Pushing a shopping cart around a grocery store, it stands to reason that a customer wants plenty of room to walk around and take items off shelves without bumping into other customers.
At Erewhon, a luxury grocer in Southern California, the opposite is true.
Erewhon aisles are typically between four-and-a-half and five feet wide, according to Terry Todd, a principal and architect at RDC who designs stores for Erewhon. That's much narrower than industry standard aisle widths of six-and-a-half feet.
“Erewhon wants people to bump into each other and run into employees who can answer questions about their products,” Todd told CoStar News. "Erewhon, they have so many unique things that they sell, they want that interaction between shoppers and their employees roaming the aisles."
While Erewhon's narrow aisles may be an extreme example, the largest grocery store chains are putting extra time and effort into designing stores with more seating, sushi counters and bars that sell beer, wine and spirits. The goal is straightforward — get customers to hang out for longer at their stores.
Whether it involves shoppers engaging in extended conversations with Erewhon staff about gourmet olive oil, or drinking a gin and tonic at a Publix in Atlanta's Buckhead neighborhood, supermarket executives and their landlords both see value in longer customer visits.
"In order to stay relevant and provide an experience the customer can connect with, they're looking to create a sense of place," Daniel Taub, national director of the retail division at Marcus & Millichap, told CoStar News.
Landlords, meanwhile, want consumers to step inside other retailers at their shopping centers, in addition to the supermarket.
"Landlords like grocers as anchor tenants because they drive traffic to the shopping center," Todd said. "They don't want people to just come to the grocery store and leave."
Part of the formula is designing a grocery store that looks like it belongs in the neighborhood, said Greg Lyon, president of Nadel Architects. A Safeway that recently opened in a suburb of Sacramento, California, is one example.
At this Safeway, designed by Nadel, dark-brown timber forms a roof overhang at the main entrance. Natural stone veneers are used on columns at the entry way. Shingles with a rustic appearance form the cladding on an exterior span of a covered walkway.
Those design elements reflect the American Craftsman style that’s used on other buildings in Roseville, California, where the Safeway is located. Safeway is owned by Albertsons.
“If it had been just a plain, big box in Roseville, it would have been an eyesore,” Lyon told CoStar News.
Lyon’s firm recently created a new studio, called Third Space, specifically aimed at “designing community-focused destinations that foster connection, discovery and lasting emotional impact” for retail, mixed-use and entertainment properties.
“There needs to be a familiarity and a comfort level with retail environments in communities,” Lyon said. “People don’t want it to feel foreign.”
Cushing Terrell designed a store for Albertsons in the ski-resort town of McCall, Idaho, with an exterior façade that resembles a mountain cabin, said Sheri Blattel, associate principal and architect at the firm. The grocer specifically requested a building that reflected the town's character.
“That was an intentional move by Albertsons to speak to the community,” Blattel told CoStar News.
To be certain, some grocers have not made it a priority to keep customers around for longer periods of time. Kroger, Walmart and other large chains prioritize volume over experience, Taub said.
“Grocery is a low-margin game,” Taub said. “They want to get shoppers through the store with the least amount of friction and get them in and out as quickly as possible.”
Kroger last year reached an agreement to acquire Albertsons for $24.6 billion to build scale and generate more sales volume, but a federal judge in December blocked the deal on antitrust concerns.
Still, many grocers are prioritizing design now because, in the wake of the pandemic, it has become apparent that online retailing did not spell the death of in-person supermarket shopping, Lyon said. Consumers still want to walk around a store, so grocers want to make it nice inside.
“The idea that people were going to do all their shopping online, that idea really fell flat,” Lyon said. “People are back in stores now because they want to pick out their own produce.”
The pandemic hammered in-store visits to grocery stores, with foot traffic falling 11.4% from 2019 to 2020, according to JLL. But the sector has regained what it lost and has surpassed pre-pandemic figures. Foot traffic rose to about 17.2 billion visits in 2024, a 10.9% increase from 2019.
The in-store experience is more important to some demographic groups than others, Blattel said.
“Grocers understand that they have a consumer who has a changing profile,” Blattel said. “Millennials want quick shopping visits, but they’re also more about the experience than the cost of things.”
Luxury grocers like Erewhon and Bristol Farms, both located in Southern California, and PCC Community Markets and Town & Country Markets, both in the Seattle area, have long used seating areas to promote a sense of place and encourage shoppers to spend more time at stores.
“Those luxury brands have always looked at outdoor seating as a part of their program,” Todd said.
Even bathrooms get the royal treatment at Erewhon, Todd said. Toilets are located within closet-like stalls and bathroom fixtures have premium finishes. Erewhon is small, with only 11 stores, but it's growing in Southern California. It opened a new store earlier this month in Manhattan Beach, and more new locations on the way in Glendale, Thousand Oaks and West Hollywood.
Erewhon also makes headlines with its product offerings, many of which probably generate questions from shoppers for its staff. Jars of sea moss to be taken as a nutritional supplement sell for about $100 and Erewhon recently sold a a $20 strawberry. Its tonic bars sell smoothies with super-premium ingredients and in flavors designed in partnership with celebrities Hailey Bieber and Travis Scott.
With a retail footprint that includes posh communities in the Los Angeles area like Beverly Hills and Venice Beach, it's obvious that Erewhon is trying to craft an experience specific to its neighborhoods, Blattel said.
"Grocery and food markets have been human connectors for centuries," she said. "It's where you get news and food and share communal activities. Your entire space, not just the interior but also the exterior, needs to engage the consumer."