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STORE PROFILE A REVOLUTION IN SUPERMARKET LAYOUT Landini Associates’ design of Esselunga’s new store in Brescia, Italy was focused on providing a ‘super market’ compared with a supermarket when it opened last year. IBy Nerine Zoio. taly’s oldest supermarket chain, Esselunga, has radically reinvented the global supermarket layout at its newest super store in Brescia in conjunction with Australian design agency Landini Associates. The design team has taken the layout usually associated with supermarkets and turned it by 90 degrees in a construction predominantly of concrete, timber, perforated panels, stainless steel and coloured tiles. This positions checkouts to the right of the store rather than at their usual place in the front, where the premium space now features a glass box that puts its Bar Atlantic cafe, deli kitchens and bakery production, all previously hidden, in full view for customers to appreciate. The view, which Landini Associates refers to as ‘the front door’, is an expression of Esselunga’s commitment to making food. “The front shop has effectively been transformed into a social place for talking, meeting, eating and seeing the production that usually goes on behind the scenes, making for a ‘super market’ compared to a supermarket,” Landini Associates Design Director Paul Gates told Retail World. The second radical change to the traditional supermarket layout is the introduction of ‘boomerang’ aisles. More specifically, the design brings in triangulated grocery aisles to the rear that correspondingly stagger out in front of the shopper like a “catcher’s mitt” – a big glove that invites customers into the store’s “dry food heart” by using merchandise as the primary signage. Every adjacency is rethought and reinvented, with the first aisle dedicated to speedy food shopping, including deli, bakery and dairy sections, with sources of protein linked by display. Then the store’s perimeter has an array of specialist departments for easy access. The design also incorporates theatre straight from Esselunga’s factories, entertaining customers with projected films that show manufacturing plants and operations, providing insights into the provenance of Esselunga’s products as they exit through the checkouts. The films also show off the retailer’s considerable food production skills, which are renowned throughout the areas of Italy it serves. According to Landini Associates Creative Director Mark Landini, supermarkets are finely tuned “selling machines” that needn’t be hostile, soulless places. “It’s important to balance the time a customer spends in a store with the time it takes to run it,” he said, adding that shoppers’ trips need to be accommodated as efficiently as possible as there are multiple ways people shop today: some completely convenience driven, some a longer weekly shopping trip. “Our layout recognises this and allows both to be as efficient as possible,” Mr Landini said. “By placing Bar Atlantic front and centre we’ve made a space for 20 RETAIL WORLD APR, 2020