Last Thursday I had the opportunity to revisit the Supermarket Of The Future. This Co-op is built on the site of the Milan Expo . I was last here in 2015 but this time I had the considerable advantage of a guided tour from the store manager Giovanni, ably translated by my colleague Elly.
The store is located just North-West of central Milan and is a joint venture between Co-op Italia and Accenture. It is a test-bed for new ideas, some of which will eventually be introduced more widely.
The supermarket is a 1500 SKU top-up shop, serving mainly students and affluent locals who are en route to the gym / theatre / cinema located in the same complex. The product selection is skewed towards fresh, healthy, Free From and organic. There is a full-selection Co-op 10 minutes walk away.
The first thing that struck me about the store is the lighting. Compared to a traditional UK supermarket it feels underlit. And this is deliberate. The products are lit, not the store. This creates a much more restful ambience and makes the products the hero. Add in some wide aisles and low shelving that you can see over and the overall feel of the store is spacious and inviting.
This has to be the most digital store I have ever experienced. Screens are everywhere. A large screen runs across the entire length of the back wall, showcasing offers, cookery demos, texts and best-sellers. Then there are stand-alone screens dotted around the store which display full product stories when you scan the barcodes.
And brand new is an app called Shoppy which enables the store to tell you where everything is (via GPS). Plus if you have bacon on your electronic shopping list and you walk past the fixture without buying any, you get an alert to remind you!
Despite this my favourite feature of the store was distinctly low tech. Fresh bread rolls are kept free from grubby hands behind sealed clear plastic screens – to get one you have to use tongs to knock the roll down a central chute, a bit like the grab machines on which you never win anything at seaside arcades.
And the Daterini organic tomatoes were quite simply the most delicious I have ever eaten in any shop, ever. So next time you are in Milan be sure to visit – it is planned for the store to keep evolving as the technology develops.
Tasty.
Photos: Gareth Broom