PG Store Design Spotlight: Freson Bros. Fresh Market

Honorable Mention, Best Overall Design (Under 50,000 Square Feet)

Freson Bros. Fresh Market

Owner: Freson Bros.

Neighborhood: Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada

Designer: Shook Kelley

PG’s Favorite Design Element: The store’s graphics and communications, which play a key role in communicating the brand, are organized through four levels of a communications hierarchy in the space. Each neighborhood of the store has a unique typeface, though the brand’s eclecticism is balanced with stylistic coherence. These graphic elements help tell the brand’s many stories. The meat department, for example, has a more Western-style font, while the lettering in produce signage evokes a rural feel.

Most Progressive Features

The store balances a number of format influences to appeal to today’s challenging shopper, including fresh produce, expanded restaurant-quality prepared foods and conventional supermarket features, as well as a few quirks. The design includes several distinct areas: Market Hall, a high-ceilinged entrance hall focused on the brand’s rural Alberta origins; the meat department, with a butcher shop, service counter and smoke house, with evocative imagery of an old fashioned butcher’s counter and a “Real Alberta Meat” stamp; The Kitchens, a prepared foods area evoking the feel of food stalls at a farmer’s market and small shops on an old street; Anderson Drug, a proprietary branded pharmacy and adjacent HBC shopping zone; The Root Cellar, a unique yet traditional produce subdepartment dedicated to root vegetables, with special lighting and cooler temperatures; and an open community dining room with long tables, booths, a fireplace and locally-crafted wooden tables.

Hot Trends

Textures and materials help communicate the Freson Bros brand. Bead-board panels cover many walls, creating a rustic and textured feel, tempered with a simple coat of paint that neatens the grain. Corrugated metal in the Market Hall and vestibule depict a farmhouse exterior, helping communicate farm-freshness and putting this giant space on a more human scale.