Fast Company explains… Lucky for Tesla, then, that it snagged George Blankenship as its vice president of design and store development. Blankenship previously spent nine years working with Apple to amp up its retail strategy. Before that, he opened hundreds of stores each year for the GAP.

Blankenship is charged with helping Tesla expand from its network of 13 showrooms to 20 by the end of the year–and even more beyond that. While Blankenship has never before worked in the auto industry, he sees lots of similarities between his work in clothing and computing and his current position at Tesla. “This is about technology, innovation, and a great pipeline of products that need to be explained to the customer,” he tells FastCompany.com. “It’s just like when I was at Apple.”

The retail guru wants to do the same thing for Tesla. Whereas traditional auto dealerships are often in mammoth buildings that are set apart from retail districts, Blankenship hopes to put Tesla showrooms right in the thick of popular shopping locations.

But Tesla has a unique challenge: While consumers weren’t that excited about Apple when Blankenship came on board, Tesla practically has more hype than it can handle. The challenge is to make potential customers understand what Tesla is about. And that requires a comprehensive customer experience strategy.

“We want to figure out the best, most comfortable way to create an environment where people aren’t just looking at the car–they see how it’s part of their future,” Blankenship says. It won’t be easy.

1. Costco (85)
2. Dillard’s (82)
3. Kohl’s (81)
4. JCPenney (80)
5. Target (79)
6. Sam’s Club (78)
7. Sears (77)
8. Macy’s (77)
9. Meijer (77)
10. Walmart (73)

And below are some profiles of the top scorers… (click here to see the profiles of all top retailers)

COSTCO

Snapshot
414 warehouses in 40 states. $50 yearly fee. Costco has a wide range of goods but not a lot in each category. Private-label Kirkland Signature products are claimed to be at least as good as national brands, and all of Costco’s merchandise comes with a money-back guarantee.

Three years ago, a Left-Handed Toons comic (seen after the jump) illustrated the insanity of Subway’s cheese distribution policy. The triangular cheese slices were lined up in a row with overlapping corners, and even worse, some parts of the sandwich were rendered cheeseless.

The comic kickstarted a small movement encouraging the sandwich chain to start alternating the orientation of their cheese slices, as seen in the image above, which would provide for a more equitable cheese distribution.

“Some Shanghai residents have started to take advantage of 24-hour fast food restaurants like McDonald’s and KFC, which offer uncomfortable yet reliable temporary shelter for people who can’t–or don’t want to–pay rent in the ultra-expensive city. Many of the McRefugees are employed, albeit with underpaying jobs in security, housekeeping, and hospitality. And apparently, restaurant officials are looking the other way. Shanghaiist explains in its translation of a Southern Weekly article:

In response to questions about people sleeping over at McDonalds, a spokesperson named Mr. Lu said the store “doesn’t explicitly allow it, but doesn’t explicitly disallow it.” But for all the stores in the Tianyaoqiao Lu area, KFC has the most serious McRefugee problem. “Because there’s sofas there, [McDonalds] only has hard stools. In the winter, people will even bring their blankets and bedrolls into the restaurant.” (Fast Company)

(image via Webshots)

“This year’s 100 Most Creative People offers our own, idiosyncratic perspective on business. The selections reflect the breadth of news ideas and new pursuits at play in our business landscape. From interface designer Yugo Nakamura to HBO Documentary Films president Sheila Nevins to futurist Ray Kurzweil, we can attest that creativity is alive and well in 2010.”

See the full list here

(images from Wallpaper via Hypebeast)

Louis Vuitton has been ordered to sack two of its latest ads over claims that they mislead customers into believing that the hot handbags are hand-stitched.

One offending advertisement features a Cate Blanchett look-alike sewing the handle of a handbag, with the text, “The seamstress with linen thread and beeswax. A needle, linen thread, beeswax, and infinite patience protect each over-stitch from humidity and the passage of time.”

The other ad shows a woman making a wallet, with the questions, “What secret little gestures do our craftsmen discretely pass on? How do we blend innate skill and inherent prowess?”

The answer, apparently, is by machine.   According to the Daily Mail, the Advertising Standards Agency received complaints that the ads were misleading, so it challenged the folks at Louis Vuitton, who confessed that sewing machines were used to make their pricey purses because they made items “more secure and [were] necessary for strength, accuracy, and durability.”

(via Stylelist)

“We’re trying to change the norm of boxed foods,” said Furst, who serves as the company’s president. “We’re trying to open people’s eyes and say, ‘This isn’t just another frozen product — this is a frozen product that happens to be extremely good.’ “

Each Sushi Popper includes eight pieces of precut sushi and a bit of wasabi wrapped inside an airtight tube. After opening the top of the tube, diners can add soy sauce from a small stick affixed to the packaging, and grab their first piece of fish. They reach the next piece by pushing up on the bottom of the tube.

“It took thousands of hours to develop something to hold the sushi, to make sure it pushes up correctly and make sure the soy sauce doesn’t leak,” Furst said. “It took us a lot of engineering time.”

According to Furst, the tubed snack is the perfect food for a nation on the go.

(via AOL)