You always hear about what the big boys are doing in retail.

But often those aren’t the most interesting stories. Those belong to the small, independent businesses that get overlooked in the hunt for a strategy to copy or something to learn from.

Which is a shame because when it comes to insights and big trends, like community, this is where the valuable stuff is.

I came across one of these stories last year in Edinburgh. 

Interval is a great little, independent running store that is a brilliant reminder of the creative approaches taking places in high streets, shopping lanes and communities up and down the country (and around the world). Incidentally, it also picked up a Highly Commended award at this year’s Creative Retail Awards.

One of my biggest takeaways is that most brands and retailers don’t understand community. Rather than facilitating it, they want to control and own it and end up throttling the very thing that attracted them to an area.

Interval took a different approach – to the benefit of everyone.

I won’t say more here because I got the story straight from Interval’s owner Aidan Thomson and store designer Andy Matthews.

I urge you to have a watch, have a listen, and see what you think.

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