The store also makes it easy to buy a take-home meal by having a cash register at the hot food deli, he said. Adjacent to the deli area is a large in-store bakery, which includes a Great Harvest Bread Co. outlet, the only Great Harvest store nationwide to locate within a supermarket, Metcalfe said. A separate wine area is glassed off from the rest of the store, where shoppers can quietly contemplate the merits of Merlot. The meat department includes bison and ostrich. The store also uses lighting to help its sales.
Bright lights focus on certain products, while softer light fills the store.
So lighting was the key. The remodeling project recently won a first-place award in the supermarket category from the 2000 International Store Design Competition, sponsored by Visual Merchandising and Store Design magazine and The Institute of Store Planners. The steps taken by Metcalfe, including home delivery service that will soon allow shoppers to buy groceries online, are what independent grocers must do to survive Wal-Mart and other large supermarket chains, according to Frank Gambino, associate professor of marketing at Western Michigan University. But there are other things you can do. Jim Semrad, an independent Sentry operator in Muskego, agreed that perishable areas are where a smaller supermarket can distinguish itself from the competition.