Launched in December 2005, this Heemskerk-based store is one that customers themselves are helping to build through their feedback on what they want their neighborhood supermarket to be.
Albert Heijn looked at home and abroad for inspiration about how to design the new supermarket. They used feedback from their own stores and from those around the Ahold group. They went out and "adopted" around 50 families - joining them to go shopping, eating with them, and even doing the washing up - to get a better understanding of what families wanted and needed from their local supermarket.
The result is range of goods and services on offer in the Heemskerk supermarket that is being tailored to meet the needs and preferences of customers in that community. If the project proves successful, Albert Heijn will use this model to help design more next generation stories around The Netherlands.
Customers to determine store future
The concept is simple - different customers want and need different things. The store's job is to try and satisfy them all. Albert Heijn's store managers continually encourage customers to give feedback that will help determine the way the store evolves in the future.
It is Albert Heijn's customers who will determine the future of the Heemskerk supermarket and the shape of other stores in the new format. Heemskerk customers told managers the new store's assortment needed to be broader than they had originally offered and Albert Heijn responded by adding hundreds of products to store shelves.
If customers like the result, other supermarkets based on the model of the Heemskerk new generation store will be introduced into other communities in the future. And customers in those communities will help determine the design and layout of those stores too.
More convenience, new technology
The Heemskerk supermarket has been built around making shopping more convenient for Albert Heijn's customers there. New technology has been introduced to save them time, and activities such as cleaning and stocking shelves are planned as much as possible to take place outside of peak opening times.
The store has a wide range of both branded and private label goods and bread baked fresh all day. There are also other goods not usually found in Dutch supermarkets, including pharmaceutical products and general merchandise such as DVDs and books.
More staff are also on hand to offer assistance and the carefully designed floor layout with widers aisles is intended to make it easier for customers to find products and compare different alternatives.
In addition, mobile communication devices and a centralized administration system have freed managers from their offices so they too can spend more time on the supermarket floor helping customers and supervising associates.
What's in store?
Here are some of the other ways that this next generation Albert Heijn store is meeting customers' needs.
- Choose and Cook. Customers can choose four products from a range of 60 adding up to a complete meal for a family of four that takes no more than 15 minutes to cook and costs just eight euros.
- Kid's corner. Parents can leave their children in a special area of the store dedicated to children, where they can play and watch videos while their parents shop.
- Buying in bulk. The Heemskerk store offers a wide range of everyday items at attractive prices - often at a discount to Albert Heijn's other stores - making the store more attractive for people who buy in bulk.
- Special offer isle. Goods with the biggest price reductions are collected in one isle, making the best deals easier to find.
- Self scanners/self checkout. Customers can scan and bag their goods as they shop, and pay at an automated cash register, reducing checkout time.
- Cooled produce. Fruits and vegetables that need to be kept cool as displayed cooled in the store, meaning they will stay fresh longer.