National Geographic Store in Singapore
Yay you read that right. The store opens on Sunday at Vivocity but i was lucky enough to get a preview of the store this evening. Yknow what these Ogilvy people do (the organisers) – they build up anticipation so well. The store location wasn’t stated on the invite and so the bloggers met at a carpark to be greeted by “an exhibition crew of SUVs” that would take us there. That was a little something something i appreciated.
Some of the SUVs. There was apparently one car for each blogger (about 12 of us i think) so it was a pretty cool thing to witness. A whole line of tall cars – crew gang club scary!
He’s “Big Bear” and his ride was the biggest and tallest and i was a little sad cos he didn’t hear me when i said i wanted to take his, and someone with a louder voice got it instead – haha. I get terribly awkward and shy at these things, meeting a bunch of strangers and such.
So the store is on the first level of Vivocity, and this is what it looks like from the front of the store.
Those are cushions made to resemble rocks!
This is the wind chamber for customers to try on Gortex jackets so you know it really works and keeps you warm. The screen there allows you to monitor your body temperature. I thought this box was smart! Definitely one of the popular aspects of the store.
Something i wanted to purchase, it’s a video camera of sorts. But no one seemed to be buying anything so i’ll come back next time! And a few other things i’d want for my home.
This is a first in Asia, the only other store is in London. The bigwigs of NatGeo (the man above is one of them, he’s a funny one!) shared quite a bit on the concept of the store. Go there, be inspired, be edutained (they kept using that word and i thought it was hilarious) about our life earth environment. They made it easy to do with the interior of the store. It feels like home, only 100x bigger and with very very cool things. There’s alot more to look at but i was pretty much drawn to the ‘old gentlemen’s club’ parts of the store so my pictures only say so much.
Oh! and he shared something, he mentioned NatGeoFood which is a site you can get tips/info on food from all around the world!
Thank you Pat, Tania and Brian!
National Geographic channel is my guilty pleasure. I loved that special that they did about animal embryos a few years back. It was so interesting watching a baby elephant as it emerged from the birth canal. Last week, they replayed a special they had about American skinheads. Real eye opener. And it was nice to know that the crazy ass racist retards don’t really reside in the South, contrary to popular belief. Maryland has them all!
Sounds like a great concept and a store that you could spend hours in!
Hey, were you the blogger wearing purple that day?
miss a.: I miss having NatGeo on cable, i don’t have cable at my present home. The birth of the baby elephant sounds so good.
katlin: it is most definitely :]
Burgess: hey yes that’s me!
I WANT THOSE ROCK CUSHIONS!!!
What an awesome opportunity too!
<3 (encyclo)lydia
Aww Melly…sorry that you didn’t get to ride in Big Bear’s rig! Hang tight…I’ll see what I can do
So sad I couldn’t go with you! Are those rock cushions for sale? I saw them in a design book recently and really wanted them. Bet they cost a bomb!
lydia: I WANT THEM TOO!
Tania: oh! please don’t worry about it, i hate to trouble.
Sarah: There wasn’t a price to it but ahh, the staff did mention that most things are for sale. Even if there isn’t a tag on it, just have to ask! I love those rock cushions too and frankly when i was typing this post, i had a gut feeling you’d like them
YE KNOW ME TOO WELL!
Did I ever mention I love the design of your blog? Gosh, it’s beautiful. How do you embed a graphic on your form??? I salute your CSS skills mate!
Anyways.
Thank you for coming by our event. It was our pleasure having you, really. Especially when the review’s being hosted on such a gorgeous blog! Ha. Next time, get me to shout for big bear for you. I’ll make sure the entire village hears it.
Isn’t Nat Geo one of the good guys fighting to protect our environment? If so, why would they provide 8 of the most fuel sucking vehicles to transport 8 people to a launch event??? Where were the electric cars?
sorry, make that 12 SUVs!
Nice! How did you land that?
Really Green brings up a good point about the SUVs, it’s strange choice on National Geographic’s part but I guess an SUV each is more exciting than shipping you all in a prius or something.
The rock pillows and photo display are really cool
This shop looks awesome. I’ll have a look pretty soon
Pat: It really isn’t that hard! I won’t go into it here of cos. Yours is very neat too and plus you write better :] Btw, i still can’t get over how bold your name is. It’s f-cool.
Really Green & Justine: Hmm i’m thinking they were trying to create a buzz with this event instead of environmental awareness. I completely see your standpoint too. it might be the idea of the organisers and not Nat Geo themselves as well.
French Blast: Yes head on down!
Eh? How bold my name is? What do you mean?
With regard to the SUVs.. do you know these are the same bunch of people who clean beaches up? YUP! They do their bit too.
while shooting at a zoo in thailand a few years ago. i had a national geographic camera man who had seen i that i was getting a great shot, step in front of my camera.and do the same shot that i was working on. these people are bad news. please double check your purchase slips. i am willing to bet that the store people will try to steal from you the same way thier camera man tried to steal my shot. yes i still have the tape to prove it. these are not good guys.
I’m part of the SUVEC convoy group that drove National Geographic’s guests down. We all love National Geographic because it’s about love of the outdoors, exploration and adventure…things our members are all into…so we thought it would be neat to offer the guests a ride.
SUVEC stands for SUV Expedition Club and one of our missions is to cultivate eco-awareness while we go on offroad drives (we actively photograph and document each of our expeditions). In addition to the beach cleanups that Pat Law mentioned above, we also go on reforestation drives.
So yeah, our cars may drink a bit more fuel than an electric car but I think that detail is more than made up for considering the amount of education and awareness-building that we do on our offroad trips.
Beach clean ups and awareness building campaigns are great…
BUT…
according to the US EPA even a compact SUV like the Suzuki Grand Vitara consumes 39% more fuel than a standard car like the Toyota Corolla, and 59% more fuel than a hybrid car like the Toyota Prius. Plus by taking your vehicles off-road you are destroying the natural environments you claim to love.
Making token gestures to protect the environment to “make up for” destroying it in other ways is called Greenwashing. I expected more of National Geographic.
Wow.
This shop looks real great