The Best in Store Design This year’s winning store concepts set the bar on what convenience means By Melissa Kress
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veryone these days seems to want a piece of the “convenience” pie. Bigbox retailers are scaling down to small boxes that consumers can navigate more quickly and easily. Drugstores are adding fresh food and beverages to their traditional health and wellness mix. And grocery stores are increasingly offering online ordering with home delivery or at-store pickup. With competition coming from all angles, it’s more important than ever that convenience stores raise the bar on what “convenience” is and how it’s delivered to today’s harried shoppers. This means innovating in both store design and product offering on a continuous basis. The winners of this year’s Convenience Store News Store Design Contest do just that. From Champlain Oil’s Jiffy Mart store strategically built to serve customers in both New Hampshire and Vermont, to
30 Convenience Store News | NOVEMBER 2014 | WWW.CSNEWS.COM
PDQ Food Stores’ newest location where the design philosophy was to “keep it simple” with an intuitive and fluid floor plan, these award-winning designs are original and modern. The CSNews design awards, now in their ninth year, honor convenience retailers that have created the most exciting, innovative and shopper-friendly looks for their stores. Entries are judged on innovation, creativity and the positive impact of the overall design on the business. Here, we highlight the winners and honorable mentions for Best Original Design (a new build), Best Interior Design (also a new build), Best Sky’s the Limit Remodel (more than $250,000), Best Mid-Budget Remodel ($100,000 to $250,000) and Best Low-Cost Remodel (less than $100,000). The winners and honorable mentions in specialty categories, such as Best Beer Cave, Best Cold Vault, Best Growler Station and Best Graphics, are also featured.