If I was the Head of Design at The Warehouse Group… This is what I’d do. WATCH VIDEO

You’ve been hit hard. Retail slowdowns across Aotearoa for years accumulating to the letting go of Torpedo7. But you’ve still got the footprint as Aotearoa’s most important retail chain. Now it’s about making every store work harder for the customer and for the bottom line.

Redesign your floorplan to increase dwell time. Introduce product discovery zones, better transitions between categories, and moments to pause. People who stay longer, spend more.

Every store shouldn’t look the same. Use local materials, Māori design cues, and community-specific product displays. Make stores feel for the people who actually shop there.

Right now, you’re spending money replacing materials that don’t last. Swap out MDF and vinyl for panels that can be reused, reskinned, or refreshed—without sending it all to landfill.

You’ve got 260+ physical billboards. In addition to that design stores for TikTok moments, Instagrammable corners, and community story walls. Let customers do your marketing for free.

Low-cost shouldn't mean low-value; use materials with longer lifespans, lower maintenance, and built-in circularity. That’s how you reduce operation expenditure over 3–5 years.

If that’s where you're heading, and you want real ideas and strategies that fit your budget and your sustainability values— book a call with me here:

https://lnkd.in/g-NmEkxq

or head to criticaldesign.nz - I'd love to help.