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Workers in the bakery are visible behind glass at bfresh, and raw materials like sacks of flour are in plain sight.
Menus posted on video boards display daily selections of fresh prepared foods at The Little Kitchen at bfresh.
A look between the frozen foods and meat and fish counters at bfresh reveals a cool and modern look for the new store.
Product tags at bfresh speak to “food-interested, urban value-hunters,” according to Saskia de Jongh of Ahold.
A window provides passersby with a look at the fresh food preparation that customers inside the store also get.
Scandinavian design is “timeless and constantly up to date,” according to Blink founder and managing partner Richard Kylberg.
A board combining handwritten messages and artwork “cut-and-pasted” create a unique look for the seafood department.
The Scandinavian design agency behind Ahold’s new bfresh concept said its environment is guided by the principle that “food has become the new fashion and is part of urban culture.”
Blink, the agency based in Stockholm, provided brand strategy, architecture, merchandising, visual identity, packaging design and communication in physical and digital channels. According to Saskia de Jongh, head of Ahold’s Fresh Formats LLC, Blink was invited to pitch with four American designers and one British agency, and was selected because “their idea was the most commercially viable and in our opinion something brand new for the U.S. market.”
According to Richard Kylberg, founder and managing partner of Blink, the ambience at bfresh “adapts to urban rhythms and changes slightly according to the time of the day. Mornings is daylight and breakfast mood, while evenings has a more club-like atmosphere with pumping house music and dimmed down lights.”
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