How Brick-and-Mortar Grocery Designs are Readapting for Safety

OAKLAND, CA—In these unprecedented times, consumers are looking for convenient and safe access to groceries. Architects can help by developing design strategies to maintain the health, safety and wellness of consumers and workers, says Eric Price, commercial studio director for Lowney Architecture.

Safety starts with the programmatic separation of the store’s service areas to maintain consumers’ and workers’ health, safety and wellness. The most prominent areas that require separation are waste and recycling spaces and the freight docks. Ideally, these areas should be out of sight from the public to maintain the store’s design aesthetics and contain any possible hazards. The shifting of products at any scale requires an isolated area that prohibits consumers from crossing paths with boxes, spills or other potential risks, Price points out.

“Maintaining awareness of the consumer’s physical reach is critical to the design of a grocery store,” Price tells GlobeSt.com. “Even as COVID changes the way people think and their daily habits, many people still reach out to physically touch things, from picking a ripe avocado to reading the nutritional information on the back of a box. Products need to be within reasonable reach and lineal-display areas can be increased to make items more accessible and avoid unnecessary handling of products. It is also essential to have products in clear sight so that they can be inspected visually rather than physically to avoid unnecessary handling. Prominent signage to navigate shoppers throughout the store maximizes sales and allows the shopper to make sure they don’t miss anything that isn’t on their list, resulting in shoppers getting in and out of the store as quickly as possible.”

Price says minimizing touchpoints can be handled by the smart use of technology or space planning in areas such as the restrooms and checkout lines. In the restrooms, designing sink areas separate from toilets allow for more frequent and intelligent utilization.

Adequate space within stores is important to ensure customers and grocery workers can maintain proper social distance from one another. Shopping areas such as food isles can be increased to help reduce store crowding.

“Checkout lines have become a real problem in preventing dense assembly of people,” Price tells GlobeSt.com. “We now see distanced lines that start to clog up the traditional grocery aisles. There is a spatial conflict during peak hours where the way in is also the way out and the way around. The design should consider how the store will flow during peak hours to prevent congestion conflicts. Alternate circulation means or checkout locations should be established to speed up lines, create safe social distancing and limit customer interactions with one another. This may start as an operational question but will ultimately have spatial consequence. Outdoor merchandising and queuing may be part of this solution in certain climates.”

As a result of COVID, new behaviors and space utilization not previously seen in grocery stores have appeared: space for cart cleaning before or after use, space for shoppers to wash hands upon entry or exit and a limitation of usable doors. Each of these modifications changes the flow into and out of the store.

To increase the space between shoppers, doors should be clearly marked for exit and entry. At the same time, many stores are limiting the number of useable entries to ensure shoppers receive clean carts and hand sanitizer. The space between check stands and grocery aisles should increase so shoppers do not block the aisles while standing in line. Check stands should have greater space between shoppers and employees and between shoppers in different check stands, Price points out.

These changes to the traditional shopping environment will protect employee and shopper health. At the same time, there has been a decrease of in-store shopping and a significant increase in online ordering, curbside pick-up and contactless grocery delivery during the pandemic.

This has resulted in a new kind of shopper: delivery shoppers or those shopping for curbside or home delivery, Price says. Designing for this type of shopping requires a separate entry where delivery shoppers can enter through a side door to pick up pre-packed goods, both dry and refrigerated. A customer-restricted area must be provided for preparing and storing these orders.

“Delivery shoppers will need access to a different piece of checkout software,” Price tells GlobeSt.com. “This evolving operation needs to be maintained and secured so that there is no loss to the traditional customer. Creating this space may change the flow pattern within the store substantially.”

The script of the former traditional shopper is to enter through the front door, shop and wait in a checkout line. With COVID-19 still infectious, shoppers are left looking for credible and practical information to keep themselves, fellow shoppers, and grocery workers safe and healthy. Traditional design must pivot to keep in line with healthy best practices to ensure the safety of consumers and employees, Price points out.