Designed to Shine
From Washington, D.C., to St. George, Utah, 14 exceptional food stores that have cut the ceremonial ribbon during the past year have been chosen as the winners of Progressive Grocer?s fifth annual Store Design Contest.
Poring through an impressive array of entries to arrive at a show-stopping collection of extraordinary supermarket design concepts, PG chose finalists from five budget categories ? two for new ground-up construction, as well as three for remodeling projects ranging from subtle to substantial ? providing store design teams the opportunity to be honored for outstanding achievements in innovation, functionality, ingenuity, inventiveness and overall vision.
Expanded photo galleries and video clips of PG?s 2014 Store Design Contest winners can be found online at Progressivegrocer.com/2014storedesign.
Best Overall Store Design (New Construction, 50,000-plus Square Feet)
Urban Redevelopment
Giant Food Store at City Market at O, Washington, D.C.
Design Firm: Shalom Baranes, Washington, D.C.
PG?s Favorite Design Element
A redevelopment of an older and smaller Giant, the radically reimagined 78,000-square-foot store is integrated into the historic O St. Market, which was built in 1881 as one of seven original markets in the District of Columbia. The store combines the charm of a 19th-century marketplace with 21st-century efficiency and innovation, with more than one-quarter of the store, including the produce section, residing under the historic market structure. As the cornerstone of a 1 million-square-foot project with 650 residential units (of which 90 are designated affordable), a 182-room Cambria Suites hotel, additional retail and 500 parking spaces, the state-of-the-art store is a central gathering place for the community.
Hot Trends
Incorporating the original window templates of the historic market on the east elevation, the roof of the historic market recalls the original structure and provides a sweeping vista down the store that imparts an open, airy environment. The east and west walls of the store also replicate the original design, while bricks from the original market were incorporated into the store interior. Light posts at the front end were custom-designed to mirror the vintage street lamps that surrounded the original market.
Most Progressive Features
Original brick masonry was used in the design of the exterior wall, along with reconstructed steel trusses and the original roof design, recreated from archival photos. A clear skylight above the original market area overlooks the current produce section, similar to the natural light of the original structure. Locating the back room underground to maximize floor merchandising ? a first for the Landover, Md.-based Ahold division ? played a critical role in the overall project design, whose main entrance features another first: a stainless-steel exterior sign conveying a sleek, contemporary feel.
PG?s Favorite Design Element
A top goal of the new store was to blend approachable destination departments with a manageable shopping experience in an otherwise imposing 104,000-square-foot floor plan. After posting record customer counts on grand-opening day and steady sales ever since, management has declared its mission accomplished. Indeed, while the basic décor consists of low-cost foam and lettering application, the destination departments take on their own distinct personalities, such as the bakery department, which is designed to look like a building that has been placed inside the warehouse-format store. With antique ecru faux-brick walls with an imitation large-profile wood exterior cap at the top, the vintage ?brick wall? is achieved by brick-textured dryvit, while the wood-look cap is actually painted foam flanked by hand-painted lettering.
Hot Trends
A stand-alone building effect is also found in the service meat department, which features a red-brick façade and a sculpted foam cap. The curved soffit with large-scale faux windows lends authenticity to the building idea. A custom mural was created in black and white, complete with butchers and meat-cutting images. The butcher shop artwork sets the stage for fresh meats to shine amid exciting color contrasts to the lack of color in the background mural, which was custom-created in small scale, and then photographed and blown onto tile in the larger scale depicted in the photo. The cutting-room window is accented by a large sculpted foam Angus steer and a hand-painted advertisement using a dry-brush method, and then slightly knocked back to create an aged look that says, ?Prime beef is sold here!?
Best Overall Store Design (New Construction, 50,000-plus Square Feet)
Community Gathering Spot
United Supermarkets LLC, Lubbock, Texas
Design Firm: United Supermarkets
PG?s Favorite Design Element
The outdoor area took advantage of an existing urban forest that was landscaped and transformed into a delightful community gathering spot with a playground that has become hugely popular with families. Moreover, the outdoor playground provides additional revenue for the store, whose talented team developed birthday party packages and other reservation opportunities for social gatherings and outdoor events. The area has opened up opportunities for new and unique partnerships with the community ? the store hosted a local event that attracted more than 100 business leaders for a networking opportunity and a chance to see the new location up close. The team is also working with a local university?s music department to produce events that would make the store an entertainment destination.
Most Progressive Features
Situated in the highly competitive Dallas-Fort Worth market, the 55,000-square-foot Market Street store in Flower Mound emphasizes fresh departments and healthy living/wellness to cater to the busy lifestyles demanded of the Metroplex consumer base. Along with a vast hot food offering, the store boasts a large, restaurant-like seating area with an indoor/outdoor café that can accommodate more than 250. The store?s meat department offers dry aged beef on site, as well as a wide array of fully marinated grilling and oven-ready options, among many unique offerings.
Hot Trends
The Libations bar, adjacent to the hot food area, has been extremely well received by guests, most of whom were at first pleasantly surprised by the opportunity to enjoy a glass of wine or a mug of beer at a local grocery store. The merchandising team?s intentional decision to place additional emphasis on healthy living has paid off handsomely; indeed, the store is seeing one-third of its grocery sales generated from the space, affirming the company?s merchandising strategies. Like the other Market Streets in the DFW Metroplex, this store is steadily carving a niche in a highly competitive area.
Best Overall Store Design (New Construction, 50,000-plus Square feet)
Replacement Store
Woods Market, Sunrise Beach, Mo.
Store Owners: Don and Joan Woods
Design Firm: Associated Wholesale Grocers (AWG) Design and Décor Source Group, Kansas City, Kan.
Most Progressive Features
Designed to be a premier grocery store catering to the west side of the Lake of the Ozarks, Don and Joan Woods? replacement store in Sunrise Beach, Mo., aimed to create an exciting destination store with a focus on great food for both year-round residents and seasonal tourists. Posting a comparable 43 percent sales increase, a 28 percent lift in customer count and an 11 percent gain in per-customer sales, the sleek concept store appears to have succeeded in its aim. Foremost to the design considerations was to establish a visually stimulating setting that played up variety while driving strong sales, all while imparting the carefree, fun feeling of lakeside living. Upon entering the store ? which also features a 10-pump fuel center designed to accommodate vehicles pulling RVs, boat trailers and campers ? shoppers encounter a stunning glass wine cooler placed front and center in the expansive liquor department, whose walls convey the feeling of a large, rambling cellar, the effect of which was created by a small-scale custom painting that was blown out larger on the wall covering.
PG?s Favorite Design Element
With a separate entrance enabling easy in/out access for those purchasing carryout or enjoying dine-in victuals, Woody?s Smoke House is a beacon for bar-none barbecue. The venue boasts a covered patio for outdoor dining and a menu featuring ribs, chicken, pulled pork, brisket, sausages, brats, and a medley of cold salads, slaws, baked beans and other side dishes.
Hot Trends
The deli department?s large, vivid colored circles create excitement and draw shoppers? eyes to the chef-prepared array of hot foods such as hand-breaded fried chicken, Chinese entrées and appetizers, take-and-bake and made-to-order pizzas, toasted sandwiches, ready-to-heat prepared meals, sushi, Italian cuisine, and a full salad and soup bar. Stainless steel enhances the aesthetics, while the product color variation in small scale comparatively creates the perfect stage for the prepared foods.
Best Store Design (New Construction, Under 50,000 Square Feet)
Fricks Market, Union, Mo.
Store Owners: Jennifer and Darren Newbanks
Design Firm: Cochran Engineering, Union, Mo.
Hot Trends
The exterior design incorporates earth tones to stand the test of time while adding accent colors on the windows, door canopies and roof of the two-story tower, which was designed as a signature element that?s readily visible not only from the adjacent highway intersection, but also from several miles away. As confirmation that its plans are working well, Fricks Market?s grand- opening day results on May 7, 2014, yielded record sales for the owners, whose savvy designers raised the ceiling above the sales floor to visually enhance the height of the 35,600-square-foot store.
PG?s Favorite Design Element
Hearty props go to the savvy owners of Fricks Market, Jennifer and Darren Newbanks, for insisting that their new store feature a drive-through lane for hot foods. Located off the kitchen prep area and placed directly in the entrance lane for customers as they enter the parking lot and approach the front of the store, the drive-through window employs digital menu boards that switch among breakfast, lunch and dinner at designated times. Now that?s what we call progressive!
Most Progressive Features
Controlling state-of-the-art equipment throughout the store?s key departments, Fricks? software has the capability to update the menu with specials or promotions in real time. Meanwhile, the store?s interior design pays homage to the surrounding rural community, with special touches to complement each department. By purchasing from a nearby farm a barn that was being torn down, the store has given each department a different ?storefront? with various elements of the former structure, including siding, hand-hewn beams, metal and tin. Other recycled items incorporated into the design can be found in the interior windows and doors in the second-level office space.
Best Store Design (New Construction, Under 50,000 Square Feet)
Community Charm
Phelps Market, Mannford, Okla.
Store Owner: Susan McClure
Design Firm: Associated Wholesale Grocers (AWG) Design and Décor Source Group, Kansas City, Kan.
PG?s Favorite Design Element
Determining how to departmentalize the various store departments was a major challenge that was surmounted through the use of exposed ceilings and interior walls strategically placed in each destination. The combination of metals along the produce wall makes the department pop with color in a pattern replicating the natural hues of fruits and vegetables. Since its grand opening in May 2014, Phelps Market?s performance has exceeded projections by 10 percent. This unique neighborhood gem has become highly popular with local residents, who feel a strong connection with their cozy new hometown market.
Hot Trends
The deli and bakery departments have continued the use of weathered cedar wood and metal hinges, as well as colored metals. Because of weight restrictions, the design team used a plastic material resembling metal, which imparts all of the unique beauties that different metals have to offer. Fashioned from copper, bronze, aluminum and patina, the deli?s decorative fixtures give rise to a warm ambiance, while contrasting wood tile adds additional cachet. The service deli area features wood-plank wall tile with alternating colors of light and dark to create movement and action.
Most Progressive Features
The unique selection of materials in store owner Susan McClure?s Phelps Market caps its design success, which has since been embraced by a lakeside community that no longer needs a new place to buy groceries. The all-important customer service area, which features stacked stone to reflect the natural beauty of the surroundings, includes a 25-foot sign made of painted cedar to replicate weathered wood. Hanging from the cedar plank is natural plywood with the grain running horizontally to create a contrast to the modern black lettering on top. The plywood is attached the cedar plank by black metal hinges with metal bolts, giving the space an earthy, rustic feel. A bold red background further enhances the richness of the space.
Best Store Design (New Construction, Under 50,000 Square Feet)
Best New Concept Design
Fresh Thyme Farmers Market, Mount Prospect, Ill.
Design Firm: api(+), Tampa, Fla.
Hot Trends
Upon exiting, customers are reminded of Fresh Thyme?s ?Healthy Foods, Healthy Values? mission by way of an overhead dimensional silhouetted rural farm scene. Saturated in both color and texture, the location aims to provide Midwesterners with a year-round farmers?-market shopping experience, where an extensive fresh produce department is uniquely positioned near the center of the store
PG?s Favorite Design Element
Throughout the store, shoppers experience unique features such as milk can vessels repurposed into signage holders, as well as an array of cut-metal farm icons set atop in-aisle navigational street signs. Both familiar and approachable, the overall design has a nostalgic flair that?s most identifiable in the dairy department, which features illuminated category blade discs modeled after glass-bottle milk caps from the 1960s. In the adjacent frozen food department, the nostalgic theme continues with dimensional ice-cube letter forms set atop a backdrop of textured vintage brick paneling.
Most Progressive Features
Planned with efficiency and convenience in mind, the new Fresh Thyme Farmers Market ? which focuses on fresh, healthy, natural and organic offerings and is the first of a potential 60 stores slated to open by 2019 ? provides an easy-to-navigate format with low-profile fixtures abundant in merchandise. Setting out to provide an environment touting the quality and value of a farmers?-market food experience, the location invites shoppers to embrace the vibe through finishes like corrugated metal paneling, rough-sawn cedar planking, reclaimed barn siding and a dismantled snow fence rescued from along the Wyoming interstate system. Branded messages and department offerings are printed directly onto these signature materials for a fully integrated brand experience unique to Fresh Thyme Farmers Market.
Best Store Design (New Construction, Under 50,000 Square Feet)
International Concept Store
Woolworths Waterstone, Somerset West, South Africa
Designer Firm: Woolworths Store Design, Cape Town, South Africa
PG?s Favorite Design Element
Seeking to expand its deliberately tight and efficient store formats to a more spacious and inviting footprint, Woolworths set out to become a destination food store with the mind of a conventional supermarket and the soul of a gourmet deli market. The goal was accomplished through aisles that are generously spaced, especially in high-traffic categories; layouts that are simple to understand and logical to follow; and sensible category positioning that encourages shopping. Fixtures and equipment were deliberately minimized to allow the food and goods to be centers of attention, while the lighting treatments impart a warm, unobtrusive feel, with ?task lighting? directing particular attention to produce, floral and bakery. Imaginative use of shapes and spaces to establish ?shops? creates more frequent interruptions in the regular traffic flow throughout the store, which highlights food tastings and product demonstrations.
Most Progressive Features
Specialist-serviced departments are prioritized with high energy and personalized customer care. Information about food, wine and meal preparation is abundant in printed form, as well as through well-trained staff. High-visibility directional and informative signage not only helps shoppers navigate the store efficiently, but also communicates strong brand messages. The store additionally boasts a visual staff specialist, who continually ensures the store remains visually appealing at all times to inject more fun, interest and excitement into the shopping experience.
Hot Trends
Theater with an artisanal touch plays a lead role in the store, which features shops within shops, including sushi counters, on-site butchers, fishmongers, and demonstration areas and promotional zones within the larger food market environment. The store encourages customers to explore and discover its larger footprint via a schematic that aims to surprise and delight with opportunities to cross-shop departments through eye-catching table displays and storytelling. The W cafe also uses unique materials and finishes, both of which are key to imparting a positive, enjoyable and memorable experience.
Best Remodel (Over $6 Million)
Queen?s Price Chopper, Stanley, Kan.
Store Owner: Barry Queen
Design Firm: Associated Wholesale Grocers (AWG) Design and Decor Source Group, Kansas City, Kan.
Most Progressive Features
The remodel/expansion project at Price Chopper in Stanley, Kan., added 24,000 square feet to the building, for a total of 85,296 square feet. Aiming to celebrate the Queen family?s strong connection to the Kansas City area and expertise in meat, the fresh meat department was designed with real brick and three-dimensional molding to re-create the well-known Kansas City Live Stock Exchange. Hand-painted lettering was used on the brick. The authenticity of the building was completed with a reproduction reflective outdoor Stockyards District sign. Directly across from the meat department is Big Jim?s Smokehouse, which sells fresh smoked meats, sauces and seasonings. A real brick smokestack houses the smoker, where award-winning meats are made, while the curved soffits and round walls in smoked brick pay homage to the art of smoking meat.
PG?s Favorite Design Element
The 37-foot opening on the back wall of the produce department places the Conscious Living Marketplace center stage among the fruits and vegetables. Housing a vast array of health-focused and organic products, the destination department features layered wood-look circular ceilings over the product, mirroring the wood circular shapes in the floor and framing the product in dramatic style. The darker colors and lower general lighting levels allow the 220 foot-candles of LED lighting to shine ? literally ? while baffled heads and high-CRI (color-rendering diodes) track lighting on curved custom holders complete the look.
Hot Trends
The store?s Asian Grill gives customers a chance to create their own stir-fry combinations, or select from traditional Asian fare, including sushi. Similarly, the deli features cook-to-order options, including an Eat-at Grill area where customers can watch their food being made. The stunning multilevel, stainless-steel wrapped soffits make customers feel like part of the action. A colorful tile mural on the back wall of the deli helps to draw shoppers? attention to the many food options. Digital monitors play up the high-tech/high-touch features, while all stainless-steel equipment and cases enhance the ?wow? factor of the destination departments and add an upscale sparkle to the overall feel.
Best Remodel ($3 Million to $6 Million)
Elegant Overhaul
Price Chopper, Lee?s Summit, Mo.
Store Owner: Cosentino Enterprises, Victor Consentino
Design Firm: MM, Leawood, Kan.
PG?s Favorite Design Element
To create a clean, simplified store with wider aisles and more selection, an air of comfortable elegance was created through understated colors, subtle décor and signage, and placid base wall colors that naturally work to give the individual departments a bright and airy flair. Among the store?s many eye-catching attributes is a gorgeous vineyard mural, which was created to emphasize the expansive wine shop featuring a selection of more than 500 varieties, making it one of the largest wine departments in a Missouri supermarket.
Most Progressive Features
The driving inspiration behind the elegant décor is to provide shoppers with visual cues from different parts of the store, conveyed through words and icons in tone-on-tone cut vinyl for departments like bakery and meat, which feature aluminum-faced letters with specific department identities, resulting in striking and visually appealing presentations of information throughout the store. Customers have responded warmly to the new environment, which has helped the Cosentinos meet and exceed their original store design objectives.
Hot Trends
After acquiring an additional 9,000 square feet of space next to their Lakewood, Mo., Price Chopper, the Cosentino family set out to fulfill their vision of expanding the store?s perishable and frozen departments to better meet the needs of its upscale surrounding community. Among the store?s unique features are hand-blown glass pendants and hand-drawn murals by a local artist, which adorn the floral and produce departments. Acrylic second-surface panels were used in the produce area for an understated ?Welcome to our Garden? wall greeting. Well-crafted art was also chosen for specific vegetable elements on the opposing wall, with layered and stand-off panels for a sophisticated aesthetic.
Best Remodel ($3 Million to $6 Million)
Extreme Makeover
Metcalfe?s Market, West Towne, Madison, Wis.
Store Owners: Tim Metcalfe/Kevin Metcalfe
Design Firms: Mehmert Store Services, Sussex, Wis., and Studio H2G Retail Strategy & Design, Birmingham, Mich.
Hot Trends
A sweeping produce department, stocked farmers?-market style in low-profile cases, is both eye-catching and utilitarian. Bold, vibrant hues prove enticing to shoppers, while modern, floating décor elements juxtapose the historical images proudly displayed across the walls. The newly introduced, well-stocked organic and bulk food department is sure to attract both the health- and budget-conscious, and shelves stocked with dry grocery wares, dairy, frozen foods, and liquor, alongside a vibrant floral department, round out the store.
PG?s Favorite Design Element
A former Cub Foods store proved to be an ideal springboard for owners Tim and Kevin Metcalfe to take their newly remodeled Metcalfe?s Market in a whole new direction. After reorganizing, remerchandising and rebranding the former box into a stunning concept showplace, the Metcalfes chose unique design elements to showcase quality service and delicious food, the tone for which is set by a dynamic full-service food bar filled to the brim with prepared foods, seafood and meat. Just steps away, a twin display flaunts full-service deli and bakery with a focus on fresh, local, baked-in-store goods. The entirety of the store revolves around this island, a conscious design consideration that places service at the center of the operation, both literally and figuratively.
Most Progressive Features
A warm and welcoming vibe is firmly established for customers in the contemporary, cozy and expansive café, where the aromas of roasting coffee and sweet cinnamon rolls abound. Both the design and décor create a bold, modern feel that contrasts with the warm, natural materials, establishing the perfect balance between innovations and treasured heritages in a mix of daring greens and classic neutrals. The café/lounge, designed for relaxation and casual conversation, is both functional and beautiful as progressive supermarket planning and brilliant décor design merge to create an exceptional ambiance. While the full-service stations most definitely steal the show, the circling departments deserve their own spotlight as well.
Best Remodel ($3 Million to $6 Million)
Alternate Format
Walker Drug, Moab, Utah
Design Firm: Decorworx, Cedar City, Utah
PG?s Favorite Design Element
The grocery addition has brought in travelers for more than trinkets and medication ? they?re coming to refuel for their excursions. The restroom area draws special attention from guests. Kids can measure themselves against the Indian petroglyphs painted on the walls. Eye-level décor provides a fun, casual atmosphere at destination points around the store, such as the oversized biker near the filtered water fountain. A large way-finding sign made of wood hangs at the entrance, directing guests to their favorite departments.
Most Progressive Features
Despite the store?s presence in Moab, Utah ? home of Arches National Park ? for nearly 60 years, Walker Drug owner Jack Walker knew that his pharmacy needed more than just a simple shot to keep sales from eroding; rather, full surgery was necessary. To that end, a major remodel over the course of a year dramatically improved the image ? and bottom line ? of the venerable store, which underwent a 10,000-square-foot expansion and has seen a subsequent 32 percent sales lift since its grand reopening. A new sense of pride has grown following the store?s transformation, which introduced grocery, a candy shop, and an expanded health and beauty section. A new entry and front façade gave the tired building exterior a much-needed facelift, while a new interior décor package, shelving and merchandising improved convenience and traffic flow for tourists and locals alike.
Hot Trends
The revamped store vividly plays up Moab?s world-renowned mountain-biking paths, Anasazi cliff dwellings and off-road Jeep tours, depictions of which are prominently featured at the entrance to the store, whose décor showcases petroglyphs with copper fronts placed out from the walls, creating a strong contrast with the location?s bright colors and lettering. Locators with Kokopelli-style accents adorn every aisle, while new wood-laminate flooring creates consistency and resembles the sandy earth of Moab. Local photos of the area hang at checkout, leaving shoppers with a sense of the natural beauty of the area.
Best Remodel (Under $3 Million)
Warehouse Format
Ultra Foods, Prospect Heights, Ill.
Design Firm: api(+), Tampa, Fla.
Most Progressive Features
Strack & Van Til recognized an opportunity for improvement with a new branding, interior environment, merchandising and exterior façade design for its Ultra Foods warehouse format stores, the first of which debuted in January 2014. Profiled as PG?s May Store of the Month, the Prospect Heights store was inspired by and emphasizes Ultra Foods? core qualities: ultra low prices, ultra selection, ultra quality and ultra fresh. 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 enhanced lighting.
PG?s Favorite Design Element
To communicate Ultra?s strong fresh presentation, views into the department were opened from most of the other departments, while LED lighting imparts a sleek, vibrant aura. Meanwhile, the branded Ultra ?U? is incorporated in a friendly font throughout the store to communicate that the store is about ?U? (?You?), the customer. For example, signage in the seafood and produce departments reads ?freshly caught for U? and ?so fresh U can taste the difference.?
Hot Trends
Among the more challenging aspects of the radically remodeled store was to drastically freshen and improve it without creating a more expensive perception at the potential risk of alienating price-focused shoppers. The design team handily succeeded by creating a fun shopping experience through the use of supersized signage, with bold, colorful and energetic graphics that proudly set forth the Ultra low-price brand promise. Moreover, the large-scale bold graphics balance the tall and potentially overwhelming warehouse shelving by drawing attention away from them and providing a comfortable sense of proportion.
Best Remodel (Under $3 Million)
Rebranded Corporate Store
Lin?s Market, St. George, Utah
Store Owner: Associated Foods
Design Firm: Decorworx, Cedar City, Utah
PG?s Favorite Design Element
Associated Foods? corporate Lin?s store, in St. George, Utah, sought to radically update its interior décor for the growing surrounding community via a major rebranding effort that focused on raising awareness of the location?s quality products and services. After expanding a portion of the store and raising the valances in the new section, Associated selected color palettes for the store ? situated at the gateway to Zion National Park, as well as the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, and close to Bryce Canyon and Cedar Breaks ? to highlight the rich earth tones found in the area?s adjacent red-rock mountains.
Most Progressive Features
Lin?s point of differentiation is its fresh produce and meat departments. Special emphasis is placed on the produce department by distinctive hanging signs over the triple-decker sections, highlighting freshness, quality and variety. Meanwhile, the custom trellis in the meat department communicates warmth and stability.
Hot Trends
A unique approach was used on the new valances, on which images in four departments are created with a Gobo projection system. The images can be modified and enhanced as frequently as the store team desires, to communicate the most important messages to reinforce with shoppers. The rebranded Lin?s has proved a trifecta win for Associated, store associates and the community, prompting an effort to renovate the other Lin?s stores throughout Utah.