Elmwood Group Will Open Home Design Hub In Moncton
MONCTON – The Elmwood Group, which owns four Home Hardware Stores in Greater Moncton and a Home Furniture & Lighting store, is adding a 4,500-square-foot design hub to its offering.
The Elmwood Design Centre will be located next to Starbucks and Bone & Biscuit at Moncton’s Granite Centre.
Elmwood Group’s marketing coordinator, Jon Stephenson, says while the Design Centre will still fall under the Home Hardware brand, it’s a vastly different experience from the other stores.
“When people think of Home Hardware, they think of the mom-and-pop hardware store that just has all the bits and pieces. But this is really about engaging our consumers,” he said. “When you do go into the Design Centre, it’s about a custom personalized experience. This is an appointment-based service.”
Customers will have to make appointments at the reception, by phone or online, except during open house days for the general public.
Set to open in June, the Design Centre will have associates that will take clients through their vision of a renovated room or new home using the various high-end products available there.
Stephenson said it’s a bit like the experience of walking through the various rooms at IKEA, but with a more interactive display and an associate to help you figure out your ideas.
“When you go in, you’d have…a bunch of different countertops but it really resembles a kitchen, like you’d have an oven, you have cookware, everything’s kind of set up as is,” Stephenson said.
The move is an attempt by Elmwood Group to offer an innovative retail experience as online shopping becomes more prominent, he said.
“We’re trying to bring it to the next level and have an immersive experience where people will be able to see touch and feel what their kitchen or their living room might look like at the end of the day.”
Aimed at customers, interior designers, decorators, home builders and renovators, the facility will offer an immersive showroom.
Customers can look at elements for the interior and exterior of their home, like tiles, paint colours, appliances, moulding, furniture, roofing and windows, in one place, cutting down the need to visit numerous showrooms.
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