Brick & Maker, a company based in Charlottesville, VA, is an attempt at progress with the aim of creating a duplicate-able 3D printing walk-in store with a selection of both locally produced 3DP objects as well as things made by the end-customers themselves. The idea is to basically take the maker/hacker space concept to the streets – quite literally – and to create a commercial chain of franchises from it. However, Brick & Maker is not looking to create a franchise with huge license and marketing costs – the concept itself is open-source in nature – so the investments needed to get going should not be sky high.
Another interesting feature of the concept is related to the facilities, the notion being to create the physical spaces in abandoned buildings, for example a derelict gas station. The actual brick & mortars will be designed to include all needed equipment and knowledge for anyone to drop by and start making – ie 3D printers, 3D scanners and a house of staff with expertise on both 3D modeling and printing. After printing out a product in-house, the creator can either take it with him/her or leave it on the store shelves to be sold. Therefore the offering in each upcoming store will be different from one another.
All in all, the Brick & Maker concept does not bear too many similarities of the traditional franchise business model, but using a familiar label might be perceived as appealing especially by people outside the traditional circles practicing the open-source ethos.
The first store is planned to be opened in the fall of this year in the company’s home state of Virginia with lofty plans to take it nationwide as well.
Hit the source link below for more information – but note that the site might not load properly depending on the browser you’re using. At least I had problems using the latest (desktop) Chrome, which Brick & Maker kept recognizing as old version of IE and to update it. Fortunately the mobile version of the first worked properly.
Source: Brick & Maker
