Specialty food retailer Oil & Vinegar, Oosterhout, the Netherlands, wanted its U.S. debut to carve out a distinctive niche in the American marketplace, clearly delineating it from its big-box and other grocery competition.

"In its roughly then-60 stores across Europe, the chain had a strong retail concept, but never a specific overall prototype that they had put together to uniquely identify them," says Dawn Clark, principal at Seattle-based Callison, the design firm that worked on the project. "A lot of the European stores featured site-specific design, and the retailer had been told that coming to the United States, it would be important to have a stronger, identifiable concept. People would be seeing it in a lot of different locations and needed to be able to identify it consistently."

The retailer's 2,000-sq.-ft. Dallas store, the first prototype store to open, distills the brand into its most unique characteristics and creates not just a retail space, but a true retail experience.

The experience is founded on the idea of an exploratory, interactive environment. "We merchandise our stores like fashion stores, not like food stores. We want people to have the same experience that they have in a fashion store—the experience of wonder, excitement and discovery," says John Blogg, founder and president of Oil & Vinegar.

He likens the Oil & Vinegar shopping experience to that of a customer buying pants in an apparel store. "The shoppers know approximately what they want, such as a pair of pants, but they arrive not knowing the specifics, such as exactly which pair of pants. It is the same idea for Oil & Vinegar shoppers. We do not want them to enter with a prefixed idea, such as Dijon mustard. Rather, we will ask them 'What do you want to do with the mustard? How will you use it?' We want them to explore the offering." O

ne way the store accomplishes this is through its free product samples. Clark says, "The concept is all about tasting, so there are usually about 30 different tasting events happening in the store at any given moment. This is also about the authenticity of the product."

The merchandise groupings also add to the exploratory setting. "We don't like to group our merchandise by product. We don't think the layout should be 'here are the mustards' or 'here are the oils.' We feel the products should be grouped in 'worlds of uses,'" Blogg says. "And, because we have sampling in all our stores, we will guide them through those worlds of tasting."

A stunning "amphora" wall at the back of the store also serves as a guide through the space, drawing people toward the rear. The large, curvy, blown-glass amphoras, referring to the jars used by ancient Romans to hold oil, hang from brackets on the wall and allow employees to ladle loose oils for customers.

The previous amphora configuration had the beautiful glass containers hidden from view and without illumination, Clark says. "We wanted to play it up. The beauty of the product is how it looks with sunlight behind it." Since sunlight would degrade the product, the design team opted for fluorescent lighting shining through a milky white glass. "It highlights the beauty of the product and how it's dispensed," Clark says.

The new amphora wall has made such an impact on sales that Blogg says the company is in the process of upgrading the amphora displays in its European stores. "It increased our sales of loose product by about 35 to 40 percent. It lets the loose oils become a feature, rather than just another item in the store," he says.

The sales increase was determined, he says, by comparing the percentage of sales in U.S. stores to sales in European stores of the same size. He says all goods were selling at roughly the same percentages in both countries, except for sales of loose oil and vinegars, which were selling significantly more in the U.S. stores. "The presentation is just so strong in the American stores," Blogg says.

The new prototype design also adjusts the lighting in the space. "The previous lighting was color correct, but it was heavy and overdone," Clark says. "We used smaller fixtures that create as much or more light, so it doesn't feel heavy." The prototype uses a mix of halogen, which is what gives it color correctness, and some incandescent lighting.

Throughout the visual merchandising and materials selection for the store, the design team ensured that the overall design did not feel overdone. "The design of the store needed to be 'perfectly imperfect,'" Blogg says, using the term he coined for the store's desired look and feel. Clark explains how this phrase was interpreted: "If things are too perfect or too designed they don't have a very authentic quality. The 'imperfections' in the product are actually what give them their unique character. The materials in the design needed to reflect that."

Flooring in the store reflects the perfectly imperfect theme. "It is a concrete floor that underwent a multi-layered process of distressing to give it more of a rustic feel," Clark says. "It gives the floor a textural, imperfect quality." The tumbled tile used at the entry is intended to create a mosaic, garden-like effect. "It has an outdoor garden feel, which pulls in the feeling of the outdoors, where the products are originally grown," Clark says.

The fixtures are also genuine and simple. They are made primarily of simple woods and metals, with some cast lightweight concrete elements. Most merchandise is displayed on warm walnut wood fixturing, because it emphasizes the merchandise better than the pine fixturing previously used by the retailer, Clark says.

The color palette focuses mainly on warm earth tones, which also harkens to the natural environment from which the products originated. The rustic red the retailer had been using was brightened in the prototype, and the textured yellow was deepened. A large eye-catching graphic behind the cashwrap is essentially a mural pulled from the retailer's imagery in its marketing and advertising campaigns.

Now that Oil & Vinegar has carved its niche, it has aggressive plans to fill it with more stores. By the end of 2005, the retailer will have 12 stores in the United States. Oil & Vinegar also intends to open about 350 more stores in the next three to four years. "We're getting a large momentum going from people seeing the stores and saying the concept would work in their area," Blogg says. The retailer will be rolling the stores out primarily in lifestyle-focused centers, veering away from the big-box centers from which the chain is trying to separate itself.

Photo by: Chris Eden, Seattle