GENUARDI'S IS FRESHENING UP HMR IMAGE AT PROTOTYPE

ROSEANNE HARPER

LANGHORNE, Pa. -- Genuardi's Family Markets has taken a decidedly fresh approach to home-meal replacement with a new prototype store that opened here this month.

Officials at the Norristown, Pa.-based chain said the new store, which is designed to shout the word "fresh," supersedes the company's former prototype unit at St. David's, Pa., in a big way.

At this 62,000-sq.-ft. store here -- the company's largest yet -- all the fresh departments are bunched together for the first time, with produce brought over to join the hot foods area. At the St. David's store, produce is on the opposite side of the store from freshly prepared foods.

The positioning of produce at this store helps accent the perception of "fresh" and also adds color to the wide aisle that occupies approximately 25% to 30% of the store.

And several new elements provide theater and add variety in the fresh-foods aisle, which has been designed to let customers know that it is the place to find meals solutions, said David Genuardi, director of public relations for the 27-unit chain.

For example, a newly launched Italian Market, featuring a pasta station with freshly cooked, ready-to-eat fare, anchors the fresh-foods aisle. And a full-service, trendy coffee bar with seating, instead of just a kiosk, is an integral part of the cafe area at this store.

"The Italian Market is definitely the focal point," said Genuardi. "At lunch and dinnertime, we offer freshly cooked and prepared pastas and sauces at the Market's pasta bar. We want to be known for our Italian foods. It makes sense, with a name like Genuardi's, and we wanted to offer an additional dinner item."

Five pastas and five sauces are served up every day at the pasta bar and the items, packed in-store are also available for grab-and-go. The retail: $4.95 for pasta and sauce, and $5.95 with meatballs.

The 1,700-square-foot Italian Market, a store within a store, also features gourmet items such as imported cheeses and meats and olive oils and canned tomatoes, an olive bar, and even small espresso machines and ravioli makers, and hand-painted dishes.

"It's upscale, not just the Italian products you'd find in the grocery aisle. Customers are telling us they've never seen anything like this in a grocery store," Genuardi said.

"If the concept is viable here, we'll put it in other stores. This store is kind of a laboratory. We'll make adjustments as we go along and also try new initiatives," Genuardi said.

The layout of the from-the-ground-up store was engineered to offer the customer optimum convenience, he said.

"The store's design creates a number of totally different shopping experiences," Genuardi said. Most notably, customers can enter via either of two entrances at the front. The one on the left brings them into the fresh-foods aisle; the one on the right opens into a large area featuring nonfood items such as a video department and a large pet supply section.

"If a customer wants to pick up something quick for dinner, he can come right into the fresh-food aisle and then can get out quickly," Genuardi pointed out.

"We've even put portable merchandisers up front near the registers with milk, butter and eggs in them," he added.

The outside of this store, as well as the inside, has been designed to call attention to fresh foods. For example, two huge, full-color sculptures of fruits and vegetables in lighted glass towers high overhead at the two entrances can be seen from a distance and call attention to the store itself.

"The idea is to amplify the concept that Genuardi's equals fresh food," said a source at Design Forum, Dayton, Ohio, the firm that helped Genuardi's create the new prototype.