A new-look Tesco on London’s Queensway shows a new approach to convenience that is a real departure from the norm for the grocer.

The most common feature of supermarket design is, generally, how plain it is. In this neck of the retail woods changes to store design tend to happen by degrees – so big are the estates of the major grocers that if anything is done that might knock things out of kilter then it is likely to be shelved, as it were, for fear of alienating loyal shoppers.

It is a trait that food retail shares with elements of the luxury market where, once a format for an interior is established, subsequent stores tend to look very similar.

Occasionally, however, even the biggest name will do something that genuinely surprises and which might actually make shoppers reassess their view of a retailer.

A trip to London’s Queensway, just along the road from Marble Arch, illustrates how this can be the case.

This is the location of a new-look Tesco convenience store that, while different from the rest of the grocer’s estate, is very much in tune with current thinking about urban food shopping.

Shopping mission

Tesco UK retail director Tony Hoggett says the store is about “mission-based” shopping and that translates into a heavy emphasis on fresh: “This is broadly about a 60/40 fresh food/grocery split, which is almost the opposite of what we would normally do in a store of this size.

Tesco Queensway 4

Tesco Queensway 4

The store features a 60/40 fresh food/grocery split, which is almost the opposite for a store of this size

“How do you create a store that’s about a credible food for now offer that also has a measure of top-up?”

Hoggett says it is not a matter of “stretching” a food for now Express store and neither is it about slimming down a top-up Metro store as “this also doesn’t work”. Instead, the exterior of the Queensway branch carries neither the Express nor Metro fascia – the single word Tesco carries the weight of the enterprise.

Tesco Queensway 17

Tesco Queensway 17

The store uses a silver logo set against a black background, making it ‘quieter’ than might normally be expected from a Tesco store

Visually, it is surprisingly low key. In place of the usual mix of red, white and blue, the logo is silver and set against a black background, making it ‘quieter’ than might normally be expected from a Tesco store.   

And walking into the shop from the busy environs of Queensway, the initial feeling is indeed one of peace and quiet. In part, this has to do with the lighting of the interior.

In place of the usual high level of ambient light, there are pendant lights and spotlights attached to gantries, meaning that there are low and highlights across the store.

This is an increasingly common trend in supermarket design across the more forward-thinking, smaller grocers, as well as Waitrose, but it is signally absent among the bigger players in most locations.

“The sense is almost one of a fashion environment in which food happens to have been placed”

John Ryan

Couple this with the fact that the ceiling is a black void in which the gantries are suspended, and the sense is almost one of a fashion environment in which food happens to have been placed. The use of dark, rather than neutral or light-coloured floor tiles completes the look.

Cost considerations

Hoggett says that while it may all look a little on the modish side, there are also financial implications. For instance, leaving the ceiling as a void, rather than covering it up, has meant a cost saving.

Tesco Queensway 10

Tesco Queensway 10

In place of the usual ambient light, there are pendant lights and spotlights attached to gantries, meaning that there are low and highlights across the store

The same is true of the raw concrete pillars. This may look like a fairly heavily designed store environment, but it is also one where a close eye has been kept on the build cost.

The effect of using a darker than normal palette of materials is that it gives the product the chance to shine. The generally bright colours of the fresh produce should be allowed to do the talking, rather than being overshadowed by a magnolia floor as might have been the case in the past.

Head beyond the initial fresh offer, noting the careful display of fresh fruit and veg – which has a genuinely market feel about it – and there are a series of small stock vignettes that lift their immediate surroundings.

The mid-shop fresh olives counter, clad in dark wood, is a case in point. The wall against which this piece of equipment sits features white tiles, and the contrast between this and the wooden casing creates an upscale feel.

Tesco Queensway 8

Tesco Queensway 8

The fresh olives counter has an upscale feel

The same is true of the world beer display. This may be a vehicle for displaying Budweiser, Franziskaner, Newcastle Brown and suchlike – all of which are relatively mainstream players in the beer pantheon – but the use of wooden signage with white writing set against a white pillar means that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Tesco Queensway 5

Tesco Queensway 5

The slick-looking self-scan terminals accept card payments only

Once more, the fit-out and choice of materials helps to foster the sense of a curated food hall as much as a supermarket. And yet this remains a relatively low-cost store design.

At the end of the shopping journey, the check-outs place a strong emphasis on speed.

The slick-looking self-scan terminals accept card payments only, meaning that any possible delays caused by shoppers trying to find the appropriate coins and notes for their shopping basket will be eliminated.

New formats

This is a trial store and the same is true of the layout and interior of the Tesco Extra supermarket in Newmarket.

“This may look like a fairly heavily designed store environment, but it is also one where a close eye has been kept on the build cost”

John Ryan

Hoggett says in that location “the full frontage of the store is fresh”. That means that the initial 15,000 sq ft of a 60,000 sq ft shop is exclusively dedicated to fresh – and the produce dominates the view entirely on entering the supermarket.

For Hoggett this represents “an element of the supermarket in a hypermarket”.

Are Tesco shoppers about to see replicas of what has been done in Queensway and Newmarket elsewhere? Maybe, but as Hoggett explains: “It’s very early days. We’re really pleased with the results so far. We really like the design and we’ll ask our customers whether they like it as well.”

Tesco Queensway 15

Tesco Queensway 15

Tesco will consider customer feedback before rolling out the format to more stores

The Queensway shop is certainly a departure and those familiar with Tesco interiors will probably be surprised, pleasantly so, by what has been done.

Given the homogeneity that tends to inform supermarket design, it is good to see that something different is being done by the outfit that remains, by a very considerable distance, the biggest beast in the UK retail jungle.

Tesco, Queensway

Size 6362 sq ft

Opened October, 2015

Ambience Urban market

Highlights Dark ceiling and floor, accent lighting, brick walls and concrete mid-shop pillars

Store design Mission-based