ROSEANNE HARPER HOLLAND, Mich. -- D&W Food Centers will unveil a new format that puts a sharper focus on meals and creates a marketplace shopping experience in a replacement store here, officials said.
and Ground Central for the service meat department -- will be debuted here. So will a new line of chilled, prepacked entrees and side dishes that feature rice and vegetable recipes.
The 62,000-square-foot store, set to open the last week of July, will feature 50% more space for food-service products than any of D&W's other stores, said Ron Cox, senior director of marketing for the 25-unit chain.
The variety of chilled, prepacked items will be increased by as much as 20%, and a program built around rotisserie meats will be expanded in this store, Cox said. A full-service, open-production Manhattan Bagel shop will be part of the fresh lineup as well. (This will be the second Manhattan Bagel operation inside a D&W unit. The first went into a remodel last month in Grand Haven, Mich., as reported in SN).
The inside of the building has design elements that are new for the chain, too. Facades, signs, trees and street lamps inside the store are positioned to give the effect of several little shops, instead of just one large supermarket, Cox said.
"This store has a whole different look and feel about it. There's wood planking in the floor at some points. A wood beam overhang at the back of the store makes it feel like a small market and there are live trees and street lamps throughout," Cox said.
A split roof features 6-foot panels of skylights.
"We believe food should be fun from the buying of it to the eating of it. As customers are eating our food, we want them to think back to where they got it," Cox said.
The chain hired an architectural firm (Tower Pinkster Titus in Kalamazoo, Mich.) that had never designed a supermarket before. As a result, no preconceived ideas went into the design, he added.
"We told them the things we wanted to offer and they designed it to accommodate them," Cox said. The building itself is an odd shape that resembles an aircraft. Local observers call it the "stealth bomber."
The configuration of the building was driven, to some extent, by land restrictions. "We had to relocate some wetlands; that affected the shape. But it also allowed us to create a unique shopping pattern," Cox said.
Two front entrances open into fresh departments; one goes into the cafe/food-service area and one goes into produce. "We wanted the whole store to have a fresh feel about it," Cox said.
