Six Cool Startups Go Brick-and-Mortar Next to the High Line

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If you spend enough time browsing local e-commerce start-ups, the list of names at A Startup Store should look something like your Firefox history. The pop-up, founded by digital consultant Rachel Shechtman, brings together some of the city's most talked-about retail sites, including Birchbox, which sends subscribers monthly beauty samples, and BaubleBar, which offers designer jewelry without any middleman mark-up.

Shechtman has an impressive tech pedigree, having worked with Toms, Gilt Groupe, and Fashism. She tells the Daily News that she doesn't see a conflict between online retail and offline shopping. The trick is to help shoppers maximize their time, on and off the Internet: "People want to get more out of their experience—they want to get a manicure while getting their hair blown out while eating dinner."

You can't exactly do that at the Startup Store yet, but you can get a tactile experience of products that are usually just searchable on-screen. In addition to Birchbox and Baublebar, the store carries merchandise from small-batch shop Of a Kind, contemporary art site Artspace, designer matchmaker Joor, and Quirky, which makes products based on consumer suggestions. The pop-up will last through January 12th, after which Shechtman plans to shift the space into a rotating marketplace that completely renovates itself every month according to a theme. The first theme, for February: Love, of course.
· Six of the city's hottest digital startups gather under one Chelsea roof [NYDN]
· A Startup Store: Beta [Cool Hunting]
· A Start-Up Store [Official Site]