We’re ecstatic about the fact that we now have Maker Shed kiosks, with magazines, books, and electronics kits, in several California Fry’s stores. We think this is big news, not only for Maker Media, but for all indie makers — a major retail chain is now giving small kit-makers this level of exposure. And, we think it’s particularly cool that we designed and built these kiosks in-house, and even personally delivered them to the stores! What other publisher could claim that?
Here, Assoc. Publisher and General Manager of Maker retail, Dan Woods explains more:
Maker Shed kiosks are now installed in four of Fry’s largest superstores. Each kiosk merchandises current and back issues of MAKE, Make: Project books, and kits, with an emphasis on maker-made kits produced by indie makers like Limor Fried’s MintyBoost, Mitch Altman’s Brain Machine, Ken Murphy’s Blinky Bugs, Dale Wheat’s Tiny Cylon and Wee Blinky kits, and Amy Parness and Ariel Churi’s DIY Design Electronics kits. This indie maker angle was a really important selling point to Fry’s. The kiosk’s themselves are all-MAKE in their design and construction. The challenge was to create a merchandising/branding kiosk that could show off maker-made kits, as well as our books and magazines, all in a 2′ X 2′ footprint. The design we came up with incorporates the Maker Faire workbench framing as the internal structure, refurbished fence boards from West Sonoma, and some nicely weathered corrugated shed aluminum that was locally salvaged. The result is a nice combination of weathered shed and repurposed industrial tubing. They’re uniquely MAKE, and Fry’s is ecstatic. In fact, they were even trucked down and setup by Heather (Harmon-Cochran) and Rob (Bullington) in one day.
These are the stores that currently have kiosks. (San Diego will be set up by Fry’s staff next week)
San Diego, CA
9825 Stonecrest Boulevard
(858) 514-4500
San Jose, CA
550 E. Brokaw Road
(408) 487-1000
Fremont, CA
43800 Osgood Road
(510) 252-5300
Sunnyvale, CA
1077 East Arques Avenue
(408) 617-1300
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