IRVING, Texas -- Convenience store design is at a new plateau. As retailers strive to stand out and make a statement, the packageor in this case a store's design, both exterior and interioris proving to be just as important as what's inside, according to Jim Mitchell, president of Mitchell Designs Inc., Irving, Texas.
The amount of traffic generated by the new generation of convenience stores is much greater now, Mitchell, who has been designing c-stores for three decades, told CSP Daily News. You're looking at 1,500 customers per day, as opposed to 600 [image-nocss] to 800 people 10 years ago. As a result, today's designs are much more dramatic and the canopies are bolder, but [stores] are also more efficient.
Buildings, lot sizes and interior offers have grown bigger and more extravagant in the past two years alone, but these adaptations have spawned higher costs. So, store designers have had to become smarter and more deliberate in the site layouts, materials and colors they choose.
Mitchell has had his eye on a number of developing design trends:
Wider aisles. More women shop in c-stores than ever before. (As an unexpected benefit, so do more men.) Wider aisles put women at ease when they shop. But having more open space does not mean less merchandise. Retailers can implement shallower shelvesmost retailers already have deeper shelves than necessary, said Mitchelland install more slat-wall and wire shelving. Larger buildings. Ten years ago, 2,400-sq.-ft. stores were the norm. Today, the average store has grown to somewhere in the 3,000- to 3,500-sq.-ft. range. Parking lots, as a result, are also taking up more space, with an increased number of spots and more maneuvering room. More exotic materials. Rich woods and metals help create ambiance, but these materials are not necessarily more expensive. Example: At less than $300, one sheet of hammered copper can be enough to pick up the light and accentuate a whole store, Mitchell said. Higher ceilings. Stores with ceilings as high as 12 feet are common; some new designs go as high as 20 feet. Customers like openness, not just in the aisles but over their heads, because it makes them feel safer. The increased headroom lets retailers use more graphics and other design elements that add atmosphere. Circular beverage centers. People like circles, said Mitchell, because they see a circle as representing eternal life. Circular or half-circle beverage-center designs usually enjoy stronger sales because of their positioning and sharp visual appeal, he added. Outdoor dining areas. These are already popular in the South, as well as at larger convenience stores with established prepared-foods programs. Sometimes dubbed taquerias, alfresco dining areas can be especially popular among Hispanic customers.Color, another key design component, is used to evoke emotion and influence behavior. Black has become the new it color inside the store because of its simplicity and sophistication, according to Manh Tran, manager of design center services for SHOPCO U.S.A. Inc., a Houston-based interior store-fixture supplier. Black is being used to accentuate everything from gondolas and foodservice areas to coffee bars and shelving systems.
We're seeing a huge interest in darker colors, Tran told CSP Daily News. Black causes the package or the product to pop a little more off the shelf. It's the perfect backdrop for any color presentation. The only drawback is that it shows dirt a little more so it needs to be kept clean.
The combination of darker colors and wood grains can be especially effective at the coffee bar, where an increasing number of convenience retailers are trying to create a coffeehouse atmosphere to rival the corner Starbucks, according to Joe Connelly, vice president of sales and marketing for SHOPCO. Some are taking what is essentially a store-within-a-store approach to give the coffee bar an identity of its own.
Retailers are isolating their coffee bars, Connelly said. They used to have one big counter with coffee, foodservice and fountain all running along the same wall. Now they're separating them with some architectural fixtures and singling out coffee to make it its own animal.
Designers and retailers are also making room for products and services that were nice to haves 10 years ago, but have since become standard. ATMs, multi-pack beer vaults and grab-and-go merchandisers, for example, are being highlighted through more purposeful design. Again, a shift in economics has been the primary driver behind such changes, according to Mitchell.
Stores are 50% bigger than they were a decade ago, he said. In the meantime, there's been more than a 50% increase in [development] costs, and there's little money to be made in gas. That means retailers cannot afford to do less than their best everywhere. Even the littlest details are extremely important.
[Watch for the industry's most innovative c-store designs in the March issue of CSP magazine, which will feature Nice N Easy Grocery Shoppe's new store, in Verona, N.Y. (pictured).]Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.