Retail Customer Experience: GlobalShop - Walmart on the Return of Retail Architecture
Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from Retail Customer Experience, a daily news portal devoted to helping retailers differentiate the shopping experience.
The history of retail architecture is a giant circle that is now closing in on itself: from store designs that echoed the aesthetic of their community to giant concrete boxes and now back to local influences and materials. In the Friday morning keynote session at the recent GlobalShop event, two high-level members of the Walmart architecture and design team discussed why that shift is so important, and how it is overcoming some of the negative associations shoppers have with big boxes.
Lisa Spinks, senior architectural manager for Walmart, and Lee Peterson, executive vice president of creative services for retail design firm WD Partners, shared a brief history of retail architecture, from a Kresge store in 1899 with apartments above, to the birth of the automobile (and one of its progeny, the shopping mall), to the concrete slab approach of the first big-box stores, concluding with the rise of the lifestyle center in 2000, which Mr. Peterson said is "the beginning of branded architecture."
Ms. Spinks admitted that Walmart's visual and architectural execution over the years has been uneven at best. A series of slides showed store after store, all with different color schemes, exterior logos placed in almost haphazard format, and a design aesthetic that at times approached brutalism.
"Even the logo, we couldn't manage to execute consistently -- it's on different background colors every time, it's in different form every time," she said.
Her team developed what would become the company's "brand filter," a set of statements that would have to be satisfied by everything the company does, beginning with store architecture. According to the brand filter, Walmart must be:
- Caring (compassionate, not cold)
- Real (approachable, not phony)
- Innovative (smart, not complacent)
- Straightforward (simple, not complicated)
- Positive (motivating, not pessimistic)
In practical terms, some of the changes to the architecture that arose included more depth to the store façade, a sort of return to the "cityscape" design of that 1899 Kresge store, or the original Macy's location. The new design would be modeled slightly on residential design, with greenery out front and different colors of brick.
The end result sees the store's façade divided into three visual zones. The "customer zone" stretches from ground level to eight-feet up. This area is filled with elements and materials that tie the store to the community -- local building materials, architectural flourishes and designs that reflect other prominent buildings nearby. The "approachable zone," from eight-feet to 16-feet up, includes friendly and functional elements like awnings and signage that tells shoppers which entrance is which. Everything above 16-feet is reserved for Walmart's brand elements.
The result, Ms. Spinks said, is an "approachable, caring, soft approach to our building ... an inviting streetscape."
"It's come full circle," Mr. Peterson added. "There are greenscapes, there are awnings, there are residential elements. It's a completely different ball game."
Discussion Questions: What have you noticed regarding store design changes at big boxes? In what areas do you think big boxes should look to further improve on their architecture and overall appearance?