Thanks to a recent makeover, Romeo’s IGA in Sydney’s Summer Hill looks more like a European food hall than your local supermarket. The brief for the fitout was to cater to the needs of local shoppers while providing a customer experience that echoed a fresh food market.
This translates to a European-style space complete with a cheese room, fresh produce marketplace, delicatessen, bakery, fish monger, and butchery with dry ageing room.
There is also an authentic Italian three-wheeler Apelino displaying fresh flowers and herbs to help set the scene.
Each food counter has its own colour scheme to emphasise its specific offering, for example the dark red lighting and black tiles in the dry ageing room.
With increasing competition from both local and international grocery players, Romeo’s IGA owner Joseph Romeo said the refresh was his way of standing out.
“With retail giant Amazon opening its first store in Australia later this month, we now have more competition than ever within the crowded retail space,” he said. “Our commitment to brand new store design, fresh produce, local service and price matching is how we aim to keep our customers happy and coming back time and again.”
Rod Faucheux, Director of the design firm that completed the project, loopcreative, said the biggest challenge was working around the store’s opening hours.
“With the 2,000 square metre supermarket needing to remain open during the construction phase, the challenge was to build within a tight and efficient program, and often at night,” he explained.
“This meant a pre-fabrication of many items to ensure that the time on site was kept to a minimum.”
Other design details include moody lighting in place of traditional fluro and a combination of timer and cobblestone-printed vinyl for the flooring.
By Ruth Cooper
