The Possible Dream

Combining unusual remodeling ideas with unorthodox merchandising tactics and supermarket architectural services by CONCEPTS-ENTERPRISE helped make the store Bill Wooley dreamed of running a smash success.

Thirty years ago, Bill Woolley had a dream that someday "I'll run the nicest store on Long Island." Today, he feels he has fulfilled that dream with the Foodtown he owns in Northport, N.Y.

Woolley's dream has come true through the expansion and remodeling of a 12,000-square-foot supermarket he has operated since 1972.

Northport, an affluent community on Long Island's North Shore, boasts a demographic cluster of consumers that can easily support a top-of-the-line supermarket.  And since the commercial development of Northport is tightly controlled, it was highly unlikely that new competition would be able to enter the market.

"The store had an excellent track record and a low mortgage rate, plus a good location that could be reached by a lot of people," Woolley says.

To help transform his concepts into reality, Woolley hired Richard Paroly of CONCEPTS-ENTERPRISE, a Port Washington, N.Y.-based architectural firm.

"Architects have traditionally not taken supermarkets seriously," says Paroly, 33, who received an early appreciation of supermarkets because his father, Bernard Paroly, is President of Pathmark.  "Yet supermarkets offer an outstanding challenge.  In addition to the building design, we included store planning, interior design, and merchandising in our thinking."

Working within the parameters dictated by the shell of the old store and the piece of land upon which they were expanding, Woolley and Paroly began planning the expansion last autumn.  The design and merchandising focus of the remodeled store would be on service departments, such as deli and fish.

Woolley explains, "I wanted to create a shopping experience that was a step above anything that anybody in town had ever experienced.  The new store would be the supermarket of the future, a place that people in 1990 could look at and say,  'That Foodtown showed the grocery industry how food stores should be.'"

Woolley and Paroly positioned the service departments in the new section of the store and gave each a distinct identity through varying ceiling heights, decor treatment, signage, and merchandising.  Everything was devised, planned, and implemented within nine months.

Planning and perfecting were continuous throughout the construction of the new part and the facelift of the old section.  As a department started to take shape, Woolley would often have an idea for improvement.  The drawings were adapted, and the new idea implemented.  The store remained open throughout the remodeling.

"My goal was to design a supermarket that reflected the dynamic and intriguing qualities of the service departments,'' Paroly says. "Mr. Woolley has some strong ideas about merchandising perish­ables, such as his insistence on selling fish and seafood on ice.

To highlight the various service depart­ments, Paroly employed varying ceiling heights and lighting techniques. Five dif­ferent ceiling heights are used throughout the store to create different environments in the various departments.

The architectural highlights of the Foodtown include an atrium entrance and a skylight that runs the entire length of the selling area. The skylight effect is car­ried into some perishable departments, such as produce, through the use of arched ceilings and indirect lighting. The Food­town has a bright and clean look with no heavy decor touches.

Since the completion of the remodel­ing, Woolley has been operating his store in a rather unorthodox manner. To intro­duce the service departments, he is lead­ing with perishables instead of groceries. Woolley has converted many customers to his model supermarket. 

More than 21,000 Long Islanders visit his store every week.