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When a firm that designs museum interiors gets together with big-name electronics retailers like Best Buy, unusual things tend to happen.

In this case, Best Buy worked with ESI Design firm to open two "experiential retail" stores bearing the concept-worthy names Studio D and Escape in and around Chicago.

"Essentially, Best Buy wanted to differentiate themselves from other electronics retailers and to develop a more integrated relationship with customers by providing an environment and experience that was compelling," ESI Interactive Designer Gideon D'Arcangelo said.

After Best Buy approached the ESI Design firm several years ago, wanting to create a store that allows consumer to experience and learn about gadgets and technology in addition to buying it, they came up with what might be a new way to buy electronics.

The design studio has worked on a similar experiential retail design with Sony's Wonder Technology Lab in 1994.

The company also designed the American Family Immigration History Center at Ellis Island, the 22-foot Reuters sign in Times Square and various other public venues.

For Best Buy, the design firm came up with two new age retail centers.

Like the Best Buy retail stores located in every major urban area in the United States, both sell popular gadgets.

Unlike the usual retail experience, each caters to different age groups with hand-on experience with gadgets and education.

Studio D, housed in Naperville, Ill., is a comfortable space designed to entice women ages 30 to 45, aka "soccer moms," to buy and learn about electronics.

The store takes on what D'Arcangelo calls a "Pottery Barn feel," or a clean warm environment where products are set up and configured in solutions. Learn more about Best Buy's online photo service on Publish.com.

For example, a station will allow a user to pick up a digital camera, take a picture and print it out, if necessary, with the help of an experienced salesperson.

The boutique store is composed of retail areas, group demonstrations areas and an classroom area where customers can learn how to use a digital camera, learn how to take great vacation pictures, learning the ins and outs of digital scrapbooking.

The store holds seasonal classes, like the vacation class for the summer and how to make cards for the holiday season.

"It's not so much like, 'Gee whiz, that's the coolest use of technology,'" D'Arcangelo said. "It' more like, 'Wow, let me get my hands on it,' and there's a whole curriculum that supports it."

The classes at the store cost $40 to attend, and customers can buy them bundled with the products. So someone can buy a digital camera that's bundled with a digital video editing class.

Also, customers who come to classes can post their work in the in-store gallery, an area full of plasma TVs that displays photographs taken in the classes.

"It becomes a place where customers are celebrated," D'Arcangelo added.

The store offers a variety of other services, which include renting LCD projectors, digital archiving, and customers can bring in old home movies, photos and have them put on CDs.

It also offers a service that D'Arcangelo said has done surprisingly well--a printing service that will take customer's photos and make calendars cards or will allow customers to do large-scale printing.

There's something for the guys as well. In Chicago's Lincoln Park area, Best Buy opened another experiential store called Escape that is a retail outlet that doubles as a place to hang out (i.e. rooms can be rented for parties, no alcohol allowed) and caters to male "bleeding-edge" technology fans, ages 25-29, with cash to burn.

"People can rent out these luxury boxes and have a party," D'Arcangelo said. "Just sign up to be a member, hang out and peruse the products on the shelf."

The store also brings in products exclusively from Japan that will most likely not be found in the usual retail outlets.

Escape is a little more modern than its Naperville counterpart, and instead of classes, it focuses more on maintaining a staff that's well-versed in technology and tech trends.

Both Escape and Studio D have on-the-road elements, where a vehicle will stop at a soccer game or other venues to show visitors how to use an iPod or other technology.

Whether the stores can be profitable for Best Buy has yet to be seen.

"They're not profitable right now, but they will be," D'Arcangelo said.

In the meantime, Best Buy has worked with another firm to open eq-life in Minneapolis--another experimental store meant for women ages 35 and over that melds electronics with health and wellness.

That means along side iPods and laptops, customers can also buy health-related technology like heart-rate and diabetes monitors.

eq-life's technology offerings are geared toward this philosophy. They include such items as diabetes monitors, heart rate monitors, laptop computers and portable music players.

The store also offers Pilates and yoga classes and a full-service salon.

Best Buy won't give hard numbers, but said the health store is "meeting expectations." Reports say plans for a second store are in the works.

D'Arcangelo said he expects retail to continue moving this way in the future.

"We brought it to Best Buy, which has been preaching the experiential, hands-on environment for a long time," he said, "With acquisition of product ... the difference has to be in the customer relationship and the overall experience."

Copyright © 2005 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in PC Magazine.