{"id":127589,"date":"2026-02-09T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T05:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/therobinreport.com\/?p=127589"},"modified":"2026-02-05T10:16:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T15:16:23","slug":"is-netflix-house-the-next-big-retail-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/therobinreport.com\/is-netflix-house-the-next-big-retail-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Netflix House the Next Big Retail Thing?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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I have seen the future of the Great American Shopping Mall…maybe. And I survived. As department stores crash and burn, specialty chains fold up like cheap lawn chairs, and food courts become Ozempic victims, a new potential victor has arrived on the retail scene. And it\u2019s not coming from a traditional retailing company, startup from techdom or a visitor from another planet. It\u2019s from a streaming entertainment behemoth.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\tIs Netflix House a new retail paradigm? And the answer is: More likely it\u2019s the latest shiny, new retail toy. But it does have a few superpowers: capturing the attention, imagination and wallets of its loyal fans. Is it sustainable with repeat visits? We\u2019ll see.\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Streaming Retail<\/strong><\/p>

Netflix House is the latest riff in retailing, with its first two stores having opened late last year, and at least one more on the way in 2027 in Las Vegas. It represents a potential new format that could rescue shopping malls from the ongoing deterioration in American retailing. Then again, it could be the latest colossal failure in a long line of retail concepts that promised big things and ended up with padlocked doors and large going-out-of-business signs in their windows. Or worse, dream malls that became food courts and carnivals.<\/p>

I just got back from Dallas, where Netflix House has set up shop; its other location is in King of Prussia, PA. \u00a0And I\u2019m here to tell you it\u2019s exciting, innovative and was packed on a busy Saturday afternoon. Whether it will succeed is, of course, an entirely different matter. We\u2019ll see how it fares in a whimsical customer-driven retail marketplace.<\/p>

What\u2019s in the House?<\/strong><\/p>

The Dallas Netflix store, opened in December in what had once been a Belk store in the still popular upscale Galleria, including Nordstrom, Macy\u2019s, Louis Vuitton, an ice-skating rink and architecture inspired by Milan\u2019s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele shopping space. Netflix measures out at 100,000 square feet on two floors with direct access from both the interior and exterior of the mall (with a big red square emblazoned on the store\u2019s wall that Netflix hailed as an homage to its mail-in DVD envelope origins). The King of Prussia store is similar in design.<\/p>

While it\u2019s free to enter, once inside, the meter starts running the minute you actually want to do anything. The star attractions are two interactive experiences (c\u2019mon, what else can you call them?) based on wildly popular Netflix series: Stranger Things Escape the Dark and Squid Games Survive the Trials. Tickets for these immersive experiences run about $40, depending on the timed entry and other factors. What do you get for that? Good question. As we were clearly not the right target demographic for either room (in fact our mere appearance at the place brought up the average age of the crowd by a factor of two), all we can tell you is that they are part game room, part escape room and part nightmare. The Stranger Things room carries a \u201cparental supervision required for guests under 14 due to graphic content\u201d warning.<\/p>

Long lines to enter both spaces called \u201cStudios\u201d on a busy Saturday afternoon seemed to indicate they had winners on their hands, though you have to wonder how many repeat visitors these kinds of things will get. We also thought it odd that both these experiences were located on the lower level of the place (we can\u2019t quite call it a store) rather than more visibly on the larger main floor. For such a hot ticket, it seems shortsighted to have only one kiosk on-site to purchase tickets. But just like movie theaters, the popular online ticketing service guarantees timed reservations.<\/p>

Level Up<\/strong><\/p>

The main floor showcased the Netflix Bites restaurant, which, in addition to the usual teenage wasteland burgers, pizza and fries assortment, features a few Netflix property-themed offerings such as Red Bite Green Bite fried chicken and Perfect Pickle Pie. If you have to ask, you probably are sticking with the burger. There\u2019s a bar with more Netflix tie-ins like Streaming Optimism and Passion on Demand. There\u2019s also plenty of giant servings of iced tea; this is the South, after all. It should be noted that Netflix road-tested the Bites concept last year with pop-ups in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, both of which are now closed as the company has moved to the House concept.<\/p>

Then there\u2019s the game room, called RePlay, featuring a wide assortment of arcade games, many of which are naturally themed to Netflix properties and offer multi-player competitive contests. Again, Netflix\u2019s targets of loyal fans (and next gens) totally get how to play these games<\/p>

The Merch<\/strong><\/p>

Of course, there\u2019s the prerequisite, high-margin gift shop. It\u2019s huge, maybe 10,000 square feet and full of anything and everything you\u2019d ever want in Netflix products. Given the creativity shown in the rest of the House, we were a bit disappointed to see a fairly standard assortment of apparel, water bottles and fashion accessories with only the occasional inspired item. How could they not sell squid?<\/p>

No matter, the lines were long here, snaking through a checkout lane that offered last-minute pick-up items in the best tradition of a Bed Bath & Beyond and Sephora. And they weren\u2019t giving anything away either, mind you.<\/p>

Is a House a Store?<\/strong><\/p>

As well done as Netflix House is on most levels, let\u2019s remember it\u2019s not exactly a new concept. Disney tried\u2014and failed\u2014with urban shopping area themed attractions two decades ago. In the 1990s, Radio Shack rolled out a giant retail concept called Incredible Universe which, while it didn\u2019t include interactive areas, was a theme park kind of experience. It too failed. And American Dream in the swamps of Jersey is nothing if not an amusement park masquerading as a shopping center with rides, a water park, ice skating and enough interactive storefronts to keep a family of four occupied (and broke) for days at a time. It remains to be seen if it will be the success its developers keep saying it will become. All said, the Harry Potter immersive stores seem to be holding up.<\/p>

If you\u2019re in the retail business, you really need to see a Netflix House. It is onto the most compelling reasons for retail to succeed: customer engagement, surprise and delight. It captures the imagination and attention, plus the dollars of its fans. See for yourself and decide if this is truly the next big thing. \u00a0Retailing has always been a game. It\u2019s Netflix\u2019s (potentially) winning move right now.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It doesn\u2019t get any more experiential than Netflix\u2019s store format, which takes participatory adventures, hospitality and the ubiquitous gift shop to levels unmatched by anything this side of Florida theme parks. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":127591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[736,737,155],"class_list":["post-127589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-experience","tag-innovation","tag-next-gens","tag-trends"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therobinreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therobinreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therobinreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therobinreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therobinreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/therobinreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therobinreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therobinreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therobinreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therobinreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}