design:retail - July 2018 - 42

042

urning everyday shopping into
a personal experience is the
not-unambitious aim for Italy's
largest co-operative supermarket group, Alleanza 3.0, a fusion
of smaller regional cooperatives
that, at the beginning of December 2017, launched a bold new
format dubbed Extracoop.
The hypermarket concept
opened simultaneously late last
year in three locations-Bologna,
Modena and Ravenna-at an average of 118,000 sq. ft. in sales
area and with the stores including a beauty shop with a salon,
florist, an optician, housewares and a jeweler.
Coop Alleanza 3.0 is the largest co-operative
in Italy and part of the country's thriving cooperative model, bringing together 400 stores in
12 regions across 94 consumer co-operatives, of
which seven are large operations. It was formed
in January 2016 via the merger of Coop Adriatica,
Coop Consumatori Nordest and Coop Estense and
at the start of this year, Coop Eridana and Coop
Sicilia also joined.
The new Extracoop concept, including design,
layout, graphics and visual merchandising, was
developed by Zurich-based Interstore in close collaboration with the retail group. Schweitzer Project
implemented the new design at all three initial
locations while the stores remained open to shoppers, in a process that took eight months.
JULY 2018

DESIGNRETAILONLINE.COM

The brief was for a modern design with a high
degree of flexibility that puts the focus on the merchandise. Eye-catching wooden ceiling elements
and high, black metal frames around individual
departments provide a visual structure for the
large sales area and put the focus on each of the
product categories.
"Extracoop is a revolution for the hypermarket
segment. Our customer realized that the existing
format is dead and was open to a total redefinition:
logical assortments and specialized non-food stores
in a shop-in-shop style," says Bernhard Schweitzer,
CEO and owner of Schweitzer.
As a result, wooden fixtures and natural materials dominate, with non-food areas delineated
with different perimeter backdrops and equipment, although the use of natural materials, such
as wood, metal frameworks and tiled flooring,
again predominates.

GLOBALSHOP.ORG

The central fresh food area is the heart of the
market, surrounded by the non-food departments,
each with its own character and look. This has been
designed to make shoppers feel as if they are in a
small specialty store and not in a large footprint
hypermarket. Through the circular loop arrangement and the positioning of the departments,
shoppers are always in contact with all the assortments and do not need to cover long distances up
and down aisles.
"By creating this shop-in-shop character, we
were able to break down the large surface area of
thousands of square meters into smaller areas, each
with its own character, statement and product expertise," Schweitzer says. "The result is an exciting
customer journey, with changing atmospheres,
more surprises and a greater choice."
Where traditional checkouts would normally sit,
shoppers instead encounter independent shops,

http://www.DESIGNRETAILONLINE.COM http://www.GLOBALSHOP.ORG

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