Goop’s First Permanent Store Is Made To Look Like A Hollywood Home
On the heels of its conference expansion and a print magazine, Goop is announcing its latest quest for consumer domination–a store. The lifestyle brand just opened Goop Lab, its first brick-and-mortar retail “bungalow” within the famous Brentwood Country Mart, a colony of upscale retailers and artisan food makers in Los Angeles.
“Gwyneth [Paltrow] grew up in the Country Mart,” a Goop spokesman said, explaining the founder and CEO’s emotional ties to the luxe shopping center.
The newly opened store is a 1,300-square-foot space offering everything you’d buy on the Goop website, such as perfumes, clothing, and cooking staples. Of course, it wouldn’t be Goop unless it did something offbeat: To that end, there are various compartments within the store, including a stone-tiled “mud room” overwhelmed by dozens of succulents in chic ceramic pots and gardening tools; a working kitchen filled with cooking utensils; an apothecary beauty corner anchored by a large octagonal vanity fixture that fits multiple shoppers; and lastly, a “living room” marked by a daybed, antique bar cart, and racks of clothing from both the Goop label as well as various designer brands.
Meanwhile, atop the cash register lies an entire display of limited-edition Christian Louboutin shoes in what a Goop rep called “wearable styles.” The red soles, perched several feet up, stare down upon the customers.
You can buy your natural deodorant and Sex Dust online, but the real thing to see here is the effortlessly elegant decor by renowned design firm Roman and Williams (which also designed Paltrow’s personal residences). It feels like a home, but not just any home: a Nancy Meyers home (ostensibly, the most sought-after aesthetic for women aged 25-dead). The muted gray, neutral, and soft millennial pink palettes–woven throughout the backsplash tiles and furniture–are accentuated by vintage dressers and stark glass consoles. A dramatic twig and ceramic flower chandelier looms over the living room, alongside pleated pink linen curtains. The Goop Lab is there as much to entertain the eyes as it is to sell you some controversial vitamins.
Growth And Controversy
In the last year and half, Goop released several product ventures, including the clothing line Goop Label, Goop Fragrance, and nutritional supplements, which sold $100,000 worth of orders just on launch day. Goop has long operated popular pop-up shops in areas such as the Hamptons and via a nationwide collaboration with Nordstrom. Overall, sales of Goop products grew sixfold year over year in the last five years, reports a rep. In 2017, the Santa Monica-based company is on track to nearly triple revenue.
“Both [pop-up and Nordstrom] initiatives signify proof of concept for the customer appetite for a permanent retail presence from Goop,” said a rep via email.
At the same time, Goop has battled its fair share of critics, who have taken aim at its questionable science and Eastern medicine-inspired content. Most recently, the advertising watchdog group Truth in Advertising filed a complaint to two California district attorneys to investigate Goop for using “unsubstantiated, and therefore deceptive, health and disease-treatment claims to market many of its products.”
While there is no word yet on a retail expansion beyond this location, it seems likely that Goop will further increase its footprint. Considering the brand’s latest developments, it seems poised to capture even more of the wellness market.
As Paltrow told Fast Company earlier this year amid all the media criticism of her brand, “This is all that really matters: We move product and people read our content and our metrics around those things are really good.”
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