Grocery Store Construction Design Features Ideas

Cooler Placement

• The first and most important aspect of a grocery store's design is its overall energy-efficiency. Every customer radiates heat energy, and when a store is filled to the brim with shoppers, their presence increases demand on its HVAC system. To balance heating and cooling needs in a grocery store, the frozen and upright coolers are typically placed around the perimeter of the store. Groceries like to place the low profile, open ice cream and frozen food coolers down the center of the store. This layout aids the building HVAC system by contributing cool air throughout the building.

High Traffic Item Placement

• Grocery store designers use the store's layout and product placement to draw customers to various places. For this reason, common high traffic, high turnover products like milk, eggs and cheese are typically placed at the back of the building. Combined with strategic placement of sale items up and down the store's main aisles, and product gondola end caps, grocers encourage their customers to spend more money as they walk past the brightly colored displays to get the items they purchase regularly.

Large Produce Departments

• Grocers want their produce departments to be large, colorful and the first thing their customers see when they enter the store. The bright colors and fresh greenery of a well- stocked produce department shout "freshness" to customers. When they're able to see, touch, feel and smell fresh foods in a produce department, they're more likely to make an unconscious conclusion that the food in the rest of the store is of a similar quality and flavor. Large, open produce departments also encourage higher produce sales.

Name Brand Restaurants

• Grocers are using the addition of name brand coffee shops and restaurants inside their stores as an increased draw for their customers. Starbucks are appearing in more and more grocery stores as grocers seek to create a pleasurable experience for customers. Larger grocery store chains have opted to include banks, hair salons, and even cell phone retail outlets in their stores as a means for providing their shoppers with one-stop convenience. The Meijer retail store chain in Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky is one of the most successful in using this "one-stop shopping" approach.