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approaches on how to go to market,” and just as importantly, he emphasizes, “how to balance those efforts that are nancially measurable with social bene ts that are harder to quantify to realize our overall vision.”
Fortunately, those benefits often overlap: the business case for CSR can be good for the environment, and also
reduce costs, he says, speaking of the Golub family’s insight that pro tability and CSR are not contradictory concepts, and are actually deeply dependent on each other. This precept has been a mantra of Jerry Golub, former chief executive and now vice chairman of the board, who heads a new board nance committee focused on conversion of Price Chopper
stores to the Market 32 banner. Scott Grimmett was named chief executive and president last January to spearhead the company’s Market 32 chain-wide gradual rollout across New York, Vermont, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
In the produce department, strat- egies that simultaneously improve
RETAIL SUSTAINABILITY AWARD - PRICE CHOPPER’S MARKET 32
our shopping experience and brand identity in a conscientious way.”
He points to a prominent, bright Power Greens display in the produce department inviting shoppers to join the superfood trend. “You have to know your community, tailor product offerings based on demo- graphics and psychographics, and directly speak to the needs of that speci c market,” says Berman.
“Produce is an extremely featured department, elevated to new heights in the Market 32 platform. It’s full of surprises, and depending on where you shop, you’re guaranteed to see something in there you’ve never seen before,” he says.
“Design is a uid dynamic, and there are so many inputs to consider as to what makes a space worth being in, worth grav- itating toward, what makes it a high-ex- perience environment, and a sophisticated one,” says Mausert. “We weren’t even using this language when we rst started this endeavor seven years ago, but the dialogue around the designing of that space and the heightened awareness of its importance in
brand identity has really become satisfying. The world changes, it evolves, and you need to respond to it ... this is why Market 32 really was created.”
LIGHTING THE WAY
Market 32 accentuates product lighting. It is not really an effort to enhance or change the look of the product; it is actually an effort to show the product in its true light, bringing out its real color and characteristics, explains Kopchik.
“The reality is just two or three years ago, the initial commercially viable LED lighting presented grocery items quite well, but it didn’t do a great job on fruits and vegeta- bles; it was very cold-like, and the color was all wrong. What is so remarkable is in a ve-year time period, LEDs went from prohibitively expensive to the most cost effective technology you can embed and to a vast variety of lighting bandwidths and colors,” says Kopchik.
“Now, instead of that 100-foot-candle ambient light uniformity you get across the entirety of the sales space, we are able to
target the lighting in a much more conscien- tious and effective way. Instead of expending all of the energy to create the ambient light throw, we are using only the energy we need to use to direct the light to the product itself,” he explains. You walk into the space and see it immediately because the emphasis in terms of lighting is on the product.”
As far as skylights, Kopchik says he’s personally not a great fan after weighing the pros and cons. “When you bring all the light in from the ceiling, you see everything from way up high supporting the décor or refrigeration piping, and all kinds of other things. When you start throwing light on all that, it draws the eye there instead of down where the product is, and you don’t have as much control over it.”
There is always an aesthetic question you have to ask when designing something, in addition to the science behind it. “Some of the newer supermarkets are looking like a warehouse space. There is probably a sustain- ability component involved in that decision, but there is also an aesthetic look to it as well,” he adds. pb
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