Land Securities and street-trading platform StreetDots are to throw out the traditional food court model with a new street-food project at Glasgow’s Buchanan Galleries shopping centre, to open in early August.
The ‘Glasgow salad’ will be strictly off the menu at Taste Buchanan, replaced with a changing roster of independent street-food traders in a bid to appeal to a new generation of experience driven tech-savvy consumers.
The move marks a trend among shopping centre operators to provide ‘shopper-tainment’ – leisure and entertainment facilities that lure consumers away from e-commerce and into the shops.
Shopping centres have to be destinations in their own right, according to Land Securities senior portfolio manager Emma Lawson.
She said: “In the industry wide battle with online competitors, shopping centres need to offer a unique point of difference for a generation of increasingly sophisticated shoppers.
“Initiatives such as Taste Buchanan create a buzz that drives footfall by acknowledging the trends that excite our customers; in this case the demand for innovative locally sourced street-food.”
The new ‘home of Scottish street-food’ is designed and managed by street-trading specialist StreetDots. It will host up to eight independent traders on a two-to-three month rotational basis. The first line-up includes Glasgow based Asian fusion specialists Chompsky; Equi’s, a 90-year-old family ice cream business; and GLo Pizza, serving wood-fired Neapolitan Pizza. Craft cocktails will be created by Scottish pop-up bar Sláinte Mhath.
StreetDots co-founder Darren Callcott said: “StreetDots is redefining fixed retail space such as the food court. The social media generation is programmed to seek the next new thing and our constantly refreshing roster of traders at Taste Buchanan will deliver that.’
The typical food court interior has been stripped back and replaced with a collection of up-cycled furniture, disused crates and bright graphics to reflect a space that will continually evolve and be reflective of each trader that comes through.
StreetDots, which seeks to modernise the highly fragmented street-trading industry through technology, runs a network of digitally managed street-trading pitches or ‘dots’ across the UK.