Dream store design

With the help of design teams, grocers can reinvent their look and save on energy costs without breaking the bank. Followers of feng shui believe that by balancing the energies of a space it will assure the good health and fortune of the people inhabiting it. If only designing a 50,000-square-foot-store was that simple. As any grocer that has been through a remodel can attest, a lot more goes into the end result than meets the eye. From selecting a design firm and negotiating with landlords to choosing materials and dealing with all the surprises that come up, living through a remodel can be a challenge. Many retailers can attest, surviving in today’s retail climate means redesigns are no longer a matter of “want to do” but “need to do.” Industry observers say today’s retailers must create a unique brand environment that offers an experiential event for their customers. The choices for accomplishing this, however, are endless and understanding the pros and cons that go along with those options, even more so. “Customers want to feel as though they are part of the farm-to-table experience and want more of a connection to their food and where it comes from,” says Amelia Baxter, co-founder and president of Whole Trees Architecture & Structures based in Madison, Wis. Whole Trees uses tree trunks and unwanted branched timbers that would otherwise be removed from routine forest thinning to create structural solutions. “Using trees is a cost-effective, extremely green alternative to steel that helps retailers create a unique experience,” says Baxter. The company’s first roll out will be with Festival Foods in Madison. This store is slated to be completed by the spring of 2015 and will be operating in a competitive, upper-income market against niche retailers including co-ops and Trader Joes. “As their first time in this market, Festival Foods wants to be perceived as both green and be known for offering an experience that is worth coming back to,” says Baxter. However, incorporating sustainable or reclaimed materials can sometimes cost more than traditional choices. This can make balancing the need to create a unique space with bottom line accountability a trial. Other challenges, notes Baxter, include educating retailers on the benefits of using trees. Some retailers, she says, are concerned that using trees could impact shelving or aisle flow and that columns made with trees could take up more floor space than steel. “Our trees allow for the same layout as would be used with traditional materials, require the same floor space and when properly dried and handled are extremely durable and safe to use in a grocery environment,” she says. Remodeling a store can be both overwhelming and a strain on the budget. Huntley, Mullaney, Spargo and Sullivan, based in Roseville, Calif., specializes in working with retailers looking to embark on a remodel in order to improve profitability and stay competitive. Every retailer from regional grocers to the larger chains, says Mark Richardson, a principal with Huntley, Mullaney, Spargo and Sullivan, has been under pressure to upgrade their stores to ensure they retain customer traffic. “As the competitive landscape has increased many of the older store formats are seeing reduced customer counts. A store remodel can do a lot to reverse this,” says Richardson. At the same time, he adds, there are more neighborhood-style stores being built using a smaller footprint. “With this comes an intense pressure to do more with less floor space,” he says. With a starting point of $5 million per remodel, increasingly retailers moving into an existing space are asking landlords to contribute an appreciable amount of capital to help offset costs. “In this downturn market landlords want full occupancy. This means retailers moving into a new space that bring with them enough clout can negotiate a shared cost situation with a remodel,” says Richardson, noting it is possible to structure a deal in which a landlord contributes $30 to $40-per-square-foot toward the remodel. “With a 50,000-square-foot-space that’s $1.5 million of savings for the retailer,” he says. Contemporary meets natural Project: Central Market, Detroit Lakes, Minn. Design Team: D|Fab, Madison Heights, Mich. When Grand Central wanted to embark on a complete remodel for its Central Market store in Detroit Lakes, Minn., it called on D|Fab to develop a store design. Grand Central officials wanted the new look to embody the surrounding community of natural beauty and lake recreation into the shopping and organic selection, prepared foods and professional, full-service flower shop. Other areas of focus included the bakery, to celebrate its talented cake decorators, and the newly expanded service meat department. The existing 68,000-square-foot-store had the additional challenge of very high open joist ceilings and mismatched branding messages. After much consideration, the decision was made to retain the essence of the previous Central Market store design; one that had resonated remarkably well with customers, as it was believed it would build brand continuity between stores. “We approached the store design by pairing a contemporary style with familiar and natural textures,” says Nadine Geering, creative and marketing director for D|Fab. The intent, she adds, was to position Central Market as a forward-thinking retailer and help it connect with customers on an emotional level. Geering says the store interior was enveloped in a rich, earthy color palette with field scenes dramatically stenciled around the perimeter of the store. A simplified wave graphic became the pivotal, uniting image throughout the store to reflect the lake community. “The county has 225 lakes. We wanted to feature that and give the store an organic feel,” says John Lofberg, vice president of Grand Central. Perimeter walls remained free of way-finding copy and instead featured large food graphics and eye level, fixture-mounted signage to provide simple navigation throughout the store. A uniquely patterned butcher block graphic was used at an exaggerated scale, lending textural interest and adding a kitchen-warmed feel to the space. The café became an intimate setting for customers to relax and eat a fresh prepared meal or enjoy a cup of coffee with the addition of custom floating ceiling planes with integral drum lights developed by D|Fab. Brushed silver accents were used to emphasize service departments including perforated metal canopies. Smaller coordinating category signage was used to draw focus to the specialty island cases in the fresh-service corridor. “We have seen significant increases in sales throughout the store,” says Lofberg. He is especially proud of the success of their expanded service meat department. “We went from 16 feet of service cases to 40 feet and customers are responding very favorably,” he says. Now, the service meat department boldly juts out from the perimeter with sleek new cases and features a wood-look wall covering and upward-tilting metal canopies, maximizing the impact of this new department. The natural and organic department is emphasized with a large overhead oval ring and a tree stencil pattern on the adjoining wall. The extensive, professional floral department also received special treatment with bold, multi-colored wall stenciling and a canopy over the entrance. “We needed to go big and bold with the store interior to give it warmth and human-scale comfort that was lacking in the store before,” says Geering, adding that the end result is an enveloping, welcoming store that highlights Central Market’s special amenities, professional services and associates and truly embraces the community. Brand refresh Project: Ultra Foods, Prospect Heights, Ill. Design Team: api( ), Tampa, Fla. Ultra Foods, a full-service, warehouse-style grocery and fresh food store with 16 locations throughout the Midwest, has a fresh new look. Strack & Van Til, the chain’s parent company, partnered with api( ) for branding, interior environment, merchandising, communications and exterior facade design services. According to company officials, the new environment emphasizes Ultra Foods’ core qualities: Ultra low prices, Ultra selection, Ultra quality and Ultra fresh. As of this fall, the new look has been rolled out in half of Ultra’s stores. Why the redesign? Officials say that Ultra Foods stands out for its variety of merchandise at low prices, but its existing stores were not communicating this message well. All that has changed. An abundant prepared foods department, café with mezzanine for dining, impressive organic foods selection, large assortment of international foods and a high-quality produce department make this warehouse grocery store strikingly different from its competitors. The new design’s bright, energetic and refreshing warehouse atmosphere highlights these key points of difference via bold colors, a distinctive tone of voice and elevated lighting. To communicate Ultra’s exceptional fresh offering, views into the department were opened from most other departments and LED lighting was incorporated to showcase and enhance the fresh offering. “Our most difficult challenge was to drastically freshen and improve the store without creating a more expensive perception and risk alienating their price-focused shoppers,” says John Scheffel, senior branded environments designer for api( ). “We succeeded by creating a fun shopping experience through the use of super-sized signage with bold, colorful and vibrant graphics that proudly shout the Ultra low-price brand promise.” The branded Ultra ‘U’ is incorporated in a friendly font throughout the store to communicate that the store is about ‘U’—the customer. For David Wilkinson, president of Strack & Van Til, key goals of the refresh were to create fully branded environments that emphasize Ultra Foods’ core qualities and differentiation. “The new look unifies and emphasizes our brand and our points of difference, which keeps our customers coming back,” says Wilkinson. “The interior architecture and signage have taken on a cohesive low-price message and has been effective in drawing shoppers’ attention to merchandise our competitors don’t offer.” Good neighbor vibe Project: Tops Friendly Markets, Buffalo, N.Y. Design Team: CIP Retail, Fairfield, Ohio Tops Friendly Markets, a full-service grocery retailer operating in upstate New York, northern Pennsylvania and western Vermont, recently completed a major renovation in its Amherst St. store in the Buffalo area. Combining the efforts of Tops Markets’ in-house construction team and CIP Retail, the newly redesigned 81,589-square-foot store now resembles the look and feel of a traditional marketplace. This is most reflected in the updated signage, décor, fixtures, flooring and lighting. For example, prior to the renovation 32-watt, T-8 bulbs lit the entire store. Today, LED lighting is used in its place. “The produce department’s lighting dramatically changed after LED track lighting was introduced,” says Chris Watson, Tops Markets’ director of construction. Signs hanging above the produce department are now lit by LED screens as well and tell the story of local growers that Tops partners with, highlighting a strong commitment to these local partnerships. Low hanging ceiling structures were removed from the frozen and produce departments to create a more open, cleaner feel. “The produce wall décor is understated, yet emphasizes freshness, quality and variety,” says Craig Huff, vice president of sales for CIP Retail, noting that woven baskets and wooden barrels were added to give an authentic display for unique and tropical produce items. In the Tops’ Carry Out Café, a new seating area was added, complete with wooden chairs and tables, as well as WiFi so that customers can relax and enjoy a freshly prepared meal. The Tops Brew Market features wooden flooring and digitally printed vinyl wallpaper with images of wheat and barley to convey the feel of a local craft brew shop. To serve the needs of the vibrant community Tops created a larger, more prominent Hispanic foods section, which now sits in an alcove where the seafood department once was. The seafood and meat department were combined to give a more traditional, full-service marketplace feel, making shopping easier and more convenient. Enhancements to the Natural and Organic Shoppe include the addition of a large hanging trellis to attract customers to the department and the use of wooden framed, earth-tone shelving to accommodate an expanded product selection while creating a more wholesome look and feel. “The transformation of décor throughout the store is designed to brand each department as its own, giving customers the feel of separate markets within one store,” says Huff. John Persons, senior vice president of operations for Tops Markets, says as each department remodel was complete, sales for that department increased almost immediately. In addition to improved sales, Persons says the store has seen increased foot traffic and new customers have started shopping there as well.