Is Bonobos Guideshop the wave of the future?

I have a friend who has a retail store here in the Grove. He brought up the Bonobos concept to me. "Will people be willing to order in the store and then walk out empty handed?" He asked? Who knows?

What he did tell me that I didn't know was that Wal-Mart bought Bonobos. For $310 million! So I assume Wal-Mart knows what they are doing. Wal-Mart also bought Jet.com and that is where Bonobos will be sold, other than the Guideshop and on their own website.

The rent on that corner is about $18,000 a month. That's a lot of money for a store that has no actual merchandise. But they do have a store that serves as a large billboard right in the center of town. Lots of cars pass there, especially during rush hour in the morning and evening.

True story: A guy walked in to buy a tie, he had gotten the tie he was wearing dirty, and he needed a new tie for an event. He found one he loved at the Grove Bonobos, but he couldn't take it with him! He needed it then and there.

My friend says that if this is the way that retail is going, then maybe there is hope for Mom & Pop stores which will have merchandise at the ready - leaving the larger stores to deal with the catalog sort of way.

I do like Bonobos but every time I purchase clothing online, it doesn't fit right and I am not a returner, so it ends up being a waste of money and something just thrown in the corner, never worn. With this concept, I can see the merchandise and get my sizes right and then whenever I want to order online in the future, I'll have the perfect fit. 

Bonobos is sort of a mixture of Service Merchandise and Amazon. Remember Service Merchandise and similar stores? You would order things from the catalog in the store, but you would receive the item up front at the registers and pay and leave. In Bonobos case, you order the merchandise and have it shipped to you.

Which reminds me of so many old tv shows and movies. The ladies would walk into a store, make a purchase and it would be delivered to them by messenger the same day. Ever see that? It would arrive within an hour or two, but the ladies did not have to walk out carrying the things they bought.