OK, YOU’VE GOT your interior space looking amazing, but what’s going on just beyond those four walls? Is there a garden area or patio you could carve out? Any internal open-air spaces you could be doing more with? A cozy, refreshingly green or cleverly landscaped outdoor area can attract and delight customers and patients, while allowing them to try on different glasses and suns to see how they perform or look in natural light. Plus, it can give you room to host fun events that boost customer loyalty, not to mention make your employees happier and healthier by letting them enjoy some fresh air and relax. Most importantly, it makes you stand out from the crowd and show off your unique charms to anyone who walks by or visits your socials. Here are seven eyecare businesses that nailed their outdoor spaces.
Great Spectacles
Stockton, CA
“Nothing cookie cutter here,” says Lynda Winter, owner of Great Spectacles in Stockton, CA. It’s true not only of her exquisitely created frame inventory, but also of the design of her one-of-a-kind optical boutique. Thoughtfulness is apparent wherever you turn; from the painted green, ombre-design front door to the 250-sq.-ft signature patio accessed through French doors, extending the appearance of space. A striped awning, artificial lawn and water feature create a calm, cozy, spa vibe, with outdoor mirrors allowing customers to get a sense of how their frames look in the light of day.
Oxford Eyes
Orlando, FL
A retail environment with an attractive, common outdoor space can be a boon for an eyewear business — especially if your neighbors sell clothing and jewelry. Possibilities immediately suggested themselves to Verbelee NielsenSwanson, owner of Oxford Eyes, and her fellow business owners at Swanson’s Ivanhoe Row, a strip of beautiful old beachfront homes converted into retail spaces in Orlando, FL. A few years ago a group of businesses got together to hold a series of annual “Couture in the Courtyard” fashion show events, with Oxford Eyes contributing frames.
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Gogosha Optique
Los Angeles, CA
Gogosha Optique discovered the utility of their covered patio during COVID, organizing “patio pick-ups” and offering outdoor fittings to customers seated at their nifty “personal vanity pods.” The health benefits continue to be touted as COVID variants wax and wane, but the “al fresco patio pod fittings” have become a permanent fixture, allowing folks to get styled while peoplewatching outside the Sunset Boulevard location. The space has also hosted “Pups on the Patio” adoption events for a local rescue-dog fund.
Krewe – Flagship
New Orleans, LA
Designed to create “an airy, sun-filled alternative to a traditional shopping experience,” as the company puts it, all of New Orleans-based Krewe’s locations (there are now more than a dozen) break down the barrier between inside and out with abundant windows letting in natural light and assorted greenery throughout. Many feature a patio or full courtyard; the flagship store in The Big Easy’s French Quarter offers a standout example of the latter. No less an authority than Architectural Digest was impressed enough to enthuse: “The 900-square-foot space also contains an espresso bar with café seating in an adjacent courtyard, a small plant gallery, a curated selection of home and garden accessories, and a lounge area stocked with art books and magazines. The idea is to entice customers — locals and tourists alike — to linger, perhaps have a conversation, or simply take a load off.”
Pend Oreille Vision Care
Sandpoint, ID
Pend Oreille has cheery yellow bench swings out front of both its locations — one on a popular walking/biking trail, right on the way to the farmer’s market, and one on a less friendly section of highway, but with a cute green space and pavers to help folks rest their feet. “Both get used by the public, not just our customers!” says office manager Jen Heller. The building in Sandpoint is adjacent to the town’s last standing historic grain depot in the hip and upcoming Granary Arts District so there’s plenty for customers to take in when they step out in their new specs. “We’ve tried to hang on to that sense of walkable history,” says Heller, citing the rustic porch wrapped around the store’s front that houses the bench swing. And nestled among the beautiful flowers, there’s even an old horse wagon, covered in fresh paint. Such fixtures are definitely a draw, says Heller. Within a week of buying it, she says, “We had a new patient march in and loudly announce, ‘I’m here because of the wagon!’”
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Socialite Vision
Palm Beach Gardens, FL
Further proof of the wisdom of factoring in the wider surroundings when choosing a location can be found in the snaps Dr. Adam Ramsey sent us of the garden, fountain, pergola and flower bed just outside his business, Socialite Vision in Palm Beach Gardens, where staff take patients and customers for a pleasant stroll allowing them to compare glasses and suns in the Florida sunshine.
Spring Hill Eyecare
Spring Hill, TN
Spring Hill Eyecare has a spacious porch with rockers and an area filled with flowers. “Patients can relax on the porch or enjoy a game of corn-hole or sidewalk chalk,” says manager Melanie Jenkins. A recent Instagram post featuring the flowers punned “We examine a lot of beautiful irises inside this building, but right now you can outside too!” Patients get into the spirit of things. One was sufficiently impressed to avail themselves of the chalk provided and scrawl on the pavement outside the front door: “Y’all rock!”