For a great many brands the first US physical footprint is not a store of their own but a concession or shop-in-shop inside one of the major department stores, where the host retailer prescribes the criteria package, the finish standards, the install window and the freight and trade rules — and there is a meaningful gap between a concession that is built badly (in which case the brand's space dissolves into the visual noise of the host's other tenants) and one that is built well, where the fixture kit produced for the concession is engineered from the start to also serve as the fixture kit for the brand's first standalone store a year or two later.
What we deliver against the contract.
- Host-retailer criteria-package compliance — Nordstrom, Saks, Bloomingdale's, Neiman Marcus, Macy's and equivalent
- Fixture and millwork program designed once and built to ship — same kit travels from concession to standalone
- Install during host-retailer overnight or compressed-window programs
- Brand-standard QA against the host criteria, not against the host's other tenants
- Coordination with the host retailer's construction office, visual merchandising team and trade contractors
- Punch-list and turnover under the host retailer's approval process
Three phases. Same on every program.
Criteria review & kit-of-parts design
We read the host retailer's criteria package and your brand standard side by side. The deliverable is a single fixture and millwork kit that satisfies the host, expresses your brand and can be built once and shipped to every concession.
Manufacture & pre-install QA
Fixtures are built in a controlled environment off-site, tagged for each host location, photographed against the brand standard before they ship.
On-site install in the host's window
Most host retailers permit only overnight or short daytime install windows in occupied departments. We sequence around their hours, their freight dock and their VM team.
How concession economics typically work
Cost and timeline figures vary materially by host retailer, region and footprint. We confirm specifics against the host's most recent criteria package before we contract.
The questions buyers ask in the first call.
Do we deal with the host retailer or do you?
Both, sequenced. Your brand owns the commercial relationship with the host retailer. We own the construction relationship with their construction office — kit-of-parts approvals, install scheduling, QA sign-off. You don't have to learn the host's internal process; we already work in it.
Can you build the same fixture program for our standalone store later?
Yes — and we'd design it that way from day one. The fixture kit is the most expensive single line item in any retail buildout. Building it to a single specification that travels from concession to standalone (and from one host retailer to another) is the cost discipline that compounds across the program.
How does this differ from a normal landlord work letter?
Host retailers issue criteria packages, not work letters. The criteria are stricter on finish, signage and brand presentation, and looser on MEP (because the host's base building handles it). The install windows are shorter and more rigid. Tenant coordination becomes host-retailer coordination — same discipline, different counterparty.
Can we open in two department stores in the same city before we open our own standalone?
Yes — and it's a common sequence. Two or three concessions in a market generate the operating data and the brand-recognition signal that justifies a standalone lease. Building the standalone with the same fixture kit that's already running in the concessions cuts both cost and risk.
Want a defensible read on what this looks like for your program?
Tell us about the program. We'll come back with a one-page scoping memo inside two business days.