How a tiny LA wine store is fostering human connection during the pandemic
In the absence of physical proximity and touch due to social distancing, a small neighbourhood wine shop has found an opportunity to build human connection through means many retailers overlook.
Tilda is a wine shop in Los Angeles occupying just 450 square feet. The vast majority of its wine and beer is sourced from independent producers across California, reflecting a renewed thirst for localism.
Launched in February 2020, initially as a neighbourhood wine bar, Tilda quickly built a strong and loyal following from the local community in Echo Park.
Then six weeks later, COVID-19 hit and Tilda closed its doors.
Whilst the pandemic has forced many retailers to pivot their business models in order to survive. Few had to do so just weeks after first opening.
Christian Stayner, co-owner of Tilda told The Challenger Project: “We shut down our dine-in several days before the mayor suspended restaurant operations. Ironically, it was just after our strongest ever sales day, but it became clear that there was going to need to be changes and that we needed to get out ahead of it and figure out what those changes were. We knew it wasn’t going to be a short term thing but rather something that was for a longer period.”
A Tilda customer talking to a store representative via phone.
Stayner and his business partner Jason Goldman set about radically reinventing how Tilda would continue to serve its enthusiastic clientele and run a successful retail business.
So what did they do?
Tilda quickly transitioned from an intimate wine bar to a bottle and provisions shop with contactless takeaway.
They expanded their product range beyond wine and beer to offer more of the things that local people needed including eggs, bread and fresh vegetables.
They offered a new home delivery service.
They launched ‘Tilda’s ‘SUPERNATURAL wine club’: a new 3-tier membership service where subscribers would get a box of 2, 4 or 6 natural Golden State wines a month.
But most notably, they completely adapted how their 450 square feet of floor space would be used.
Knowing social distancing would be near-impossible in Tilda’s small space, Stayner and Goldman re-designated a courtyard outside the shop to become a customer-only zone. Instead of stepping in store, customers would browse items from outside by looking through the store’s large windows.
Customers would then dial a number to speak to staff over the phone to place orders and get any help they may need before items were packaged and dropped at the pickup area ready for collection. It meant customers and staff could still talk to one another, get advice on a good chardonnay to accompany fish, and build all-important human-to-human rapport.
“Just being able to talk to someone on the phone and be more or less in the same space with a stranger is an enjoyable change to their everyday activity.”
“People needed to be able to see what they were purchasing, without being able to touch it and there needed to be some way of communication that was more interactive than digital,” says Stayner. “For many people just being able to talk to someone on the phone and be more or less in the same space with a stranger is an enjoyable experience and change to their everyday activity.”
Tilda’s playful illustrative signage outlines the new purchasing process.
Beautiful illustrative signage outlined the new purchasing process whilst reminding customers to keep a safe distance away from one another. It’s executed in a typically Tilda way that makes even a serious health message appear attractive, positive and charming.
A place for community
The pandemic has led to isolation. The closeness felt from physical proximity to one another is a casualty of Covid-19 and the lockdown measures. But with scarcity breeding desire, there is clearly a longing for more social interaction and togetherness.
Tilda responded quickly and proactively to the constraints and has helped facilitate that elusive and much-needed human connection.
In the absence of touch and proximity, Tilda saw an opportunity to build connection through other means many businesses may easily neglect such as through thoughtful visuals and the sound of another human’s voice.
“People want to belong and feel part of something larger than their apartment”
Rather than see the health and safety signage as a formal necessity, Tilda saw it as an opportunity to project its brand identity and really engage or even entertain.
And rather than rush to make the experience purely digital or transactional it was important to Tilda, as a neighbourhood business, to value the relationship with its clientele, and ensure it remained intimate, conversational and personable - even from a distance and via the phone.
“We felt that it was really important to be a place within the community rather than become just another faceless digital kitchen or e-retailer,” said Stayner. “Right now, people want some sort of belonging or sense of being part of something that is larger than their apartment.”
Salut Tilda. We can all drink to that.