http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/nl/blog/in-amsterdam-opent-binnenkort-een-winkel-voor-immaterile-cadeautjes (afbeelding 2)
Always wonder,
Simone
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