A Little Nip and Tuck 2018-01-01 (1)

Makeovers are big business. From the uptick in housing renovations to the number of people electing to undergo cosmetic surgery, making something look better has turned into a major industry today.

Retailers have long known this. However, when the economy took a dip several years ago it seemed as though any thoughts of giving stores a facelift were put on hold—until recently. Retailers have been going full force to beautify their stores. From independents to large chains, there has been a spate of remodeling occurring in the grocery industry lately.

While store types may

 be different sizes and styles most share the same end goal—to better connect with their consumers and their community. Industry observers say that updating a store’s look has the ability to not only attract more customers and cast a positive light on a store, but improve revenue as well.

Whether it be a 

new paint color, a change up of artwork on the walls, new fixtures, upgraded lighting or a total re-do, most observers say remodeling a store can create a more appealing and welcoming atmosphere. This, in turn, can draw new customers into the store and influence existing shoppers to spend more.

From a purely functional perspective, retailers have come to another conclusion—the importance of making every square foot of space work harder for them, while cutting down on their energy bills. Finding a company that can help take ideas from the imagination and transform the store into a finished product beyond anything they could have envisioned, however, can be challenging.

Best-in-class design firms, say observers, understand the value in creating relationships that are customer-focused and leverage forward-thinking design and engineering, stress on-time delivery and efficiently tackle all aspects of the project, regardless of size.

While there is no shortage of companies to choose from, officials at Decorworx, based in Cedar City, Utah, say the right design company can be a retailer’s most important ally when embarking on a remodel. “The good ones will have direct experience finding solutions for your individual needs and budget,” says Lauren Morton, lead designer.

“These companies will have the ability to listen to your dreams and make them a reality.”
Done correctly, she says a remodel can make a significant difference on how a store performs and influence the growth of the business. She adds that a remodel has the ability to take a poor performing, ailing store and turn it into one that experiences increases instead of losses. “Not to mention the employees’ mood often improves dramatically as well. Most importantly, shoppers are excited to come in and see the store once again,” she says.

Oftentimes, the key to generating that excitement begins with personalizing the décor in the store. Officials at CIP Retail, based in Fairfield, Ohio, for instance, say some of the best store designs pay homage to the history and culture in the area. “Many of our top design ideas focused on the retailer’s roots, both within the company and the neighborhood,” says Thomas Huff, CEO of CIP. “Developing an understanding of where a particular company came from and conveying that in décor is a key part of what we do.”

Strolling Down Main Street
Project: Dave’s Fresh Marketplace, East Greenwich, R.I.
Design Team: CIP Retail, Fairfield, Ohio

Locally owned and operated since 1969, Dave’s Fresh Marketplace is a nine-store supermarket chain based in Rhode Island. Dave’s Marketplace has established an outstanding reputation for quality products and superior customer service. This distinguished quality and service dates back to 1969 when Dave Cesario opened a small roadside fruit and vegetable stand originally called Dave’s Fruitland.

Over the past 40 years Dave’s has grown into the largest independent grocery chain in Rhode Island. It is no surprise that this customer-centric chain’s motto is “fresh, fast, familiar,” as each of its stores is designed to blend in with the local history and architecture of the area.

Bob Fabiano, director of store development and grocery at Dave’s, has always wanted his stores to reflect the community in which the store is located. This particular remodel is in their headquartered city of East Greenwich, R.I., an area with deep roots in the textile, machinery and ship building industries. East Greenwich is also the birthplace of the U.S. Navy, all of which served as the perfect design inspiration for the store.

This store was designed to replicate, in scale, the main thoroughfare in East Greenwich. CIP also designed a photo collage of historic navy scenes, which celebrate the town’s maritime connections. The store signage throughout replicates the city’s way of finding and building signage. “Shoppers have been absolutely bowled over by the intricate details in the new design,” says Fabiano.

According to the design team, about a year after they designed and fabricated the initial replicated buildings Dave’s Fresh Markets purchased the building adjacent to the original store. They then totally remodeled the new and existing space with additional replications of local landmarks.

Creating, moving and installing these look-a-like buildings was no easy feat, but it was important to the CIP team to achieve the owner’s desires to emphasize its history and connection to the community. As in their other stores CIP worked on for them, the designer researched, photographed and replicated many of the city’s landmarks and important buildings.

“We created the

buildings using steel skeletons and then welded them into the shapes of the buildings,” says Thomas Huff, creative director and CEO of CIP. A thin layer of material was then layered over the structures, which were then covered with laminated printed panels. In all, the process took nearly six weeks to complete.

A wood plank look was created for the flooring to enhance the manufacturing and maritime themes. CIP decided to darken the ceiling for additional dramatic effect.
The local response to this store was absolutely amazing with all of the local television stations providing major coverage of the grand re-opening, say CIP officials. While the replications were jaw dropping, the emphasis Dave’s team placed o

n merchandising stood out as well. The chain has a solid reputation for best-in-class merchandising, particularly in their delicatessen and hot foods areas.

“Business is up since th

e remodel was completed and I certainly consider that an important measure of success,” says Fabiano.
CIP has been designing and fabricating Dave’s Fresh Marketplace stores for 15 years and Huff says it has been through their unique partnership that many of these inspiring designs were created.

“If you shop at Dave’s Fresh Marketplace, you will get to know the people of the community. These stores are heavily shopped and the customers seem to really enjoy the crowds,” says Huff.

Cozy and Spacious
Project: Harmons Dixie, St. George, Utah
Design Team: Decorworx – Cedar City, Utah

Harmons, a high-end grocery store chain based in Utah, is known for promoting healthy lifestyles and providing customers with an extraordinary shopping experience. A branch of Harmons, Harmons Dixie, located in St. George, Utah, centers its operations on a few simple beliefs—exceed the customers’ expectations and be passionate about food and the surrounding community. Eventually, Harmons felt that its Harmons Dixie store was outdated and it did not relate as well to the customers. In response to this concern, Harmons approached Decorworx about completely remodeling the St. George area store. The remodel would include customized design, aisle markers, check stand lights, specialty branding and exterior signage.

Harmons had a few simple goals in mind for the remodel, including creating a climate of coziness and spaciousness in each of the aisles, developing clean directional information and signage that would direct the customers through the store with ease and convenience, reinforcing the love and passio

n of food, promoting the store’s outstanding products, and connecting with and serving patrons in a more effective manner.

The Decorworx sales team met with Harmons every week for a year to determine just what Harmons wanted to accomplish with the remodel. The sales team monitored the progress of the remodel, with the main focus not only on the store’s décor, but also on the employees’ attitudes. Harmons Dixie wanted employees to be happy with their employment at the store, as their satisfaction would impact store customers. Once the sales team was able to determine what Harmons Dixie desired, the reigns were handed over to the design team. Through the use of mood boards, the design team was able to determine an effective theme for Harmons Dixie, entitled “your food, our passion.” The theme helped tie the store’s passion for food to the new design, notes Lauren Morton, lead designer.

“This theme allowed us to place a strong emphasis on fresh food and Harmons’ employees in the store,” says Morton. The design team incorporated Southern Utah’s unique landscape into the décor of Dixie Harmons, using deep colors and hard woods to create a classy and elegant feel within the store.

Decorworx was able to satisfy Harmons’ goals by creating an overall appearance that was appealing to the local community as a whole. St. George is known for promoting healthy lifestyles, which lead Decorworx to implement a “wellness” theme into the design for Harmons Dixie. The new décor in Harmons Dixie also incorporated the St. George area’s diverse landscape, while similarly creating a “luxury” shopping experience for customers.

The use of rich and deep colors, hard woods and acrylic materials made the store feel classy and elegant, which promoted an attractive atmosphere to the main target market—mature, older adults in the area. To top it all off, every photo in Harmons Dixie was relatable to the store itself. The photos included the store’s food as well as employees who worked at Harmons Dixie, in turn making the store more personable and relatable.

“Everything in a Harmons store is customized, including the photos and that really shows how much the grocer was willing to do to make its shoppers comfortable in this store,” says Morton.

The results of the Harmons Dixie remodel were astounding and customers have been very positive about the changes, say Decorworx officials, adding that the remodeling created a more appealing and welcoming atmosphere, which drew current and potential customers into the store.
Light and Bright
Project: ShopRite at Wishing Well Plaza, Burlington, N.J., Eickhoff Supermarkets
Design Team: Cold Technology, Blackwood, N.J.

Wishing Well ShopRite represents a revolutionary approach to a mature-brand store, and has not only made waves within the ShopRite and Wakefern Foods fa

milies, but has also reverberated among its competitors. Right out of the gate, the new ShopRite not only revived and transformed a dormant location, it introduced completely new architectural and lighting designs and systems.

Given ShopRite’s iconic status in New Jersey, the job for all involved was formidable.
Eickhoff Supermarkets engaged Cold Technology of Blackwood, N.J., to head up the lighting design and installation in the new store. Frank Vadino, vice president of engineering, says he was tasked with leveraging the design via lighting to influence buyer behavior and profits. In ShopRite’s case, Vadino says the main challenge was to create a completely new visual experience. With this in mind, the lighting designer set out to change the way supermarket customers reacted and responded to grocery shopping.

“We turned up the visual volume with products from Amerlux, the company that pioneered supermarket lighting,” says Vadino. “The right lighting can make colors appear more lively, whites look crisper and everything in the store look fresher, brighter and more irresistible.

In partnership with Amerlux of Oakland, N.J., Cold Technology brought grocery lighting design to new heights of clarity, sophistication, efficiency and profitability. According to Don Knickerbocker, vice president of supermarket sales for Amerl

ux, to make floral, produce, butcher shop and end caps come alive they used Amerlux Contour track head systems for high-performance accent lighting. “Cylindrix IV (C4) punches through ambient light for extra brilliance in produce and end cap areas. The compact, powerful Hornet HP LED brings out the colors in seafood, while the Producer brings linear elegance to the bakery, butcher shop and cash wrap areas, notes

 Knickerbocker.

The result? Everyone involved in the project agrees that Wishing Well’s lighting transforms and redefines grocery shopping for a new generation, drawing customers in with amazing visual clarity, precision and mood setting. “Cold Technology’s expertise and Amerlux’s products represent a giant leap forward into the future for the Eickhoff Supermarkets and ShopRite brands,” says Knickerbocker.

It is always nice when the store’s owner agrees. “Wishing Well Plaza ShopRite in Burlington County marks a new era for Eickhoff Supermarkets,” says Geoffrey Eickhoff, vice president/operations and owner of Eickhoff Supermarkets. Calling it, “a new store, designed in a new way,” Eickhoff notes that the Wishing Well location was designed with experiential engineering in mind. “What shoppers will find here is a refined, cutting-edge approach to in-store lighting, architecture and store design,” says Eickhoff.

Commitment to Fresh
Project: Str

ack & Van Til, Schererville, Ind.
Design Team: Studio H2G, Birmingham, Mich.
Designer and fabricator: CIP Retail, Fairfield, Ohio
Strack & Van Til is a regional chain serving Northwest Indiana as well as the greater Chicago area. The 80-year-old company currently operates 38 stores under three banners: Strack and Van Til, Ultra Fresh Foods and Town & Country. Strack & Van Til has always been a leader in innovative store plans and interiors, say company officials, adding that they are known for outstanding merchandising, customer service and pleasing store environments.

With the Schererville store remodel, officials at Strack & Van Til requested a unique décor, utilizing a slightly whimsical approach that differed from nearby stores. Large, colorful elements were designed to create departmentalization around the store perimeter, resulting in a boutique effect. The 89,000-square-foot space (54,000 square-feet of sales area) was designed to create a fun shopping experience for the customer, a departure from the “normal” supermarket design.

The result of the $5 million renovation is a hip, contemporary look. The store now features a juice bar, massive bulk food section, more than 100 craft beers, boutique wines and a sweet shop. It even has a concierge available to coordinate catering orders. Hundreds of new healthy, organic and gluten-free items have been added as well. Shoppers were clamoring for more fresh offerings so the produce section is now about 30 percent bigger, in part to accommodate the expanded assortment of convenience grab-and-go options. It, along with the floral department, is now located at the front of the store and is the first thing customers see when they walk in.

Fresh is also now emphasized in the newly created foodie lovers area. The section features prepared meals, a wing bar, Texas-style BBQ, pizza and a sushi bar replete with its own chef. The store also has a coffee café featuring comfortable leather chairs.

As for the design, an upscale look was achieved by using large, bold stainless steel letters to mark departments. The interior walls feature a variety of fun quotes. “Believing that the customer should never be burdened searching for a particular item, we put great effort into way finding,” says Thomas Huff, CEO at CIP Retail. His firm and Studio H2G collaborated on the project.

As the fabricator, CIP R

etail’s involvement began with the goal of value-engineering the original design concept by H2G, with design revisions and additions that were directed by Russ Weber, director of design and construction for Strack & Van Til. “Through our collaboration and partnership with both H2G and Strack & Van Til, we were able to achieve the original design intent while significantly reducing the overall cost of the interior décor and signage package,” says Huff.

Jeff Strack, chief marketing officer at Strack & Van Til, says their goal with this remodel was simple—to change the way their customers shop. Above all, he says, they listened to what their customers want. Case in point—plans to remove a covered vestibule area to add floor space were changed after Strack and his team learned many customers relied on that area to drop off family members in bad weather.

“These busy families wanted us to still offer great value but also wanted interesting, convenient, healthy foods and I think we delivered on that,” says Strack. Going forward he says they will continue adjusting to consumers’ demands.