Physical retail stores have been on a steady decline for over a decade. Take Best Buy, one of the largest physical retailers of technology in the country. The tech big box store reduced its footprint from 1,500 US stores in 2010 to around 1,200 in 2025, according to Statista.
We could blame the pandemic for sending everyone into their homes and keeping them there, or rising retail space rents, or Amazon for its e-commerce platform that made it easier to shop nonchalantly in the comfort of one’s own home. The truth is, going out to a crowded department store to buy something that could easily be sent to your house isn’t fun.
One New York store is aiming to change that.
Tm:rw is a tech store that opened earlier this year. Unlike its competitors, it isn’t trying to sell hundreds of TVs or every small, cheap, disposable gadget under the sun. Instead, it’s curating a voice-y selection of tasteful tech housed in a store designed to keep customers within its confines for as long as possible.
Also: I tried Amazon’s new AI shopping assistant, and I’m never shopping without it again
Situated in New York City’s Times Square, tm:rw is part tech store and part immersive, experiential exhibit. The store is equally as motivated to provide customers with the opportunity to interact with what’s next as it is to sell it. This is underpinned by in-store, bookable experiences like a robot massage, race car simulator or VR gaming appointment, larger-than-life displays (the store has the largest hologram in a retail location on its second floor), and a tight Rolodex of exclusive and brand-new tech stock. To accomplish this, merchandise isn’t hidden behind boxes. Rather, it’s openly displayed for people to touch and interact with.
In the store, some complex, future-forward products or tougher sells are displayed within the environment in which they’d be deployed. Take, for example, the Xreal smart glasses. The glasses, which project a desktop’s display through the lenses, are designed for use while sitting in a small, crowded airplane seat or another compact area. So, of course, tm:rw built an airplane seat display to simulate that experience while customers try the glasses out.
This try-before-you-buy philosophy pays off. Studies have shown that the longer a customer interacts with an item, the more likely they are to make a purchase. If retailers give a unique voice to the brand through an in-store display and an immersive experience to the customer, Jordan Traxler, tm:rw’s global head of marketing, says the sales will follow.
Also: How to shop with AI
Another differentiator is merchandise size. Where other retailers go big with their selection for every customer, price range, and brand, tm:rw goes small. By eliminating endless options, tm:rw gets to be choosy in its merchandise, and the customer is directed to one reliable, futuristic product. Much of the merchandise is exclusive to tm:rw, unlaunched elsewhere, and coming straight from the trade floors of emerging technology shows, like CES. In fact, LG’s transparent OLED TV, which retails for $60,000, is available to view and purchase at the Times Square location.
“Do I think I’m gonna sell a ton of $60,000 TVs? No. Do I think that everyone deserves a chance to experience this innovation? Absolutely,” Traxler said. He later amends his statement and tells me tm:rw has sold several.
Bringing online analytics to a brick-and-mortar store
Tm:rw’s product display placement is determined by a high-tech surveillance system hooked up to store cameras on the ceiling and to merchandise monitors on displays. It also accounts for the amount of time people spend in front of a product, and foot traffic patterns. If one product isn’t getting as much love, tm:rw can change the display position with a moment’s notice, placing the product elsewhere in the store with a touch of the tablet’s screen. Instead of grouping every audio product together, merchandise is arranged throughout the store for “guiding and discovery,” Traxler says.
Also: CES 2026: What to expect and how to watch
The shopping behavior measurement tool behind it all is called Aurora by RetailNext. This AI tool, which Traxler says is privacy-compliant with an anonymized interface, maps traffic and monitors shopping behavior. Tm:rw uses a back-of-house analytics system that turns this data capture into useful insights for the brands sold in the store.
“We are powering a physical brick-and-mortar store with online analytics offline,” Traxler tells me. The process is reminiscent of the cookies and monitoring tactics used on websites to maximize page views, clicks, and engagement rates.
The Times Square tm:rw location is the company’s flagship, but Traxler hints that more interest in new tm:rw locations — and expansion across the US, Europe, and Asia — is brewing.
Walking around the three-floor department store, I spotted several devices ZDNET itself has reviewed or covered. From Xreal and Even Realities smart glasses to nwm open headphones, the store’s merchandise is straight out of our publication’s article pages.
Product prices range from $10 to $300,000 at tm:rw, according to Traxler. The store stocks run-of-the-mill tech, like Anker power banks and Hatch Alarm Clocks, but also sells $2,000 bulbuous speakers and a $900 human-friendly computer. Anything that sparks curiosity is worth highlighting at tm:rw – regardless of brand status. “Great ideas come from everywhere, from billion-dollar companies to startups,” Traxler says.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.