Maximizing shoppability

Maximizing shoppability
Schnucks offers a new look that emphasizes special shops for fresh and prepared foods

By Jenny S. Rebholz
March 08, 2010

Alise O'Brien Photography

With a tagline of “The friendliest stores in town,” St. Louis-based Schnuck Markets Inc. has taken friendly to a new level with the debut of a 74,000-sq.-ft. combination food and pharmacy flagship store in Des Peres, Mo.

After 46 years, three remodels and two additions, Schnucks was in need of a new location in the Des Peres market, and was fortunate to secure a highly desirable corner site on the busy arterial Manchester Road. The strategy for the building design, which was developed in collaboration with Tampa, Fla.-based api(+), was to create the maximum footprint the site would allow and then design the store within it to maximize every square inch possible.

“We wanted to create an innovative, state-of-the-art flagship store that would successfully serve the local Des Peres demographic area, yet be adaptable for future locations,” explains Michael Alspaw, manager of facilities design and planning for Schnucks. “We used our culinary experience and what we learned as an organization from our current new stores and remodels, as well as inspiration from trips around the country and Europe, to create a spectacular shopping and food experience for our customers.”

The new Schnucks store provides an expanded fresh and prepared food experience that pushes the concept of a one-stop shopping destination to that of “a destination of special shops.” “We wanted this new store to excite and engage long-time and new customers from beginning to end, and provide the opportunity for discovery all along the way,” explains Ross Hutsel, Schnucks’ director of facilities engineering.

The design differentiators that create this environment include a sit-down dining venue with a “Fresco Fresh Today” island, a bistro grill with a sit-down counter venue and Schnucks’ first in-house fresh artisan bread department. A new wine and cheese department—complete with a with a cheese room, walk-in cooler and adjacent wine tasting bar—takes advantage of cross-merchandising opportunities. The Schnucks’ Cooks and Table Top Department pulls together the cooking at home and food experience.

While the right side of the store—the perishable foods—always maintains a sense of presence, the goal of the new Schnucks’ location was to elevate the rest of the shopping experience in “center store,” infusing energy and interest into the Grocery, Dairy, Frozen Food and Healthy Living areas. Here, the team steered away from standard layouts and configurations, instead opting for wide aisles, alcove spaces and kiosks that encourage shoppers to pause and explore. Curves were incorporated into design elements and case shapes to add movement. For example, in the frozen food section, cases utilize curved base decks and are bumped out in some areas, rather than being positioned in a straight run.

A mezzanine creates another point of visual interest within the store and includes seating for in-store dining, a lounge area with a fireplace, the Schnucks’ cooking school and teammate support areas. By placing these spaces on another level, the design team was able to maximize the sales potential of the main floor.

The in-house team challenged the api(+) designers and vendors to explore unique configurations and nesting table applications. The new store features a variety of nesting tables used for design and displays to support flexible selling spaces. This allows merchandise to be changed depending on the time of year, and the ability to create new points of interest on a weekly basis.

The color and finish palette for the store explores the beauty of nature. “The color palette was conceived as a watercolor wash over natural materials, allowing their natural beauty to be pronounced as the inherent textures unify the fairly complex color palette,” describes Tom Henken, design director for api(+). In addition to color, the design team played with texture using glossy, matte and textured surfaces, as well as scale of pattern, to create visual interest.

The Schnucks signature “S” also played an integral role in design details and graphic communications. As one of the oldest components of the Schnucks’ brand, an elegant, slender “S” offers a sense of familiarity with multiple generations of customers and is a strong part of the new brand. “We created an entire vocabulary of symbolic icons for each department that drove the essence of the brand’s heritage into a new and fresh interpretation,” Henken says. “The graphics enhance the products and services rather than overtake them.”

An open-structure ceiling and skylights enhance the natural lighting in the space, while simultaneously serving as part of the store’s first fully integrated daylighting system. “The store’s high-efficiency fluorescent lighting fixtures with dimmable ballasts, sensors and our energy management system combine with the skylights to dim, or even turn off, light fixtures as the natural lighting provided through the skylights reaches appropriate levels,” Hutsel explains.

While the frozen food area does not benefit from skylights, high windows along the east wall of the store complement the high-efficiency LED lighting that is integrated into overhead custom décor elements and the glass door display cases. Focused and flexible track lighting in fresh foods supports the changing nature of the store and allows the employees to properly light displays and highlight products.

The store’s design details, including the finish palette, graphic communications and lighting design, reflect the company’s commitment to its heritage (the past) and develop a sustainable building vocabulary, demonstrating a commitment to the future. The new store design references sustainability standards, including improved building systems and equipment that reduce water usage and energy consumption, and building finishes that emphasize sustainable materials. An in-store communication at the store entrance outlines a total of 30 ways that the new Des Peres store continues to build on sustainability at Schnucks.

“I believe that our design has succeeded in giving our customers that ‘wow’ factor,” Alspaw affirms. “While our exterior architecture is modern and pleasing, upon entering, the spectacular store shopping experience begins with the first step. Our customers not only see great fresh product, but they see incredible architecture. The store is contemporary, fresh, exciting and surprising.”