OMA and Potato Head Open Good Times General Store in Bali

By Marcus Bennett

Potato Head has opened its first dedicated retail space, the Good Times General Store in Bali, designed with the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). The store frames what the two partners call a model for "post-consumption retail", and it is the most developed expression yet of a collaboration that began with the Desa Potato Head Bali hotel more than a decade ago.

What does "post-consumption retail" change?

The concept attacks the standard relationship between retailer, product and consumer. "The retail landscape is increasingly defined by experience rather than the possession of physical objects. Today, value lies less in what we own and more in what we feel and participate in," said David Gianotten, managing partner at OMA.

For practitioners, the design brief shifts the program: two of the building's five bays are workshops, not display space. A natural-dye studio works with food and plant waste. A second workshop experiments with recycled plastic collected by waste-pickers across Bali and Java.

What is on sale, and where does it sit?

The rectangular structure sits between the Desa Potato Head Bali hotel and the brand's beach club, whose hospitality and entertainment offerings anchor the wider creative universe that also includes nightclub Klymax Discotheque. The store gives visitors a new point of entry, literal and figurative.

The first three bays present:

• Objects by independent makers from Indonesia and beyond
• Potato Head's in-house apparel
• "Wasted", a collection developed with British designer Max Lamb that turns discarded materials into furniture and homeware

The two making-focused bays sit at the heart of the retail concept. Lightweight, movable elements let the interior be reconfigured for different uses.

"We see the space as something that will continue to develop through the people who use it," said Dan Mitchell, creative director of Potato Head. "The flexibility allows us to change the scale and use of different areas, to bring together the different expressions of the brand: music, art, design, food and wellbeing."

How does the building itself perform circularity?

Gianotten describes the material language as "contemporary-traditional", integrating local building traditions into contemporary design. Roofing thatch reappears as an exterior finish. Rammed-earth walls carry smooth and bush-hammered finishes that reveal the earth's raw character and the craftsmanship involved.

The material decisions match the retail thesis. "The idea is to encourage people to think more consciously about consumption without diminishing the pleasure," said Gianotten. "The principle of 'Good Times, Do Good' has guided our collaboration from the beginning."

Over the years, the partnership has grown into an ecosystem in which hospitality, design and environmental responsibility inform one another.

What comes next?

Two projects are scheduled to open in 2027. The first is a sanggar in Bali, a space for learning and practising the arts with a focus on the performing arts. "It's going to be a bamboo dome (designed by Indonesian architect Nano Uhero)," said Ronald Akili, the driving force behind Potato Head. "The team will work with artists from across Indonesia and Balinese performers to develop programmes and residencies."

The second is a design centre with a materials library, exhibition spaces and studios where designers will undertake residencies and develop new work. For a hospitality brand that now runs a store, a beach club and a discotheque, the 2027 openings signal a move from retail experiment to permanent cultural infrastructure.