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Apparel retailer Nau plans kiosk-based store

November 26, 2006

Chicago Tribune: Nau Inc., an environmentally friendly outdoor apparel company from Portland, Ore., has signed a lease to open what the company has termed a Webfront in Lincoln Park next spring. The new retail concept, slated to open in April, is the brainchild of a group of outdoor apparel veterans from Nike Inc., Adidas Group and Patagonia. Three other stores are scheduled to open at the same time in Portland, Seattle and Boulder, Colo.

The 2,000-square-foot outdoor apparel store will contain limited inventory and plenty of computer kiosks to encourage shoppers to research and order products directly from Nau's Web site, even if they are shopping in the store.

The idea is to keep costs down by having just enough merchandise in the store to allow shoppers to try on items and gauge the fit and to ship from a central warehouse directly to shoppers' homes.

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