American Girl is Revamping Store Model with New Rockefeller Center Store

By Lauren Diaz October 23, 2017

UPDATE, Oct. 23, 2017: The new American Girl Place at Rockefeller Plaza offically opens to the public on Friday, Nov. 11, 2017. In November, American Girl is donating $1 million worth of books to the New York Public Library in honor of National Family Literacy Month and kids can receive a free American Girl book at any of the 89 children's branches while supplies last.

American Girl, long considered a pioneer of experiential retail, is moving its New York flagship on Fifth Avenue to a new store at 75 Rockefeller Plaza which will come with several new and exciting features, according to Racked NY.

“Our lease is coming due and this is a wonderful time for us to reinvent the American Girl retail experience,” Wade Opland, American Girl’s senior vice president of global retail, said in a statement. “We’re taking this opportunity to go to a new location and design new customer experiences.”

The new focus will be on “customization and personalization,” since, according to Opland, girls and millennial moms today are “seeking brands that deliver positive, meaningful experiences, not just products.”

The new retail space will span 40,000 square feet and cover two levels, making it around the same size as the previous location, but distinctly more modern in both features and aesthetics. New features include a salon that, for the first time, services both dolls and kids, new private party rooms, a signature studio, a media studio, and various touch screen kiosks that will allow customers to navigate the space and book appointments as well as sync up with the American Girl app.

The private party rooms are designed to host “over-the-top personalized” birthday parties and other special events. The rooms will be equipped with new media and projection features. Themed packages will also be available.

The signature studio will allow girls to create one-of-a-kind designs for both their dolls and themselves. This includes clothing and various other accessories.

The modern media studio will feature instructional classes, stop-motion workshops (a widely popular trend on YouTube at the moment), and health and wellness activities such as cooking and yoga.

American Girl’s “store of the future” is scheduled to open up in the fall of 2017.

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Originally published on May 20, 2016