GDR visits… Nespresso Trinity Leeds

As Nespresso opens the doors its latest boutique concept in Leeds, GDR’s Yorkshire-based contributor Charlie Lloyd visited to test out its extensive range of experiential features.

The first thing that jumps out at you on approach to Nespresso’s newest UK opening at Trinity Leeds is the brands’ signature colour wall; a vibrant swatch made up of boxes from its borderline-infinite number of coffee pod variants. The second thing that jumped out at me, was that for a new store that had garnered a fair amount of attention in the trade press, it’s surprisingly small. Nespresso calls all its stores ‘boutiques’ and the latest one is exactly that. Yet the brand has managed to pack a lot of experience into a relatively small footprint.  

I visited the store on the back of the aforementioned press attention, my curiosity piqued by its focus on experiential retail, offering experiences that are ‘immersive, localised and personalised’. As I enter the space, I first arrive at the ‘Taste & Discover’ area. This is a table decked out with digital screens, coffee machines and other associated paraphernalia where visitors are free to experiment with various coffee recipes that can be made using Nespresso’s pods. I tap the screen and it brings up a list of different types of coffee to make. I plump for a Latte Macchiato, grab one of the glass cups on the table, and follow the simple instructions to make a lovely, frothy coffee I then enjoy as I explore the rest of the store.

Ramping up the experience

Next, I head over to the ‘Coffee as an art’ area. Here, another table surrounded by stools sits in front of a barista area kitted out with more substantial coffee-making machines of the type you see in coffee shops. This part of the store is the one I’d really come to see as it is the place where staff will host various masterclasses. A friendly member of staff approaches, but alas, when I ask about the masterclasses I’m informed that they haven’t kicked off yet because of the rules around health and safety in light of the ongoing pandemic. Fair enough.

I get talking to the staff member, though, who fills me in enthusiastically about this part of the store’s offering. She tells me that they’ve been really keen to get these masterclasses up and running because already, in the few days since opening, they’ve had a huge amount of interest. The masterclasses will have a variety of themes for different consumer needs. Some will teach new customers the basic necessities of operating the equipment. Others will explore ways that customers can experiment more with their Nespresso machines by creating new and exciting recipes. Pushing the boat out even further, some will be geared towards consumers looking to becoming baristas, offering free training on things like how to create the perfect coffee using a professional machine, roasting beans and making cold brews. 

These classes sound great, and look set to fulfil the brand’s promise of immersive, localised and personalised experiences. It’s a shame that Covid-19 thwarts my attempts to take one, but I’ll definitely be back. The demand has been such, the associate tells me, that they’ve been keeping a file for customers to write down their names and the type of class they’re after so that they can be booked straight in when the classes launch.

Bringing sustainability to life

As with all Nespresso boutiques, part of the store is dedicated to communicating the brand’s sustainability story. As well as offering recycling bags for consumers to take home for their used capsules and drawers for them to be dropped off at, this area also offers an augmented reality experience designed to educate visitors about Nespresso’s sustainability efforts in an interactive and engaging way. 

I scan the QR code on the poster advertising the experience with my smartphone and follow the instructions, beginning with scanning the coffee capsule fixed to the wall ahead of me. This launches the experience, which shows a Mousetrap-style contraption on which coffee capsules move down chutes and along tracks. My mission is to find a purple pen (of the type that is made from used Nespresso capsules), which I can achieve by clicking on various parts of the contraption highlighted with small circles. Every time I click on one of the circles a short video or similar piece of content plays, communicating part of the brand’s sustainability journey, until I click on the circle in which the pen is hiding. Once I find the pen, I will have the chance of winning a real one.

The experience is well-made, and spans topics from sustainable coffee production to the way that its aluminum capsules are given new life as recycled capsules, fittings in its boutiques, and in new objects, such as the pen. That said, the experience didn’t really do much to change my opinion about the broader sustainability problems that Nespresso faces, and which experiences like these work so hard to put a positive spin on. 

While the capsules are aluminum, and therefore infinitely recyclable in theory, they cannot be simply recycled at home. Their sustainability thus hinges on all of its customers collecting their used capsules in recycling bags and sending them back to Nespresso through a doorstep collection, a CollectPlus drop-off location or by bringing them to their local boutique. Nespresso is clearly making great efforts to make recycling as convenient as possible for its consumers, but until the capsules can be simply thrown into the recycling bin at home, it’s likely that a lot of these capsules are ending up in landfill. 

But back to the store, which I leave having been delighted by the friendliness and knowledge of the associates, the experiences on offer (even despite the masterclasses not being available yet), the free coffee, and the way Nespresso has crammed all this in to such a small square footage. Had I really been in the market for a new coffee machine, I’m sure I could have spent most of my morning there, sampling different pods and chatting to the staff in detail about my coffee needs. The AR experience was good fun, but at the end of the day it’s the human factor that left me with a smile on my face as I left the store, confident that I’ll be back.