Selfridges brings silence to shopping
By Gemma Storey on Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Anyone that battled their way through the pre-apocalypse Christmas shopping Oxford Street chaos will appreciate Selfridges latest idea.
Silence.
That’s right, the store is celebrating the art of silence. Apparently, founder, Harry Gordon Selfridge, was so enthused with the idea of giving people a place to retire from the stress and noise of shopping that he had a Silence Room set up in the store, which offered harassed shoppers a retreat.
Now, over 100 years later, the store is bringing it back – but if you want to use it, you’ll have to leave your shoes and gadgets behind (one has yet to fully understand why people would find their shoes distressing…but perhaps more will be understood when the room opens on Friday).
Brands like Marmite, Clinique and Heinz have sacrificed their logos to be part of the new Quiet Shop (also available online), and even the Foodhall is getting involved by celebrating organic and raw ingredients.
The store-wide initiative is set to run from 7th January until the end of February. It’ll be interesting to see how successful it is, and if those logo-less products become collector’s items.
Source: The Drum and Selfridges