IMRA: 'be distinctive' in store design - International Mass Retailing Association; discount store design

Discount Store News, Dec 17, 1990 by Pete Hisey

IMRA: `Be Distinctive' in Store Design

SAN FRANCISCO - The role of store design will shift dramatically in the '90s, becoming less concerned with aesthetics and even productivity, and more concerned with establishing an identity and marketing a store image. That seemed to be the consensus of speakers at IMRA's second annual Store Planning and Design Conference held here in late November.

"Leverage your strengths; be distinctive," urged Vanessa Cohen, Walker Group/CNI (New York) vice president and director of business development. "It's OK to be a dollar store, but make sure that you're the best dollar store in your market."

Don Clarke, chairman and ceo of Caldor, the regional Northeast discounter, seconded that sentiment. "Today, you have to have different stores; not necessarily expensive, but different. You can't copy the other guy, because that means that you're three or four years behind your competitor from the start."

Clarke's keynote address challenged top management to "expand your vision. Don't be afraid to innovate, and don't be afraid to make mistakes." The only way to learn and to truly differentiate stores is to try as many ideas as possible, and keep what works. "Do it, try it, fix it," he said.

"In our updating program, we learned a lot of lessons," Clarke said. "Among them were that we had to link advertising and store design; that we had to market our store and position it distinctively in the market; and that we had to have a written plan and constantly make sure that we're following it."

Most important, he said, is that every level of management must be involved in design issues, from the top down. In the year and a half since the planning process began, Clarke noted, sales increases at remodeled stores have averaged 9%, with highs of 16%. The cost: $800,000 to $1.2 million per store.

"We're not where we want to be," he said. "Rather, we're on a journey."

Globalization was a major point of concentration at the convention. Speakers highlighted the latest retail innovations in Western Europe and encouraged American retailers to form partnerships with European retailers.

Plenty of New Ideas

"There's a lot both of you can learn," said David McCue of McCue Corp., Danvers, Mass. His presentation included new fixturing and technology ideas from Euroshop last spring. Some of the ideas he's seen work include customized parking lots; sit-down checkouts; angled take-aways that get self-baggers out of busy aisles; dozens of permutations of the basic shopping cart, including one with a built-in rack for apparel on hangers and another with a built-in bin for returnable bottles; video screens on carts; handle-mounted calculators; a revolving door that accepts shoppers with carts; and a reusable cloth shopping bag that slots into a shopping cart. A future technology, probably not available until the next century, would then scan the entire bag of goods through the sack, saving checkout time and the expense of a bagger assisting a cashier.

Retail Planning Associates (Columbus, Ohio) president, retail, Randy Gebhardt noted that marketing a store's image has become big business at major retailers.

At the same time, packaged goods producers are taking over some of the roles previously reserved for the retailer, developing signing, presentation, POP materials and even adjacencies because, as Gebhardt put it, "these decisions are just too important to the success of a product to be left to chance."

Gebhardt listed several "realities" of the retail scene, from a vendor's perspective. "Merchandising, with a few exceptions, ranges from poor to inconsistent; retailers are cherry-picking products that sell great, but have low margins; many vendors are receiving low shelf visibility; departments aren't being maintained well, and retailer demands for special treatment are getting out of control."

Walker/CNI's Cohen noted that changing demographic and social conditions will impact store design in the next decade. Consumers, she said, are shopped out, stressed out, time poor, and becoming polarized into haves and have-nots.

They are also getting older, smarter, more discriminating, and more concerned with quality and the environment, meaning that they will buy less and make their purchases last longer.

To survive the shopping drought that these factors will create, Cohen advised building stores that are easy to shop, easy to get out of, comfortable, coordinated, logical and informative.

Graham Freeman, vice president of Fitch, Richardson & Smith, an English-based design firm with offices in Worthington, Ohio, urged designers to aim for "a holistic retail design that provides a seamless experience for your customers.

"Focus your products, and decide what businesses you really belong in," Freeman said. "And focus your pricing strategy. The consumer is confused, so establish your pricing strategy and stick to it."

PHOTO : Don Clarke, chairman and ceo of Caldor, admonished the group to try as many ideas as possible, and keep what works. "Do it, try it, fix it," he said.