Improving the customer experience, making a more efficient circulation flow, and improving the street presence through transparency and a bright interior environment were the driving forces behind this design.

Alberta Co-op hired Propel Studio as architect to design, permit, and support the realization of their refreshed commercial tenant interior in their space within an existing mixed-use building. Working with staff from the Albert Cooperative Grocery, we developed a scheme that will redesign the entire customer experience from the streetfront to the checkout lines. With the tight confines of the existing building we looked for ways to make the circulation of the store more efficient, create more impactful displays for products, and rework the storefront to be more open and transparent. To accomplish these goals we completely redesigned the checkout counters, transforming them into a sculptural island that offers checkouts on one side with new product display on the other. This new layout solves their current circulation challenges of people waiting in line for checkout blocking circulation around the aisles.

As with all commercial retail spaces, attracting foot traffic and drawing people into the store is imperative for growth. Our design aims to create a more transparent storefront, by cleaning up and organizing the window displays, moving shelving and product storage that was previously blocking some of the street front windows, and then adding new lighting to make the interior more transparent and welcoming to customers.

The other main challenge is to accomplish the renovations in as short a timeframe as possible to limit store closure and loss of sales. We worked closely with the general contractor to create a compact and efficient construction schedule with the goal of only closing the store to customers for one week.

For more information about our experience and process as architect on commercial design, please visit this page.