Google eyes New York for first retail store

Google is thinking about opening its first brick-and-mortar store and the location comes as no surprise: New York City, just a block from an Apple store.

Crain’s New York Business reported the search giant is eyeing an 8,000-square-foot location in New York’s SoHo neighborhood to sell its Nexus and Chromebook products, with neighbors such as Hugo Boss, Ralph Lauren, Tiffany & Co., and Louis Vuitton.

Until now, the company has sold its merchandise in stores like Best Buy.

Last year, Google opened up a bunch of temporary display popups across the country where people could get hands-on experience with Google’s products.

It was also building big barges that were supposedly going to be used to outfit people with Google Glass.

The company does have physical stores for its Android products in Australia, Indonesia and India called “Androidland” and has had “Chromezone” embedded in a branch of Currys and PC World stores in London.

While Apple has long had its own chain, other tech companies are quickly growing their retail divisions. Microsoft already has 63 locations and Samsung plans to launch 60 in Europe this year.