Retailers Keep Upping Ante in Times Square

New York City’s Times Square gains more wattage with each passing day. Teen fave Aeropostale has opened a 19,000-sq.-ft. flagship at 1515 Broadway between 44th and 45th Streets, smack in the middle of the tourist Mecca.

The two-level store is lit up with a 120-sq.-ft. digital billboard made up of two million LEDs. The content varies, but will include images of the store’s shoppers, who are invited to dance with virtual models in The Balcony, an open space on the second-floor. A camera embedded in the screen in the room will film the shoppers and display their images on the storefront billboard about 20 minutes later. That a retailer as savvy as Aeropostale is willing to give up valuable (and very expensive) square footage to an empty room -- one with not a shred of merchandise -- is unusual to say the least.

To read more about the Aeropostale store, click here. And to see more photos, click here.

... But Aeropostale isn’t the only one adding to the Times Square dazzle. On Nov. 9, The Disney Store will unveil its next-generation, interactive store format (see photo on left). The new Disney emporium, at 1540 Broadway, has already started to unveil its exterior.