When food shopping is an experience, like it is at  Nytorget Urban Deli in Stockholm, it makes going to the store a more pleasurable experience.  Nytorget Urban Deli is a modern grocery store that involved designers like Code Concept Design and This Way Up to develop the interiors and identity of the brand.

When it comes to grocery shopping, there is a general spectrum of interest ranging from “detest” to “love”.  I think, if grocery stores invested a bit more time and effort into the design and designing an experience, it would result in happier more inspiring food experiences for customers.

Sometimes I find when I go to the same grocery store over and over and over again or go to a larger format store (you know the ones- the BB’s), everything starts to look the same and I pick up items almost by memorization.  This is good for the big CPG companies, and good for the retailer.  I admit, there is less thinking involved on my part- the consumer- because I’ve been trained well.

This is my experience that may resonate with others because typical supermarkets follow a pattern of retail design that favours one part of the relationship more than the other.  In smaller, or well thought out concepts, there is more fun, inspiration, curiosity, wonderment, adventure and sense of discovery in the experience.

One type of grocery concept that I am starting to notice more and more are what I call hybrid concepts: Part grocery, part restaurant/cafe/bakery/design store.  I’ve seen a number of these hybrid concepts around the world and I say, “thumbs up” to the entrepreneurs in the competitive grocery world who bring the fun back into shopping for us entertainers out there.

How you choose to present your merchandise mix affects my experience when I get the items home. By extension, my in-store experience affects the experience of my guests when I put my meal on the table.

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Instead of having more people on the “dreaded” end of the grocery shopping spectrum, maybe more interesting, thought provoking concepts are what is needed.  The fashion world does it.  The beauty world does it.  The design world does it.  Why can’t food do it too?