Snap heads to trendy east London to peddle those unsold Spectacles

What do you do when hype around your quirky hardware play dies, leaving you with hundreds of thousands of unsold units? You open an experience and retail store in a trendy part of east London and hope to catch a few late adopters cruising by, of course. That's exactly what Snap is doing this weekend, opening of a store dedicated to peddling Spectacles in the hipster haven that is Shoreditch's Boxpark. It's no transient pop-up, though, but a permanent store and Snap's first in Europe.

Those genuinely interested in dropping £130 on social eyewear will've probably bought theirs already, either at a vending machine, online or at Harrods. Snap even dropped its second London vending machine at the very same Boxpark over the summer, but perhaps the company believes it hasn't fully tapped the east London scene because it wasn't letting potential customers try before they buy.

Spectacles are far from a hot item these days and the company might have to resort to recycling unassembled parts to cut its loses. That said, CEO Evan Spiegel recently said Spectacle sales had topped 150,000, which was above the 100,000 projection.

Snap has bigger problems than a few unsold Spectacles right now, though. Aside from bleeding money, user growth is slowing. Snapchat is being redesigned to combat this after user feedback suggested the app can be "difficult to understand or hard to use." And rumor has it the new app will be available as soon as next month.