Esselunga
Our new retail format for Italy’s oldest supermarket chain, Esselunga, reinvents the global supermarket layout, setting a new benchmark globally.
Together with Esselunga, Italy’s oldest supermarket chain, we have collectively challenged and then radically reinvented the global supermarket model layout at the brand’s newest superstore in Brescia, Italy.
The reinvention is quiet yet revolutionary, setting a new benchmark globally. Our design team have swung the store through 90 degrees so that the checkouts - normally at the front of a supermarket - are now to the right within the store, replaced with a glass box of "production" showcasing the Bar Atlantic cafe, deli kitchens and bakery production, all previously hidden. This is the front door; an expression of Esselunga's commitment to making food. The front of the shop becomes a social place of visible "making". A Super Market, not a supermarket. Checkouts no longer monopolise a space now used for talking, meeting and eating.
The second radical change to the traditional supermarket layout is the introduction of “boomerang” aisles. More specifically, the design introduces triangulated grocery aisles to the rear that correspondingly stagger out in front of you, like a "catchers mitt"; a big glove inviting 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 in celebration of speedy food shopping; the deli, bakery and dairy, linked to produce and protein. Everything you need for a quick and convenient shop if you so choose. The store perimeter is home to specialist departments (operationally time and motion efficient) but now worth the travel.
In addition to an abundance of glass to showcase the theatre of food production, the design incorporates further theatre straight from the Esselunga factories. As customers leave through the checkouts, they are entertained by projected films of the manufacturing plants that Esselunga could never before show, but that are entertaining masterclasses in their food production skills.
Key materials used are concrete, timber, perforated panels, stainless steel, coloured tiles, concrete floor and exposed concrete ceiling.
Esselunga is known for continuous innovation, value, and their dedication to fresh food of the highest quality. We continue to work together.
Photography by Andrew Meredith. For more information please visit: www.landiniassociates.com
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