Are Experience-Based Retail Trends Here to Stay? From Axe Throwing to Hat Bars

Continuing the discussion on experience-based businesses, what happens after everyone in town tries it? Do these businesses go away? Sheila Scarborough posed the question this way: How do all these axe-throwing and escape room places think they’re going to stay in business past a few years? Main Street Expert Jackie Wolven weighed in: In a […]

Continuing the discussion on experience-based businesses, what happens after everyone in town tries it? Do these businesses go away?

Sheila Scarborough posed the question this way:

How do all these axe-throwing and escape room places think they’re going to stay in business past a few years?

Main Street Expert Jackie Wolven weighed in:

In a tourist community they might be ok if they keep it fresh. But like any small biz, if they aren’t making money they will close and move onto something else.

I was also thinking with the current popularity of shows like Game of Thrones, Last Kingdom and Outlander… the axe throwing probably is a cultural phenomenon. And the true crime fandom is just as rabid which might be driving escape rooms.

The Hat Bar: customize your own hat

We’ve talked before about the candle bar in Bellefontaine, Ohio.

A fashionably singed felt cowboy hat decorated with a turquoise-studded hat band, with feathers and playing cards in a poker hand giving it a rustic western look.

Get your own custom western hat in Caldwell, Kansas. Photo via Rustic Longhorn Co facebook page.

In Caldwell, Kansas, there’s a retail business called Rustic Longhorn Co. that features a hat bar. I had to ask what a “hat bar” even was. They sell hats you can customize on site. Pick a cowboy hat or trucker cap. Pick your hat band, patches or other decorations. Assemble your personalized hat right there in the shop.

Won’t people get tired of making hats?

But how many customized hats does this town really need? They do get a lot of western-theme tourism, so it may have staying power.

When everyone in town has enough hats, they can swap it out for a new experience later. The store as a whole remains, even as the experiences change.

Every small town business has to work at keeping their offerings fresh and relevant.

A downtown business has a bench out front, rustic longhorn shapes on the building and shiny balloons in the window that spell out "hat bar"

Advertising the hat bar in the window draws in new customers for the Rustic Longhorn Co. in Caldwell, Kansas.