Taking Liberties

Against all odds, A&P unveils a new concept for an urban Superfresh that sates its diverse neighborhood's hunger for food and a community focal point.

As if in sync with the fortunes of its surrounding community, the newly minted Superfresh in the Northern Liberties neighborhood of Center City Philadelphia requires shoppers to ascend to gain entry.

Accessible by stairs or elevator on 2nd Street, the anchor of a still-under-construction 100,000-square-foot shopping center fronting Girard Avenue is the long-awaited linchpin of a massive redevelopment initiative that's been brewing — in a manner of speaking — for 10 years at the site of the city's once-beloved but long-defunct Schmidt's Brewery.

Near the store is a statue of Don Quixote, which seems to embody the hopes and aspirations of a neighborhood on the rise. But unlike the fantasies of the fictional would-be knight, the dream that produced this dynamic location at last became a reality, thanks in no small part to the vision and hard work of a contingent of allied partners, including developer Bart Blatstein, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776, and Superfresh's parent, the Montvale, N.J.-based Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., which declared bankruptcy in the midst of the final stages of the store's critical development phase.

º Superfresh

180 W. Girard Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19123

Grand Opening: Aug. 26, 2011

Total Square Footage: 51,000 square feet

Selling Area: 41,000 square feet

Number of SKUs: 30,000-plus

Estimated Total Weekly Sales: $450,000*

Employees: 120

Checkouts: 12 traditional, five self-checkouts

Hours: Store: Monday-Saturday 7 a.m.-Midnight,

Sunday 7 a.m.-10 p.m.; Pharmacy: Monday-

Friday 9 a.m.-9 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m.-6 p.m.,

Sunday 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Store Designer: In-house

As its first new supermarket to open in the Delaware Valley in more than a decade, the urban chic Superfresh symbolizes the company's central goal to emerge from a tough period wiser, stronger and better equipped to compete, according to A&P's president and CEO, Sam Martin.

After surmounting the complications triggered in the aftermath of the bankruptcy filing, there was much work to be done to bring the new store to completion, foremost being a total refurbishment of the location — a former three-decade-old Pathmark — within an abrupt eight-week time frame. As Tom O'Boyle, A&P's EVP of merchandising, marketing and supply & logistics, explains: “We wanted to first make sure that we did all of our due diligence. When we realized it was absolutely the right decision,” he continues, the project commenced at warp speed.

Among the nuggets of information unearthed during the retailer's due diligence on the project was the evolving character of the area, which is currently undergoing gentrification but still has many low-income residents. “I have been amazed at how well we were able to get it right out of the gate,” marvels O'Boyle. “We spent a lot of time down here researching the competition, researching the customer, talking to the local constituents. We did a lot of work here, and it just goes to show that if you open your eyes and your ears, the customers will tell you what the marketplace wants, and you're going to get a lot more right than wrong. The biggest learning for me is if you use the information provided to you, you come up with a great answer.”

O'Boyle credits city authorities, including Mayor Nutter, who “was very helpful in explaining to us, and helping us understand, what the future of this marketplace looks like. So we put an offering together that we thought projected what customers were looking for,” he adds.

Park It in the Deli

From the first foot out of the elevator, the store delivers on its unusual upper-level setting with a stunning view of the downtown Philly skyline. Also made possible by the store's unique setting is another prized feature — rare for the city, where real estate is at a premium — in the form of a 97-space lot offering free parking.

“I can tell you that our customers are happy as can be that there's a parking lot off the main street,” affirms O'Boyle, in a figurative nod to Philadelphia's infamous parking issues, chronicled on A&E's reality television series, “Parking Wars,” which follows city traffic enforcement employees as they ticket, boot and tow vehicles as part of their routine parking enforcement duties. In addition to ample free parking, there are train, bus and trolley stops all within two blocks of the location, as well as a recently installed bike rack that's a boon for the many area cyclists who drop by the store.

Other key elements in the store's success are its layout and décor. “If you think about the way we did this store — the core package, the signage, the way-finding, the visual integration — it's just a very comfortable place to shop,” says O'Boyle. Moreover, three price scanners throughout the store allow customers to check what items cost without having to summon an associate. “To me, this is just doing it right,” he says of the location's overall approach.

As in many grocery stores, the entrance leads directly into a colorful, high-impact floral and produce section. “The first thing we wanted to do as you enter the store is… give people that first impression of‘wow,’” says O'Boyle of the locally focused section, explaining that organic items are integrated not only in produce, but also throughout the store.

Produce gives way to a dynamic prepared food and deli section boasting soup, wing and olive bars, in addition to a fried chicken program O'Boyle describes as “the best … you're going to find anywhere”. The department sees the most traffic from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., notes District Manager Kevin Reger, adding that things are particularly busy before Phillies and Eagles games. To capitalize further on local sports loyalties, a tailgate-themed display close to the entrance offers hometown team-themed edibles.

Also in the deli is a world-class specialty cheese case offering about 200 SKUs in an assortment specially tailored to the community, although making a request for a product not in the store is as easy as flipping a page. A laminated binder by the case, containing information on up to 2,000 varieties, not only gives customers the chance to educate themselves on the cheeses' characteristics, but also to identify which items they'd like the store to carry. Meanwhile, the deli service counter offers A&P's own Hartford Reserve line of cold cuts and cheeses, along with longtime Philly favorites from the city's well-earned first name in deli fare, Dietz & Watson.

Crown Roast and Chitlins

Over in the meat and seafood departments, in a reflection of Northern Liberties' broad range of residents, are amply stocked cases featuring a wide variety of items at equally varied and attractive price points. Along with fresh-caught whole fish, clams and oysters on ice for an authentic fish market ambiance, the seafood section provides filets and pre-seasoned items for convenience. Among the protein items receiving pride of place in the 20-foot service meat case are A&P's Woodson &James Angus beef program and the retailer's humanely raised, antibiotic-free Mid-Atlantic Country Farms chicken.

From chitlins to crown roast of lamb, the well appointed meat department “really talks to the diversity in the marketplace, and it really talks to our responsibility to make sure that we're giving the local customers what they're looking for,” O'Boyle affirms.

The nearby bakery section, meanwhile, offers a tantalizing array of baked goods, many of them crafted on premises, with gluten- and sugar-free selections available, while the service counter provides character cakes starring such celebrities as Dora the Explorer and Captain America. “Our bakery program is going to meet any household need that you have, and we'll really be able to take care of each of the consumer need states within that [segment],” observes O'Boyle. “If you go around the perimeter of the store, it really shouts to creating that local marketplace.”

O'Boyle characterizes the location's overall percentage of total sales in fresh, particularly deli, as “remarkable” and trending “substantially higher than that of an average store. If you deliver the right offering and value to customers within those segments, it's going to really take off,” which he says is attributable to “the fact that the community was underserved for so long, but also to the natural demand” for high-quality perishables.

Center and Front

Even center store, often one of the less imaginative areas of a store, is thoughtfully laid out with wide, inviting aisles and what O'Boyle calls an” incredibly deep and dense” product assortment catering to the wide-ranging shopping needs of the neighborhood, while also taking sustainability into account. For instance, all dairy and frozen product in both of those extensive sections is housed in sleek closed cases rather than the more common open models, as an energy-saving measure. The frozen section also boasts an impressive selection of pizzas, including A&P's America's Choice brand, which, along with the grocer's other private label offerings, is growing in penetration as local shoppers discover that their quality compares favorably with that of the national brands, O'Boyle notes.

Logic guides the positioning of products in the aisles, with such examples as produce leading right into salad dressings. “It's more than just putting products on a shelf,” observes O'Boyle. “Adjacencies that we have within each aisle are very well thought out,” he says, adding, “Every subcategory is studied to make sure it's exactly what's important to shoppers.”

Other center store standouts include an international foods aisle carrying a host of brands dear to customers of Latino, Caribbean and Middle Eastern descent, among others. “Our international aisle has been huge,” says Store Manager Tom Haley. “It's been a great success. We have, just in that aisle, over 20 vendors that offer a wide variety of items, from Mediterranean items to our kosher offering to our Hispanic offering. We have a huge mix in the aisle that's been very well received.”

Meanwhile, the gluten-free product lineup is both “integrated and segregated,” according to O'Boyle, who explains: “You'll see it throughout the store, but then we've got a gluten-free section that stands by itself. The idea is that customers today shop for their basic needs within those sections [and] they want to be able to find those things, but then those unique items that aren't really mainstream, you want to give them a chance to get [them]” as well.

The front end also presents some innovative features, including a service center that's centrally located amid the checkout lanes, rather than shunted off to the side. “It gives customers a place to go,” explains O'Boyle, who refers to it as “a gathering spot. There's always someone behind that counter” to help shoppers.

Another front end amenity is wireless capability in the self-checkout terminals that enables associates to assist customers remotely, thereby making the process a whole lot easier. “We're user-friendly, much more quick, and that really [reduces] the frustration of the customer,” says Reger.

Regarding self-checkouts themselves, which have lately become a point of differentiation for certain grocers that have discontinued their use, O'Boyle is philosophical. “There's a lot of customers who say that they love the ease and simplicity; there are some that don't want to do it,” he says. “We like to give customers the choice.”

‘This store is really an example of what our organization is going to become…’ — Tom O'Boyle, A&P's EVP of merchandising, marketing and supply & logistics

A Drug Store Inside a Food Store

Also within the Northern Liberties Superfresh is a full-service pharmacy with an adjacent HBC selection that, in terms of depth, rivals the offerings of any CVS or Walgreens. “We've expanded some of the space allocations in some categories — feminine hy, personal care, soaps, washes — and we've tried to say, ‘These are the categories that customers are looking for; these are the ones we want to go ahead and serve,’” explains. O'Boyle. “We're doing what we can to take care of that. You've got a hair care section, a cosmetic section; it's got all the items that you're going to need.”

The reason for this was that the neighborhood wasn't just a food desert, but also a medication desert. “We found that this [area] was very underserved from both a food and a drug perspective,” affirms O'Boyle, adding that programs such as offering flu shots to customers, pharmacy deliveries and a wellness program further serve local residents' health-and-wellness needs. “When customers come in, we can be a solution for the sick [and] we can be a destination for the healthy,” he says.

What the Future Looks Like

Since the store's opening in late August, management has made what O'Boyle refers to as only “a few cosmetic tweaks,” including the installation of some small fixtures, subtle changes to the perishable shop, and the ordering of more handbaskets and smaller, two-tier carts to accommodate the sizeable walk-in trade (estimated at about 35 percent of total customers), as well as the addition of the aforementioned bike rack, the impact of which Haley calls “huge.”

The retailer remains on its toes regarding any future changes that might be necessary, however. “We go through, every 30 days, a review to make sure that we've got it right,” says O'Boyle.

For his part, Haley is particularly gratified by the reactions of regular shoppers, many of whom come in just about every day. “We've actually had customers cry as soon as they walk in the front door,” he recounts.

“There hasn't been a supermarket in this community in close to 30 years. The reaction from the customers has been great, and the good thing is we're listening to their feedback.”

Beyond what it means to Northern Liberties, the location represents something important to parent company A&P as well. “This store is really an example of what our organization is going to become,” asserts O'Boyle.

“This was our first chance to come in and say, 'What do we really think we stand for; how do we differentiate how we serve the community?' This store represents the store of the neighborhood,” which he says is part and parcel of the company's goal of building community-based stores.

“This is what we think the future looks like,” he continues. “It may look very different in an 18,000-square-foot store in Manhattan, and it may look very different in a 61,000-square-foot store in Edison, N.J. But that's the general concept: Leading in with the customer first.”