Going super fast in New York

London based Organic Pharmacy is about to strengthen its presence in the US with the opening of a store in New York’s Bleecker Street. A pharmacist and homeopath by trade, founder Margo Marrone built the brand from a germ of an idea about creating a pharmacy based on organic products. She talks to Cosmetic News Weekly about the brand’s New York plans and its global presence.

We are in five of the Barneys stores in the US and we have our own store in Los Angeles which we opened in 2008 but we wanted to have a presence in New York where we could give customers the whole experience. Bleecker Street had such a great vibe – it is young, but not young, has great energy and there are other great brands there as well. It also feels quite European. So when the unit came up, we jumped at it.

We have a certain style for our stores but we’re always trying to develop it and make it better. The shop in New York will have our latest layout, which is with Organic Glam a lot more integrated into the space. As you walk in, there’s a section devoted to the make-up and fragrance range, then you come to pharmacy, then the health and skin care section. There is also a small area for ‘super-fast treatments’ – everyone in New York is so busy, so we’re targeting the treatments to be super-fast and super-effective. At the back is our dispensary and an area where we do homeopathic consultations.

The super-fast was developed specifically for the New York store. We’re going to combine technology with organic, so in 45 minutes you’ll get a really good treatment – when you walk out you’ll feel like you’ve had a facial. But with nails in New York, it’s quite difficult to compete price-wise so we’ve left that service out, although we do offer the nails service in London.