Kembrel.com: online discount designer retailer opens pop-up shop in Center City

A couple of years ago, two Wharton MBAs, Stephan Jacob and Cherif Habib, took the members-only flash sales model, made famous by the Gilt Group, and made it even more convenient by starting Kembrel.com in September 2010, a membership-based discount designer fashion site that boasted the first ever private retail shop on Facebook. Technically Philly wrote about it here.

Despite the innovative retail model, Kembrel isn’t afraid to sell discounted designer apparel the traditional way, too, but they’ve got a twist — a new pop-up shop that opened this month near Rittenhouse Square.

Pop up shops are temporary retail establishments that occupy an open space for a short period of time, a concept that has been growing in interest. The newest Kembrel pop-up — the lease began in early February — is located in what seems like prime territory at 18th and Chestnut. The lease is good until spring of this year, but Jacob hopes to keep the shop open throughout the summer.

“We don’t share any money figures, but the first two weeks have been great,” said Jacob, who lives in Society Hill with his wife and dog. “We feel very fortunate to welcome so many of our Philadelphia-based online customers and new faces who happen to walk by or read about us recently.”

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Lokalty: digital retail loyalty rewards program for local business expands to University City

The first time a cafe offered this reporter a “buy ten, get one free” punch card, the rewards program seemed like a pretty sweet deal. Then it seemed like every business caught on and my wallet bulged with semi-punched cards for coffee, ice cream and bubble tea that I promptly forgot to use.

Lokalty, a loyalty rewards program founded by three students at Penn, digitally aggregates the entire hole-punched mess and has recently expanded its service area from Center City to University City.

Balu Chandrasekaran, 25, Bipen Sasi, 24 and Philip Tribe, 27, launched Lokalty in October. But the idea germinated when Chandrasekaran, a Wharton student from Hyderabad, India, mentioned the idea to Sasi when they met at a Wharton start up “Speed Dating” session. Tribe joined the team in July 2011 and about five months later they were ready to roll out Lokalty, he told Technically Philly.

“Things became more serious and rubber hit road around the end of August,” said Tribe, a graduate of St Joe’s and Penn’s Integrated Product Design program. “By the end of October we had launched with a product at eight local businesses.”

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T-Mobile unveils 11 remodeled retail stores in Philadelphia region [VIDEO]

Pitching it as a pre-holiday house cleaning, nearly a dozen T-Mobile retail stores were completely remodeled, aiming to streamline sales and reduce customer wait times. Altogether, 20 stores are sporting a new look in the region, and some 400 nationwide.

Video above is of a Seattle-area store remodel.

Shop Talk: Image Revolver uses crowdsourcing to curate art

For West Center City-based Image Revolver, an online art retail store that sells prints of international artists, the problem wasn’t getting content. It was making sure it was providing its customers with quality art.

“Getting a ton of content doesnt always serve the end user,” Image Revolver co-founder Yis Tigay says. “You have to figure out how to currate it, so users aren’t browsing through two million things.”

So, Tigay and business partner and Web developer Benjamin Greenberg–who met while working for local software developer Neat Company–decided to borrow an idea. From people-rating hotbed HotOrNot.com.

Though ImageRevolver accepts art from anyone, it is using a “community curation” system that let’s people vote on work. Once an image receives a vote of 80 percent or better on Image Revolver, it becomes available for sale. It’s a new feature, one that Tigay says works. “People have good taste,” he says.

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Walnut Street Apple Store location now hiring

While we are kind of upset that Steve Jobs has chosen to neglect our Jobs Board, it seems Philly’s first Apple Store is now hiring and it’s using Craigslist to find employees. It is the first official confirmation that Apple will launch a retail store in Philadelphia proper.

Posted last week, Apple is seeking Mac-head “Geniuses” for its new reported 1607 Walnut Street location. In the company’s typical we’re-super-serious-yet-friendly fashion, the ad calls for those looking to join the “retail revolution.” Rumor has it that retail workers make roughly $9 an hour while its Geniuses support team can make up to $24 an hour. [Full Disclosure: Local Apple specialist Springboard Media is one of TP's sponsors.]

Reports of the strict corporate culture at Apple’s retail stores have been circulating on the web for some time. Last year, one employee made waves with a confessional style LiveJournal that was quickly removed. Employees of the Apple Store in Lynnwood, Washington, staged a walkout in protest of management’s “abusive” behavior in October.

Reports like these should be taken with a grain of salt. Many retail chains are criticized by staff, but don’t have the same press buzz as Apple. After the jump, a Genius hiring offer from 2008, should you decide to take the plunge:

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Springboard Media opens new store in Exton

An exclusive shot of the new sales floor at Springboard Media in Exton before Saturday's Grand Opening.

If you see dozens of renegade balloons floating high above the region this weekend, blame Springboard Media.

The Center City-based independent Apple retail and repair specialist is celebrating a grand opening of a sister store in Exton and President Everett Katzen has spent the last few days orchestrating final touches.

“I just bought out all the purple balloons at Party City,” Katzen exclaimed during a phone interview on Wednesday.

Thirty-five year old Katzen has operated the store since 1996 and the Exton opening marks the company’s first expansion. The retailer has graduated to a 3,600 square feet space, about a thousand more than at its digs on the 2200 block of Walnut Street.

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