A single restaurant, a temporary store and a themed dining week give businesses a limited setting in which to test or demonstrate a broader strategy. KFC, Nike and Mill are using physical experiences to show how operational and sustainability ideas work in practice before deciding what comes next.
KFC opened Open House, a redesigned restaurant concept in McKinney, Texas. The location combines midcentury styling with a streamlined kitchen and a larger dine-in area. KFC is treating it as a trial, using one restaurant to assess the format before considering a wider US rollout.
Nike opened a temporary Manhattan store that brought trade-in, vintage resale, repair, cleaning and recycling services together in one place. The pop-up gave shoppers a direct way to participate in the company’s circular initiatives rather than encounter them separately or read about them in a sustainability report.
Food-recycling company Mill organised Make Food Not Waste Restaurant Week across New York. Participating restaurants created special menus using ingredients that might otherwise have been discarded. The event turned food-waste reduction into something diners could experience through an ordinary restaurant visit.