Inside Google Shop, where Google is reinventing how it sells devices

Google has significantly rethought its approach to hardware with the new Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones, devices designed and created by Google itself. It’s also rethinking how it sells devices, with the new Google Shop.

This fall saw Google introduce its Pixels, the Chromecast Ultra and the Daydream View VR headset, and to help sell those devices and show customers what they can do, the company is launching a store-within-a-store debuting in North America at select Best Buy locations in Canada.

When it launched the Pixel at an event that also gave the first look at Google Wifi, Google Home and Daydream View, Google also revealed that it would be creating a pop-up Experience Store for users to check out its new wares in NYC. The Google Shops launching in Canada aren’t designed to be temporary, though; they’re places where Google hopes to not only showcase current and future devices, but also where it will seek to foster a sense of community among their users.

Sound familiar? It should — Google Shop has an agenda of available activities open to the public, which is similar to the kind of in-store programming run by Apple. The decor is similar, too, but distinctly Google in its aesthetic, with light wood grain and gray fabric pairing up with playful hints of bright colors (the Google standbys). And because this is a shop within a shop, space is at a premium, but Google has actually made the most of limited space using custom-created modular furniture that nests when standing room is limited, but can easily accommodate, say, a small group of students with stool seating in a pinch.