Bloomingfail: 50 Gorgeous LG OLEDs Largely Hidden By Fixtures At NYC Flagship’s New Pop-Up Shop

September 28, 2018 by Dave Haynes

The 59th Street NYC flagship of Bloomingdale’s is using two walls of LG commercial OLEDs as feature backdrops for its new new rotating pop-up shop, called The Carousel.

The idea behind The Carousel @ Bloomingdale’s is to tell “culturally relevant stories driven by guest curators, each with a unique theme and an unexpected mix of products brought to life by immersive in-store experiences.”

Flanking the department store’s pop-up shop are two 20-foot wide, 12-foot high video walls, each made up of 25 LG OLED video wall displays in 5 x 5 configurations. They’re all 55-inchers.

Says a press release:

The first installment, entitled “Urban Explorer,” takes shoppers on a tour of the urban wilderness, bringing a chic outdoor aesthetic into the concrete jungle with an assortment of tactical gear and functional fashion. The Carousel will be refreshed every two months with a new of-the-moment theme and features a constant rotation of animation and events to amplify the customer experience.

“As the retail landscape changes, we continually seek innovative ways to engage our customer,” says Bloomingdale’sExecutive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Frank Berman. “The Carousel allows Bloomingdale’s to regularly offer up new product, new brands and an original immersive experience, all tied to a timely and engaging theme. The rotating shop will provide continual inspiration and guide shopping discovery while bringing a new and different experience with each visit.”

According to Bloomingdale’s, the shop feels like a standalone boutique, and it will have a dedicated entrance located on 60th Street between 3rd Avenue and Lexington Avenue. The LG OLED commercial displays with ultra slim bezels line the perimeter of the shop and play thematic content to further engage consumers into the story. LG OLED technology, with perfect blacks and incredible color, even from wide viewing angles, gives shoppers a jaw-dropping, one-of-a-kind experience.

“The engulfing screens create a cocoon-like feel, virtually transporting guests to new destinations. The combination of unexpected product, unique shopping environment and engaging experiences makes The Carousel like no other pop-up shop in the world,” says Berman, who explained that the displays play a large role in telling the story of the Urban Explorer.

Playing continuous loops of New York City views, the LG OLED video walls get shoppers into the mindset of the Urban Explorer. The massive screens show synchronized content that moves cohesively, setting the scene and essentially transporting guests to the middle of the urban wilderness. Video themes include a birds-eye view of the city, hidden and forgotten places, striking architecture, familiar facades, iconic landmarks and worms-eye views.

“As the pioneer of OLED display technology in both the consumer and commercial markets, LG strives to deliver the ultimate in truly immersive viewing experiences,” says Garry Wicka, head of marketing for LG Electronics USA Business Solutions. “Unique retail installations like The Carousel @ Bloomingdale’s demonstrate how the power of LG OLED helps B2B customers deliver an exceptional experience for their clients.”

This is maybe one of those ones I need to see before I pass any substantive opinion, but the provided photo (and other ones I Googled) don’t exactly get me wound up. It doesn’t look like the designer took any real advantage of OLED’s physical properties. They’re impossibly skinny, but against a wall, who knows or cares? They can be wavy, but not here …

It doesn’t help that half the wall in the photo, at least, appears to be obscured by retail fixtures and merchandise. LG sometimes calls their OLEDs digital wallpaper, and this is staggeringly expensive wallpaper, when set up like this. It all seems a bit of a waste, frankly.

That said, LG’s OLEDs (and Samsung’s QLEDs) do indeed deliver gorgeous color and contrast.

Here’s another pic …