Camp Is In Session After All, Only It’s Virtual, At Camp By Walmart

  • Date: 07-Jul-2020
  • Source: Forbes
  • Sector:Retail
  • Country:GCC
  • Who else needs to know?

Camp Is In Session After All, Only It’s Virtual, At Camp By Walmart

When Camp in December 2018 opened a 10,000-square-foot flagship on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, it seemed to perfectly embody "experiential“ retail, the prevailing buzzword at the time, with sleep away conceits like a general









Drew Barrymore attempts a makeup challenge at Camp by Walmart.



Courtesy photo



store and canteen.



Fast forward to March 2020, and Camp's experiential concept seemed more unfortunate, than brilliant, as the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc on the retail industry, forcing stores, restaurants and shopping centers to close.



"We shut our stores on March 14,“ said Ben Kaufman, the former BuzzFeed chief commerce officer, who came up with the idea for Camp, referring to the five locations. "It was clear that everyone that could make a virtual computer camp, would. As Camp, we felt we needed to do it in a big way. You can't necessarily do that on startup budgets.“



Camp by Walmart, launching on July 8, is a new experience designed for the Internet. The free virtual camp, where celebrities are the counselors, is powered by the interactive video platform Eko, in which Walmart Inc. is an investor.



"It's a huge undertaking, with 100 interactive episodes that