After spending a rather extravagant 6 weeks on a global snoop for inspiring retail experiences I must say at the end of it I returned home foot sore and sadly underwhelmed. It was tough to find something new out there. I have decided that future explorations will have to be to emerging markets. The use of technology was on my eye-spy agenda. Where it was used for Christmas decorations I gave it the big thumbs down (Barney's Electric Holiday ... a clever concept but not a good in store experience in my opinion ... it just didn't feel like Christmas). Happily the Lord and Taylor department store on 5th Ave used technology to provide a new shoe shopping experience for me. Australian department stores still have floor staff who have to go out the back to check if the shoe is in stock in the required size. It's a slow and lousy experience.  Lord and Taylor have floor staff with hand held devices, they take your name and  then scan any shoe you like.  They can tell you immediately if they have stock in your size. If they do, and you want to try it on, a customer support person pulls it from the back of house and within minutes it has arrived on the floor without the sales person leaving your sight.  Now if only they had more size 11.5's in stock ... sadly I left empty handed.