Panorama Lunghezza (Rome): Great Italian Hypermarket and Different Configuration

Once again, our Italian guest columnist, Antonello Vilardi, shares with us the latest retail trends happening in Europe, this time in a feature on a hypermarket in Rome.

By Antonello Vilardi

With a retail area that goes over the 12,300 square meters, this hypermarket, located in the modern shopping center ROMA EST (via Collatina, 858/860 - Rome), is characterized by large size and internal configuration atypical.

Generally, at least in Italy, customers are used to meet at the entrance of the hypermarket the promotion of the moment, extensive, well-standardized, readable, with fruits and vegetables located at the end of trail, with the rest of the products belonging to the area of fresh.

In the case of PANORAMA LUNGHEZZA is just the opposite: the fruit and vegetable department is the first to welcome the consumer; the promotional offer of the moment, in its total concentration, is instead at the end of the sales area,visible only after finishing the tour route and purchase.

The food sector of consumer goods, in industrial packaging, has departments each of which enjoys, in particular, the specific areas on which to display their promotions. 

The analysis of the layout gives rise to three questions, which arise spontaneously and are:

1. Why fruits and vegetables are to be placed in the bottom of the shopping cart, at the beginning of the route ?

The products in question have obviously special delicacy and huge spaces surrounding recall a variety of assortment that lead the visitor to fill gradually the cart, while fruit and vegetables remains under; this can be avoided only at the cost of continued accommodation of loads along the way. 

2. Why this hypermarket, the position given to fresh and very fresh, evokes a regular supermarket proximity ?

The fruits and vegetables in supermarkets proximity inspires factors related to the purchase repeated, daily, suggesting positioning input; the hypermarket should stand on a very different nature, which does not require frequent visits, this format is more dispersive, exists as a powerful locomotive that pulls the mall, if anything, is visited by a weekly shopping or twice a week, to find everything at reasonable prices.

The choice made of fruits and vegetables, due to our questions 1 and 2, is questionable but suddenly finds the general sense when you notice that fresh and very fresh are at the entrance, to captivate the perception of quality and dramatize spaces; also fruits and vegetables achieve thus its level of consistency in the context, which would be abnormal differently.

3. Why the institutional promotion is at the end of path ?

The purpose of explanation we give, here follows a reasoning extremely commercial: the consumer is induced to cover the vast area of sale, with all that offers in terms of variety and quantity, before moving to the institutional offers, advertised in the promotional catalog and well-known to the public. 

Lay out.

• 30 cash desks, in addition to 9 workstations fast, mode "self";
• entrance with fruit and vegetables, large corner of plants and flowers on the right;
• Area Ristoro (Dining Area) on the left, with tables and chairs, with the provision of the products produced "on-site";
• Bakery and pastry with dispensers and scales to accommodate the free service;
• Fishmonger in service, with a bath containing lobster and crab Atlantic;
• Bench cut meats and cheeses;
• "sushi daily" space;
• Butcher matched with a special section dedicated to "ready to cook, production Panorama";
• Frozen Foods and Perishable to Free Service;
• Grocery and follow Textiles, Bazaar, Appliances and Technology;
• present Optical and desk assisted with “parapharmaceutical products”.
• Promotional Flyer.
• From September 7 to 1", 36 pages, excessively voluminous, without framing the prices of the items, front page with a single reference heavily discounted (at least in appearance, because the framing is not there): detergent powder for washing machine DASH, hunk 100 scoops, at the price of € 12.99.
• Selling prices to the public.

Below is a representation of references pertaining to the industry brand, normally good rotation:

• S. ANNA natural water 2 l. € 0.44
• LEVISSIMA natural water 1.5 l. € 0.46
• Pasta BARILLA 500 g. € 0.79
• Extra virgin olive oil MONINI "Classic" 1 l. € 5.79
• COCA COLA (COKE) 2 l. € 1.99
• COCA COLA (COKE) 1.5 l. € 1.55
• COCA COLA (COKE) 1 l. € 1.09
• PANORAMA granulated sugar 1 kg. € 0.90

PANORAMA Lunghezza, via Collatina 858/860 - Rome, Shopping Center "ROMA EST":
Indoors: 4
Customer Focus: 2
Readability of the promotional flyer: 1
Competitive price: 3
Assortment: 5
(Scale of values: 0, lowest - 5, highest)