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Jun 11, 2023

NEW YORK — Saw it on TikTok, Pinterest, Instagram? The kids are craving the newest flavor of the currently coolest candy? A rapidly expanding international retailer whose entire raison-d'etre is letting you check out the latest trends has opened its two latest stores in the Hudson Valley and on Long Island.

Showcase stores are designed to be fun, interactive, and demo-friendly environments. Customers are encouraged to "try it before you buy it" with a constantly changing inventory of products open and on display.

The company has become an award-winning retailer, product developer and marketer by catching, following and sometimes anticipating what's new and hot in health, beauty, home, toys, novelty candy and food.

"It's crazy. You always wonder what they’ll think of next. We love to be a part of it," Showcase CEO Samir Kulkarni told Patch.

"We have a trend technology team that tracks — on any given day — 6 million potential trends," he said. Their sources are myriad: online searches, social media, even customers who search their website. "We have a library of past trends and we can see patterns. We use that to clarify what the top trends are. Out of say 50,000 products, there are only 50 that are trendy in a huge way. That drives our sourcing agenda."

They're also very fast. "We have an extremely nimble supply chain," he said. "Or if it's a product that we could develop with our in-house team, we could produce a product, get it on the next flight, then put it on the shelf in days or weeks."

Started in the days of the Popeil Pocket Fisherman, the store was founded in Edmonton, Alberta in 1994 by oil and gas engineer Amin Jivraj.

"He actually had purchased a gadget from some mail order service, lured in by an ad," Kulkarni said. "It was a slicer-dicer of some kind. It took weeks and weeks to arrive, and when it did, it wasn't what he expected. He tried to access the money-back guarantee and there were more charges to return it. He said 'there has to be a better way.'"

So Jivraj dreamed up the idea of a local store in the local mall that would carry all these unique products — the kind that in those days were advertised on late-night TV or in the backs of magazines. Customers could not only try something, but also have a place to return it if there was a problem.

The concept has morphed over the years as the source of trends has changed. "We expanded as this fun and interactive retail experience," Kulkarni said.

In so doing, Showcase has been bucking a decades-old economic trend: the crumbling brick-and-mortar industry.

"For the 20 plus years we’ve been doing this, they’ve declared the end of retail," Kulkarni said. "What we’ve seen and the tech giants have admitted is that the majority of that has shifted back. People want to socialize, they want to experience products."

There are things that are convenient to purchase online, he acknowledged, and their marketing data shows that some people just prefer the seamless ease of shopping by computer.

"People are not going to the mall with a shopping list. They’re going to the mall to discover. To be entertained. We are all about discovery. The newest flavor of novelty candy. The newest kitchen gadget that saves time. 'I heard about it from my girlfriend who saw it on Instagram.' That social aspect really comes to life in our stores," he said.

During the pandemic, one massive trend Showcase caught was the fidget category. "People, especially kids, so tired of being stuck on their screens," he said. "Popping games, fidget toys, those categories really, really took off."

Since the pandemic, they have seen a resurgence in traffic, Kulkarni said.

"There was a longing, a yearning to get out, also to put a little bit of joy, of fun into their day," he said. "The malls were flooded with traffic."

One of the biggest post-pandemic trends has been trading cards, specifically Pokemon, he said. "It was trending before, but the appetite grew for international trading cards, Japanese trading cards, in Japanese. They're considered rarer. So we brought them over."

The other big trend — weighted stuffed animals.

"Back in the day seven years ago we were the first brick-and-mortar to sell weighted blankets," Kulkarni said. "This really is that same trend but converted into a plush toy. A weighted dinosaur or weighted sloth weighs about 5 pounds. Put it in your lap or over your shoulders, it provides that sense of comfort, a cocooning feeling. It has been giant and to our knowledge we are the only — we certainly were the first."

Research not only drives their inventory, it drives their expansion. They focus on grade A, super-regional malls.

"Traffic does go to the A malls that are the hubs in the community. They’re the places people congregate. Catch a movie, do some shopping, get something to eat. We are focused on those A malls," Kulkarni said.

You can head to the Palisades Center in Nyack or the Walt Whitman Shops in Huntington Station to discover some trends. Showcase is now up to 41 stores in the USA, having just opened the 40th and 41st in the Hudson Valley and on Long Island, and has been rapidly expanding.

"If we can have 100 stores in Canada with a tiny population, why not?" he said.