Italian slow food chain Eataly is yet to come to this country, but the big grocers could learn a lot from what it does elsewhere.

Just before Christmas, Eataly, the Italian-based purveyor of all things to do with Italian food and dining, opened a store in Munich.

Housed in a former market hall, this looks for all the world like a market, except that it isn’t; it is rather more.

Eataly Munich Tommy Losch

Eataly Munich Tommy Losch

Eataly’s latest store in Munich store is contained within the city’s central Schrannenhalle, a former covered market

This is a big enterprise, that plays host to a range of Italian restaurants and if a coffee is what’s required, then there’s a cafe that’s as good as anything that you’re likely to come across in Milan.

And the strange thing perhaps is that this phenomenon started life in Turin, selling Italian food in an Italian theme park-like environment to Italians.

Coals to Newcastle maybe, but this doesn’t appear to have in any way impeded its progress and now there are outposts in the US, Turkey and Japan, among others.

Setting the tone

It isn’t cheap, yet for whatever reason the branch that is on Fifth Avenue in New York is rarely anything other than packed.

But what makes it worth paying over the odds for everything from pasta to olive oil and why do shoppers feel good about this?

The answer once more has to be the store environment.

“What Eataly has succeeded in doing is creating spaces where the shopper may not actually want to leave”

John Ryan

What Eataly has succeeded in doing is creating spaces where the shopper may not actually want to leave. In the New York branch there is even a “Birreria”, about 17 floors up, where when the shopper has had enough of perusing fancy Italian comestibles, there are local brews on offer and, of course, an Italian restaurant.

So what does this add up to? A place where paying £2.00 for a tomato seems like a good idea? Well, yes and rather more to the point, there are many who will return to do the same thing time after time.

A template to follow

In a way, it’s what Whole Foods Market does, but with a rather more niche offer.

So what’s to be learnt from all of this? For supermarkets, it must surely be the power of the market.

It’s probably insufficient to put fresh fruit and veg in wicker baskets and then hope that people will have visions of wandering into Barcelona’s La Boqueria or perhaps, closer to home, Borough Market in London.

The truth of the matter is that if you want shoppers to feel that they are in anything more than a utilitarian grocery store, then colour, skillful visual merchandising and a sense of abundance have to be deployed.

To date, only Eataly does this, and it is doing well, even allowing for ambitious prices.