Design Firm Chosen for Nonprofit Pa. Grocery Store
Delaware Valley hunger relief organization Philabundance has retained New York-based brand agency and retail design consultancy CBX to design a prototype for Fare & Square, a not-for-profit grocery store scheduled to open this summer in the metro-Philadelphia food desert of Chester, Pa., which has not had a full-scale grocer since 2001.
Fare & Square will carry nutritious food staples, particularly fresh produce, meats, dairy, seafood and frozen foods, at everyday low prices. Chester is one of the 35 food deserts in the Delaware Valley according to the USDA.
After buying the town’s former grocery building at 3109 West 9th Street, Philabundance tasked CBX with creating a color and material palette, as well as signage and graphics, for the 13,000-square-foot site. The agency will also design the store’s perimeter departments and center core. All creative work will be the result of a collaboration between CBX and Philadelphia-based LevLane Advertising, which created the Fare & Square logo with Philabundance. The logo consists of a simple drawing of a purple carrot (with green tops attached) and the words “Fare & Square” set in an outlined box with rounded edges, along with the tagline “good food right around the corner.”
“We’ll be drawing heavily on both the Fare & Square brand direction as envisioned by LevLane and the existing supermarket footprint of the Chester space,” explained Joseph Bona, president of CBX branded environments. The design will encompass functional merchandise fixtures, flooring, lighting and signage.
Under its not-for-profit grocery store model, Fare & Square will provide a customer-focused shopping experience and team with local organizations and businesses to offer a range of community services. One key feature of the store’s overall design “is that it will reflect the hopeful and respectful nature of Philabundance’s goal to serve Chester residents through a store that could look at home in any community,” noted Bona. “Ultimately, we’re designing a neighborhood store that will have the look and feel of a traditional supermarket, in that it’s clean, well lit, convenient and friendly, but also a place that the community can call their own, instilling a sense of optimism, pride and connection.”
“Convenient access to nutritious food is a growing and complex problem across the country and in the Delaware Valley, and one that requires a complex solution,” said Bill Clark, president and executive director of Philadelphia-based Philabundance, which hopes to replicate the Chester model in other communities in the region. “Philabundance has worked on this concept for five years.”
CBX’s client base includes Del Monte, General Mills, Kimberly-Clark, A&P, Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord and Taylor, Wawa, Sunoco and PetroChina.