The newest store at Park Meadows mall offers some innovative selling techniques and technology, but then the product is a bit different.
Two sleek convertible sports cars crouch behind Tesla Motors’ glass doors on the mall’s lower level near Nordstrom.
The Tesla store, which opens Saturday, features interactive monitors that invite would-be buyers and just plain dreamers to learn about the high- end electric cars.
“The idea is to entice them to come in, inform them and then engage them,” said George Blankenship, Tesla’s worldwide vice president of sales and ownership experience.
The store’s feel is more like the Apple store just across the mall.
That’s no coincidence.
Blankenship was hired from Apple a year ago after he revamped the computer company’s retail strategy over six years.
Apple had struggled in a world of so many computer companies, “so we put them in malls where we could get them in front of as many capable, inclined customers as we could,” Blankenship said. “And they bought them.”
The Park Meadows site — which replaces the Boulder Pearl Street store that closes today — promises foot traffic.
“There are 2 million people in the area, and it’s easier to get to than the Boulder store,” he said. “This is the heart of where people are every day.”
The demographics also are attractive. Coloradans are environmentally aware, so the zero-emissions vehicles stir interest, Blankenship said.
The Roadster, base-priced at $109,000, will be phased out this year, and the $50,000 base-priced Model S sedan will be available next year.
The Park Meadows store is the second Tesla venue to be in a shopping center. Since opening in mid-April in a San Jose, Calif., mall, the first store has lured 40,000 people through it, Blankenship said.
Tesla has sold 1,700 of the Roadsters in 30 countries since 2008. Tesla officials declined to say how many had been sold through the Boulder store, which opened in 2009.
At Park Meadows, one monitor calls up video in which owners offer “Teslamonials” about what it is like to drive a Tesla. On the other wall is a monitor where potential owners can learn the technical aspects.
Then it’s on to building “your car” in the design studio. Once the color, tire, trim and interior choices are made, Blankenship said, it’s time to “take it to the wild” with the designed car displayed on the store’s large infotainment system in daylight, at night, from different angles and on the road.
“We want the buying experience to be different in every way,” Blankenship said.
A Tesla service center also is set to open this month in Glendale.
Ann Schrader: 303-954-1967 or aschrader@denverpost.com
Tesla vehicles
Roadster
0-60 mph in 3.7 seconds
245 miles per charge
Zero emissions
$109,000 base price
Seats two
Available: To be phased out this year
Model S Sedan
0-60 mph in 5.6 seconds
300 miles per charge
Zero emissions
$50,000 base price
Seats five
Available: Next year
