Manifesto Market wins prize

The Manifesto Market in Prague, which reopens March 15, has won an award at the Retail Summit, an annual B2B event that was held Feb. 4–6. The key theme this year was customer experience.

The Mastercard Entrepreneur of the Year (Mastercard Obchodník roku) was held for the 16 time, with retailers competing in 12 categories. An expert jury nominated three finalists in the special category of Customer Experience: Manifesto Market, MOL Fresh Corner and JIP Východočeská. Manifesto was voted the overall winner by the professional public.

“At each stage of design, curating and concept for Manifesto, we remembered our visitors. We want to create comfort and give them a sense of uniqueness, create an experience that suits them, and we want it to inspire them. We want people to create a relationship with our place, and we want it to be love at first sight. We believe ‘unique is the new black,’” Martin Barry, CEO and founder of the Manifesto Market, said.

“Neither I nor anyone of the gastronomy and retail team knew anything at the beginning. But I had a clear idea of what we want to achieve,” he added.

Manifesto is the first cashless project in the Czech Republic, and the experience from both customers and sellers is very positive.

It is a temporary gastronomic and cultural market built in a neglected place in the center of Prague, between the train station Masarykovo nádraží and the Florenc bus station.

The market consists of 27 containers. It has culinary concepts from leading Prague restaurateurs, tailored as street food and also focuses on Czech design and art, organizes film screenings and concerts. For the winter, it was modified as a Christmas market.

Manifesto’s initiator is the American landscape architect Martin Barry and reSITE, a nonprofit organization that has long been involved in improving the quality of public space, and promotes the best practices from around the world to make cities pleasant for life.

“I initiated Manifesto with reSITE and it was an unspoiled space experiment in the city, aiming to create a missing level and quality of experience that combines sophisticated design, first-class gastronomy and a cultural program,” he said.

In the long run, the area where Manifesto is located will be redeveloped as part of a large mixed-use project designed by the architectural studio of the late Zaha Hadid Architects. It is one of the last projects she oversaw before passing away in 2016.


Related links
Manifesto Market
Manifesto Market will reopen for holidays | Prague TV 08..11.2018