Theory of evolution

Forget all concepts of grocery design. Forget costs. Focus on interest and intrigue. Focus on angles—lots of angles. These were the initial instructions given to a designer from King Retail Solutions by Carey Henning, who, with his father, Bob, co-owns Henning's Market in Harleysville, Pa.

The store, which has been in the family since 1889, was moving to a new location within a shopping center owned by other members of the Henning family. The lot was formerly occupied by a Jamesway store, but became vacant when Jamesway went bankrupt in 1995.

Then things began getting competitive in the area. In 1996 a Wal-Mart opened about a mile and a half down the road. "To stay in this business, we needed to have a more competitive store," Carey Henning says. "My perishables space was really cramped, and I needed more back-room space."

Henning decided to move the supermarket to the old Jamesway location, which would expand the store's space from 37,800 square feet to 57,400 square feet and make it the new anchor for the shopping center. As such, he wanted to build a store that would make the market a destination for the center.

Henning began scouting around for a design company that would fit the bill. "I wanted a design firm that wasn't from this area," he says. "I wanted some fresh ideas, something new and unique to draw people in."

When Henning met with representatives from King at an FMI show, he realized he had found what he was looking for. "I saw a lot of natural woods, a lot of warmth, in what they designed," he says. "Plus they were from out of the area and could give give some fresh ideas."

Henning created a list of his goals for the project. First and foremost, he wanted to create a store that would attract customers, regardless of price. "We have a Wal-Mart down the road, so I can't be competing on price alone," he says. "We're in an upscale area—40 percent of the people within a three-mile radius of our location have incomes of more than $75,000, and 22 percent have incomes over $100,000. Because of this I wanted to design a store that drew customers most of all because it was enjoyable and relaxing to shop."

He also wanted the store to be user-friendly and easy to shop, so that after only two or three visits, customers would know where everything was located. In addition, Henning wished the new supermarket to have a boutique-like, specialty-store atmosphere to it.

He had one goal he knew would be tough, however. "I wanted them to make a big store feel small," he says. "We did some surveys, and while some of our customers didn't want us to expand, most did. So we wanted to achieve both results."

Overall Henning wanted to give the store a period-style look, something that he could have for eight to 12 years. He was investing a lot of time and money in the design, and didn't want to have to renovate after only a few years.

He worked closely with King's designers, pitching various ideas and designs back and forth with them, updating and revising the plans as new ideas popped into his head. "If I said we went through a thousand different drafts, I wouldn't be lying," Henning notes. "King was very patient and creative."

"Evolution" is the term Henning uses to describe the constant adaptation and modification of the plans. Interestingly, King design director Christopher Studach uses exactly the same term to describe the process. "It was a real collaborative effort," he says. "When we did the layout of the store, Henning would continuously feed us ideas for things he wanted to do more of, to add to, different services and amenities. Henning's idea of how he wanted to operate and run the store, and the types of products and services he wanted to offer, changed as we progressed, so we were continuously updating the concept of the layout and adjusting our thinking of the interior to match it."

The sky's the limit

At first Henning and the designers from King began as if there were no spending limit, and they threw any preconceived concepts about grocery design out the window. Instead Henning considered any retail design concepts that he thought would work best for his customers and store. "We wanted a specialty-store feel," says Henning. "We started off with a highly broken-up specialty store. I wanted a lot of angles so customers were always running into product.

"As we progressed, we shaped and constrained the store layout by cost and by practicality. We straightened some aisles out, but not all of them—there's still 10 percent to 15 percent inefficiency in space because of the angles, but it's intentional. If we hadn't started that way initially—with no limitations—we wouldn't have ended up with the store that we did."

One of the unique features of the store's layout is its 280-foot width, which is much broader than most of the supermarkets in the area. If Henning had built a traditional store with one entrance, convenience shoppers looking for a few specific products might have had to travel the width of the store to get them.

Instead Henning turned this feature into an asset by creating two main entrances: Each has a brick façade and is covered by a canopy, and each is aimed at a specific type of shopper. The design, layout, and product offerings within each side of the interior were designed around the different needs of these two categories of shopper. In both cases speed, convenience, and ease of use were addressed, as were—of course—aesthetics.

The left entrance and left portion of the store were designed for the ingredient shoppers, those who prepare their meals at home. "On the left side of the store, shoppers can make all of their meal decisions, because within the left third of the store, we have produce, seafood and meat, and frozen food," Henning says. "It also has the Meal Fixings section."

Meal Fixings

The Meal Fixings department consists of a section of aisles ranging from 24 to 28 feet in length, set parallel to the front of the store, and containing various meal ingredients. The aisles start out shorter toward the front and back of the store, and extend outward in length as they progress toward the center, enabling shoppers walking past to get a good view of each aisle's contents.

Every Meal Fixings aisle is stocked with simplicity and ease of use in mind. Each contains one category of ingredient on either side. For example, in one aisle pasta is found on one side and pasta sauces are on the opposite shelves. Another aisle has salad dressings facing bulk foods. "You don't have to walk down the aisle to see its entire contents," Henning says. "The beauty of this is that while shoppers are walking through produce, they can look down each aisle and make a mental note of which ones they need to visit on the way back to the checkout. In that section of the store, customers can buy everything for their made-at-home meals."

The right entrance opens into the side of the store designed for the prepared foods shopper. The right wall and the section just opposite are lined with prepared food offerings, including the bakery, the deli—which also sells salads and pizza—a hot foods bar, a salad bar, a fruit bar, Henning's Coffee House, and the store's sandwich and takeout offering, which is branded Henning's In-A-Hurry.

Henning also enlisted the help of Brian Salus, president of Salus & Associates, a Richmond, Va.-based foodservice consultancy recommended by King, to help develop the store's deli, bakery, and prepared foods concepts, as well as Henning's Coffee House, which offers traditional coffee fare and speciality beverages such as espresso, cappuccino, and lattes, along with smoothies. "Brian designed the grill and also helped set up the equipment," Henning says. "He has a culinary background and was able to put us in touch with various people who could provide support. He helped design the kitchen, the bakery layout, the buffet, and the customization of the buffet food offerings."

The Variety Store

In addition to prepared foods, this section of Henning's Market, called The Variety Store, includes general merchandise and health and beauty aids. The wall adjacent to the deli is lined with greeting cards, and to the left of this are several 14-foot-long low-profile gondolas laid out at an angle and containing different categories of HBC products. Turning away from the greeting cards, shoppers can see right over the gondolas to a 76-foot-long aisle that contains general merchandise such as books, magazines, school supplies, pantyhose, and batteries.

"You walk through the Variety Store section once, and it's a picture in your mind," Henning says. "You no longer have to search. For people who don't make their meals at home, I put all these items near the prepared foods."

Since the shoppers for prepared foods and takeout items tend to be more convenience-oriented, Henning installed two convenience checkout lanes to accommodate customers buying 12 items or fewer. "This is for those customers who come in to just get milk, coffee, and eggs," he says.

The right side of the store also caters to restaurant customers. Since the store has a low elevation, Henning built it two stories high and put eating areas on both floors in the right front corner of the store. "One of the goals of the eating area is to have something exciting in the front of the building," he says. "The only part of the store that has activity all the time is the deli, so we put the deli on an island and added the various prepared food offerings to serve the eat-in customers."

The seating area on the ground floor has 36 seats and was designed to resemble an outdoor café. It overlooks the parking lot and has a gas fireplace. A specially designed wrought-iron staircase leads to the upstairs seating area. "Some people say that nobody uses upstairs eating areas," Henning says. "I think the reason why this happens is because the staircases that usually lead to these areas are usually narrow or on a back wall somewhere, so shoppers think they lead to offices or something else. So I put the staircase out in front and made it a little showy, with two landings, so shoppers and meal seekers know they can use it."

The staircase is a very prominent feature in the front of the store, according to King's Studach. "It extends right into the beginning of the prepared foods department," he says. "It's actually wrapped and merchandised on three sides with food offerings."

At the top of the staircase is a larger seating area divided into three sections. One section is a private community room used by local businesses for meetings and training sessions, which Henning's caters. The room is enclosed with French doors at its entrance, seats 54, and, like the downstairs seating area, has a gas fireplace.

Just outside the community room is another café-style seating area, similar to the room downstairs, and further down the mezzanine is the lounge, which, with 16 faux-leather chairs, has a "Borders bookstore" look to it, according to Henning. All the seating areas are well used.

Grocery Central

Those shoppers venturing further inward from the entrances will discover that the traditional grocery section of long aisles has not been forgotten at Henning's, just moved. This section, called Grocery Central, consists of 76-foot aisles that are perpendicular to the front wall of the store. "Like the Meal Fixings aisles, this is set up simply and by category," Henning says. "The old custom was to mix up everything in the store and force the customer to shop. I don't care for that, and I feel the customers don't, either. You walk past an aisle in Grocery Central and you see that it's all cereal; or it's all beverages, all juice on one side, cookies on the other; or sodas on one side, snacks on the other; all laundry detergents with mops and light bulbs; or all pet and paper supplies."

Each of Henning's three sections—Meal Fixings, The Variety Store, and Grocery Central—is indicated by large overhanging signs, and each has its own look and feel. To make things even easier for his customers, Henning has coordinated all his advertising with these three sections of the store, so people can shop by the ads.

The doors of the new Henning's Market opened Nov. 19 of last year, attracting droves of customers from the surrounding area—many of them from further away than the three-mile radius Henning had targeted. "Even before we advertised, the store was drawing a large crowd from a broad area, due to customer curiosity, word-of-mouth advertising, and great write-ups in the local papers," he says.

Although Henning hates to use the term "wow effect," in this case he thinks it definitely applies. That's not just because he says so, but because "wow" is the term that new shoppers use most often the first time they walk into his store.