-By Michelle Moran

One of my favorite parts of my job is retail visits across the country. This summer, we took the family on the road for a quick trip from Georgia to Pennsylvania, visiting a range of formats — from the cooperative style of Weaver Street Market in Carrboro, N.C., to the new Fresh Grocer opening in northwest Philadelphia. Along the way, we took quick side trips to A Southern Season in Chapel Hill, N.C.; McCaffrey's in Princeton, N.J.; and Wegmans in Mt. Laurel, N.J.
These visits provide firsthand insight into innovation at the store level. As fate would have it, the day we visited The Fresh Grocer was the ribbon-cutting on its first eco-friendly store near La Salle University. It's the eighth store opening for the Drexel Hill, Pa.-based chain since it began in 1996.

Palpable Excitement

The La Salle store's environmentally friendly construction was designed to minimize energy consumption and helps reduce the store's carbon footprint. Covering the entire 50,000-square-foot supermarket, the store's white roof reduces the heat gain on the building as well as the immediate surrounding area. The roof decreases the need for air conditioning and lowers the "heat island" effect, which can cause higher outdoor temperatures in urban areas.

The store also features a state-of-the-art refrigeration system designed to reduce energy consumption by 40 percent compared with present-day refrigeration system designs. Additionally, an energy management system monitors power consumption and automatically adjusts systems to minimize energy consumption based on daylight, temperature and shopping traffic. With this customized energy management system, the location will reduce its energy consumption by 35 percent. In addition, carbon dioxide sensors help to minimize the amount of outside air brought into the store while keeping fresh air at adequate levels. LED signs will save the energy demand of two small residential homes. As a final nod to sustainability, all waste generated during construction was recycled.

And, even more noteworthy in these trying times, the new 50,000-square-foot supermarket brought 265 new jobs to the neighborhood — 98 percent of new employees live in the city of Philadelphia and 46 percent live in the store's surrounding community.

It had been 40 years since the community, which the neighbors call Somerville, has had a supermarket. The nearest one is eight blocks away, far for those without cars. The grocery store anchors the Shoppes at La Salle, a $15 million retail center built by Moreland Development on La Salle University's former athletic field.

It was great to experience firsthand the excitement of neighbors, politicians and employees at the event. The palpable enthusiasm is just more evidence of what this industry brings to the communities it serves. I stopped to chat with store employee Wanda Williams, who was  excited about and grateful for her new position at the store. Stories like these are important, especially considering that Pennsylvania continues to rank as one of the highest in the country for initial claims for unemployment.

"We already achieved our goals getting this store open and creating more than 260 new jobs in this region," Grant McLoughlin, VP of The Fresh Grocer, explained. "These are 260 jobs that did not exist, in an area hit hard by the economic downturn. We're swimming upstream, and building business and opportunities. Now, our goal is to be a successful business that contributes to the neighborhood."

Congratulations to McLoughlin and his team — and for their next opening in another urban Philadelphia location at Progress Plaza: a 46,000-square-foot store expected to be completed by the end of the year.

You can read more about our editors’ store visits — including other portions of this journey — along with industry insights in our blog at www.AisleChatter.com.