Retail that roars

There's more than just one way to shop a supermarket, and Food Lion's newest store in Jacksonville, Fla., is designed with that in mind. Evolving from a prototype design developed for Kash n' Karry, Food Lion's sister chain, the store makes every shopping trip equally convenient.

"About once a month shoppers go for a full market basket in a stock-up run," says Tom Henken, vice president of ArchitecturePlus International (API), Tampa, Fla., which designed the prototype. "About every week or so they make a top-off run for key staple items and possibly an impulse item. Then there's the 'what's for dinner' run: 'I have no plans, I ran late, I want to stop by the deli and pick up something that's already prepared or ready to prepare.'"

Starting with the requirement that the same store must accommodate all the types of trips, API made a nationwide survey of supermarkets and other types of retail. The designers made bubble diagram plans that related various departments and merchandise zones, showing how customers reacted to the environments. "In supermarkets, we saw that everyone was going to a power alley approach," says Henken. "All the fresh goods are presented in a big corridor. The shopper moves through it like a ping-pong ball, and then at the end of it, they are at the dry goods area, and all of a sudden the wonderful shopping experience has ended." API worked to create a better solution that would keep the excitement going throughout the shopping trip, all the way through checkout.

Henken's team started to develop a plan that answers the customer's desire to shop in a number of different ways and the supermarket's desire to drive sales in high-margin areas by constantly presenting the stimulus of colorful and enticing goods to buy. "We wanted to emphasize fresh produce and the deli," says Kyle Mitchell, vice president of construction and engineering for Food Lion, Salisbury, N.C.

In focus group research, Food Lion shoppers said they wanted the deli and bakery to be conveniently located for stopping by either at the beginning or at the end of a shopping trip. "We tried to respond to that by putting the departments right up front and center," says Mitchell.

The deli and bakery form a central core with a floral section, another high-margin area, set between them. They form a crescent-shaped island in the middle of the store. There is a small café so that customers can eat in the store, or they can grab food and go.

The entire front half of the store has a curved wall, creating an unusual structure and promoting movement through the space. "The curved wall of produce makes the eye flow through back to the international and snacks aisle," says Henken. "Once you're back into the rear portion of the store, you are constantly weaving in and out of the fresh court. As you flow in and out of the traditional layout for dry goods you are entering and exiting the fresh rotunda, with 2 1/2-story clerestory windows that let in natural light." Mitchell points out that the use of natural light is new for Food Lion. "It emphasizes the freshness and the newness of the store," he says, because the daylight is bright and cheerful.

"The floor plan provides something that hardly any grocery store layouts have—constant exposure and re-exposure to a wall of impulse items," says Henken. "There are party supplies, cards and stationery and so forth. You are exposed to that wall eight to 10 times during the full market basket shopping trip." As a result, repeated trips to the store create top-of-mind awareness in regular customers that the Food Lion is a destination store for solving that shopping need.

"The idea of the plan was to never have dead space," says Henken. "We wanted to continuously expose customers to products using angled and curved walls so even as you walk to the back you are constantly exposed to products, not exit doors or corridors."

Health and beauty aids and cosmetics aisles have been angled and rotated to reflect the rounded layout, placed in front of a pharmacy that is near the checkouts. Arriving customers can drop off a prescription, have it filled and pick it up at the end of the trip. The checkouts, including self-checkouts, are arranged in a curving arc. "They look friendly and open, and they get wider as you go through them so the flow out is unencumbered," says Henken.

After the new prototypical layout had been created for Kash n' Karry, the client decided to adapt it for a Food Lion. "The store in Jacksonville was always slated to be a Food Lion," says Mitchell. "We thought we would experiment and utilize some of the synergies between the two banners. So the interior décor package is completely different than it would have been if it was a Kash n' Karry."

The 46,400-sq.-ft. layout remained true to API's design, and the site architect was Bondurant & Associates, Portsmouth, Va. "Our firm took the prototypical design and made it fit into the community," says Charles Heilig project administrator. "We needed to have something that was reminiscent of stores in that area. The massing of the store, the higher windows and round features were pretty much part of the prototype. We added elements such as columns in the front to reflect the surrounding retail stores."

Southeastern Products of Greenville, S.C., which has been a long-term partner of Food Lion, did the décor work with API. As implemented in the Jacksonville Food Lion, the signage and graphics are very similar to what was designed for the prototypical Kash n' Karry, except that the colors have shifted. The roof structure in the fresh rotunda is painted a periwinkle blue, a muted version of blue, one of Food Lion's signature colors.

"For the fixturing, we didn't put anything in that was too pricey appearing," says Presley Portwood, vice president and design director of Southeastern Products. Food Lion did not want to appear too upscale, although it wanted the store to be attractive and comfortable. Fixtures and millwork were built of oak and ash with a light stain. The 48-ft.-long wine department has a wooden trellis suspended overhead. Self-service meat and dairy cases undulate along the back wall, creating an interesting look.

The store is more colorful than a typical Food Lion. The color palette consists of gold with a paler yellow and highlights of purple and lavender. Instead of being one solid color, the vinyl composition tile flooring is laid in eye-pleasing patterns. Some of the plentiful signage is composed of lightweight, easily cleaned Kydex plastic. Featured wall signage is bottom-lit glowing plexiglass. "When you're a designer, you have a lot of ideas you think about for years. We were able to pull a lot of those neat things together on this project," says Portwood.

"I can't say enough about the client team," says Henken. "They were very open to new thinking and they stepped out a bit and took a risk with this. The supermarket industry has typically been pretty conservative, but you can't move ahead without integrating new ideas. You can't help but feel cheery in the new store." Mitchell reports that sales in the Jacksonville store have been better than projected, and customer interviews have indicated that shoppers are taking pleasure in the new design.

The Jacksonville design is being used as a prototype for Kash n' Karry, while another API prototype is in the process of being rolled out for Food Lion. New ideas are constantly being implemented at the chains, where an entire new design for new stores can be expected every three to four years.





PROJECT FILE

Food Lion

1650 San Pablo Rd. S. Jacksonville, Fla.

Architects

ArchitecturePlus International Tampa, Fla.

Bondurant & Associates Portsmouth, Va.

General contractor

MarcoBay Construction Lakeland, Fla.

Steve Cowperthwaite and Drew Brady, project managers

Carpeting and cashier mats

Matworks Beltsville, Md.

Checkout stands

Pan-Osten Co. Carnegie, Pa.

Dry fixtures and millwork

Southeastern Products Inc. Greenville, S.C.

Floral cases

Barker Co. Keosauqua, Iowa

Hot food cases

Giles Enterprises Inc. Montgomery, Ala.

Lighting (produce)

Amerlux Lighting Systems Fairfield, N.J.

Refrigerated/ deli cases

Kysor/Warren Conyers, Ga.

Self-checkouts

Productivity Solutions Inc. Jacksonville, Fla.

Signage/graphics

Southeastern Products Inc. Greenville, S.C.

Blanc Industries Baldwin, Calif.

Sound systems

Muzak Charlotte, N.C.

Vinyl flooring

Armstrong Lancaster, Pa.



Information in the Project File is provided by the retailer and/or designer.