Bobby Ammar wants you to feel at home. Well, not at home, exactly. More like the lobby of a boutique hotel, or an art gallery. Which is extraordinary, really. Because Ammar operates in the dusty business of selling cars. When the new Ericksen Infiniti dealership in Edmonton opened in September, complete with plush leather chairs, wide-screen plasma TV and, says general manager Ammar, “the most expensive cappuccino machine in the city,” it offered a peek into an emerging retail phenomenon—lounging. “We wanted a place where people could pour a latte, sit back and relax.”

Lounging is a reversal of almost everything we’ve come to expect from retail. Over the years, stores perfected the quick sell. Transactions-per-minute became the measure of success, with customers viewed more as commodities than living, breathing souls. Get in, do your business, then get out. But now a host of businesses, like car dealerships, but also dental offices, malls and even banks, want you to stay, take off your jacket and unwind. In a hyper-competitive retail landscape decimated by the recession, businesses are going to remarkable lengths to make you feel comfortable. If the waiting room was once the purgatory of retail, today it’s becoming an indulgence all its own. Continue…