Boise Retailers Are Turning Stores Into Experiences—and That Matters for Commercial Real Estate

What if the future of retail isn’t just about selling more products?

One longtime Boise business offers a good example of how physical stores can become something customers can’t get from a website: an experience.

Lee’s Candies has been using its Vista Village location for hands-on chocolate-making classes that bring new customers through the door, introduce them to the brand and give people another reason to visit a brick-and-mortar store.

According to reporting by Marc Lutz in the Idaho Business Review, owner Katie Fernandez says a large share of class participants had never visited Lee’s Candies before taking a class.

Read the original Idaho Business Review article for Lutz’s full story on the classes and the people behind them.

For Boise commercial real estate, there’s a bigger lesson here: the most successful retail spaces increasingly have to give customers a reason to show up.

Retail Space Is Becoming More Than a Place to Buy Things

Lee’s Candies has two Boise storefronts, including its primary Vista Village location and a smaller downtown shop.

The Vista store is doing something especially interesting from a retail leasing perspective.

After normal business hours, part of the property becomes an educational and entertainment venue.

The candy-making classes generally run about an hour to 90 minutes. Participants learn about chocolate quality, shape candy fillings and see how chocolates are coated. They also learn about the history of the nearly 80-year-old Boise business.

Classes currently cost $60 per person and are generally offered several times per month, depending on demand and scheduling.

The concept started after Fernandez heard about another business using cooking classes to attract customers. Lee’s Candies initially promoted its own classes through Groupon.

But something happened that made the concept worth continuing.

The classes became a customer-acquisition tool.

Fernandez told IBR that roughly 60% of participants had never previously visited the store.

That’s a powerful number.

Instead of paying only for traditional advertising and hoping someone eventually visits, Lee’s is giving customers an experience that physically brings them into the business.

And once they’re inside, they’re learning the brand story, interacting with employees and taking home something they made themselves.

That is experiential retail in its simplest form.

Why Experiential Retail Matters in Boise

Online shopping changed what physical retail needs to accomplish.

If a consumer simply wants to purchase a common product, ordering online may be easier.

That means brick-and-mortar businesses increasingly need to compete on things the internet can’t fully reproduce.

Experience is one of them.

Think about what’s happening across retail categories:

Fitness businesses offer group classes.

Breweries host events.

Restaurants create chef dinners.

Bookstores organize readings.

Garden centers hold workshops.

Sporting goods stores offer demonstrations.

Beauty businesses host training and product events.

And Lee’s Candies teaches customers how chocolate is made.

These activities can turn ordinary retail space into a destination.

That distinction matters for retail leasing in Boise because landlords should increasingly consider how tenants intend to use their space, not simply what they plan to sell.

A tenant that consistently generates events, classes and community engagement may create repeat traffic that benefits an entire shopping center.

One Store Can Help Generate Traffic for Its Neighbors

Imagine a shopping center with several businesses offering complementary experiences.

A customer attends a class at one tenant, grabs dinner next door and stops for another service before heading home.

That’s the kind of cross-shopping landlords want.

Experiential tenants can potentially help generate traffic during periods that would otherwise be slow, including evenings and weekends.

Lee’s is an interesting example because its classes are held after regular operating hours.

From a commercial real estate perspective, that means the same square footage can potentially serve two purposes.

During normal hours, it’s a candy store.

After hours, it can become an entertainment, educational and group-event space.

That is efficient use of real estate.

Social Media Can Turn Local Experiences Into Demand

There’s another part of the Lee’s Candies story that Boise retailers should notice.

Social media dramatically expanded awareness of the classes.

According to the IBR report, someone who attended a class posted about the experience on TikTok. Unfortunately, the timing came just as Lee’s had paused classes to focus on its busy holiday production season.

Fernandez said the business then received around 15 calls per day from people interested in the classes.

She estimated that hundreds of potential participants couldn’t be accommodated.

That shows how physical experiences and social media can reinforce each other.

Traditional retail marketing might show someone a product.

Experiential retail gives customers something they want to film.

That’s a major difference.

A visually interesting restaurant, unusual fitness concept, interactive store or hands-on class can generate customer-created content without the business producing every piece of marketing itself.

For retailers evaluating Boise real estate, the question becomes:

Can this location help create an experience customers will want to share?

That may influence everything from storefront visibility and outdoor patios to interior layouts and event areas.

What Landlords and Developers Can Learn

Experiential retail also has implications for Boise development.

Commercial spaces traditionally get designed around fairly predictable uses: sales floor, back room, restrooms and employee areas.

But modern tenants may need more flexibility.

A retailer might want room for classes.

A restaurant may want private events.

A fitness concept might need indoor and outdoor programming.

A food business could need demonstration space.

A service business might want seminars or workshops.

That creates an opportunity for landlords and developers to think about flexible floor plans, patios, gathering areas, shared outdoor spaces and other features that support multiple uses.

It can also affect parking.

A business that normally has moderate traffic may suddenly have dozens of customers arriving simultaneously for an evening event.

Understanding those patterns before signing a lease can prevent problems later.

Local Insight: Retail Isn’t Dead—Boring Retail Is Harder

Every few years, someone declares that physical retail is dying.

I don’t think that’s the right way to look at what’s happening.

Retail is evolving.

People still want to leave their homes. They still want restaurants, fitness, entertainment, beauty services, coffee shops, medical services and places where they can spend time with friends and family.

What has changed is what consumers expect from physical locations.

A store can’t always rely on putting products on shelves and waiting for people to walk inside.

The strongest concepts give customers a reason to visit.

That’s why experiential retail is worth watching throughout Boise, Meridian, Eagle, Nampa and the rest of the Treasure Valley.

For landlords, these tenants can potentially generate additional traffic.

For developers, they can influence how future shopping centers are designed.

For retailers, experiences can create another marketing channel.

And for investors, centers with strong destination tenants may have advantages that aren’t obvious from simply looking at rent rolls.

Lee’s Candies offers a small but useful example.

The classes themselves may not be the company’s highest-margin product. Fernandez acknowledged to IBR that they aren’t necessarily major profit generators.

But direct class revenue isn’t the entire point.

The classes introduce new people to the store.

They generate word of mouth.

They create social media content.

They tell the company’s story.

And they turn customers into participants rather than simply shoppers.

That’s valuable marketing.

A Bigger Opportunity for Boise Retail

The Treasure Valley’s continued population growth brings new residents who are still discovering local businesses.

That creates an opportunity for established Boise companies as well as newer concepts.

Events and experiences can introduce those customers to businesses they might otherwise never encounter.

Lee’s has expanded the idea beyond its standard candy-making classes. According to IBR, the company also offers facility tours, teen workshops and team-building programs.

That last category is especially interesting.

Corporate outings and team-building events give retailers another potential customer base beyond traditional shoppers.

For a Boise retail tenant, finding several ways to generate revenue and traffic from the same location can make the real estate work harder.

And as rents, labor and operating expenses remain important considerations, getting more value from every square foot matters.

Lee’s Candies plans to pause its regular classes beginning in November as holiday candy production ramps up, with classes expected to return in the spring.

The schedule may be seasonal, but the commercial real estate lesson isn’t:

Stores that give customers something memorable to do may have an increasingly important advantage in Boise’s evolving retail market.

Source: This article is based on reporting by Marc Lutz in the Idaho Business Review, published August 3, 2026. Details regarding Lee’s Candies, its classes and comments from Katie Fernandez originated from that reporting. The discussion of Boise commercial real estate, experiential retail, leasing and development implications represents independent commentary and should not be considered original reporting.

Mike Gioioso (joy-OH-so)
has for 16+ years been helping companies of all sizes buy, build, and lease perfect places for business in greater Boise, Idaho and beyond.
www.streetsmartidaho.com mike@streetsmartidaho.com 208-209-9166

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