1st Urban Woodlands Market Breathes New Life into San Francisco Neighborhood
At a Glance: Woodlands Market
- Address: 203 Folsom St., San Francisco, CA 94105
- Total square footage: 9,500
- Selling area: 8,000 square feet
- SKUs: 5,500
- Employees: 75
- Checkouts: Four
- Designers: Commercial Design Systems Inc.; Rubber Design
Store designers had to contend with 12 concrete pillars running through the space that hold up the building. Most of the store is located under the eight-story wing of the complex, but a portion is part of the 42-story wing. The other challenge was that the space is long and fairly narrow.
The store is located slightly below street level, necessitating a ramp for accessibility, which eats up fair amount of space. Additionally, the whole side of the store that fronts the street is all windows, which allows in a lot of natural light, but also limits what can be merchandised along that wall.
Some of the pillars could be incorporated into the design of the departments to become less visible, while those that had to remain exposed were wrapped in wood to help soften all of the exposed steel and duct work of the industrial-looking space. The long footprint lent itself to lots of showcases displaying the store’s prepared and fresh food departments. The location dedicates most of its retail space to perishables. (All storage and refrigeration/freezer equipment is housed downstairs.)
The overall aesthetic that Santa wanted to create was rooted in a subtle, pleasant shopping experience, and he paid close attention to the effects of the lighting on the textures that he chose to use, which include wood to soften the stainless steel, and tile on the walls in the prepared foods department. He also opted to forgo the wood floor that his two Marin County stores have in favor of a concrete floor in San Francisco for a more urban feel. The steel I-beams were kept exposed not only to add to the industrial, urban feel, but also to create a feeling of volume and height.
Perishables as Sales Driver
Santa consciously devoted less space to center store than to perishables because he anticipated that in the urban location, the “driver is definitely the prepared foods side and fresh produce.” A lot of the San Francisco customers don’t cook much, so the store offers a variety of house-made entrées to go, including pasta, salads, sushi, poké, sandwiches and soups.
“We do everything from organic chicken to Mexican poké to sushi. Sushi has always been a strong category, and these guys do a really great job. But it’s been a better-than-expected representation of our sales as a percentage as it compares to our other stores,” Santa notes. “Soon we’ll have a ramen bar.”
The city location offers more smaller-portion options and more to-go items than the Marin County stores, and the center store items also come in smaller sizes, with fewer family-size options available.
Focus on Private Label
While Woodlands may be among small independent grocers, it still offers a selection of private label items, including olive oils, salad dressings, wines, bottled water and even skin care. The move into private label was precipitated by the relationships that Santa developed with manufacturers willing to work with the company’s recipes/formulas.
“It’s been a great piece of what we do,” he notes. “It makes you a player and gives you a stake in the game, because the demands are such that we’re all jockeying for the same attention, the same dollar. What’s going to set you apart? What’s going to make you unique? We’ve been doing it on some level or another as long as I can remember.”