Retail design trends

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Re: Retail design trends

Post by veteran+ »

klkla wrote: September 17th, 2020, 7:53 pm
storewanderer wrote: September 17th, 2020, 6:32 pmThrifty Drug Stores heavily used terrazzo floors in their stores in the 70's and into the 80's. At this point most of those have been covered up with tiles.
A lot of grocery and drug stores used terrazzo in the 50's and 60's because the maintenance costs are very low and it lasts forever. It started to lose it's appeal in the 70's because the colors chosen in the 50's and 60's were no longer fashionable. The cheaper tiles and faux wood that have been used since then are cheaper to maintain and install but don't last as long.

Does any other store besides Publix still use terrazzo?

Many Food Fair stores in Florida had terrazzo floors along with the accompanying rose colored marble store fronts.
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Re: Retail design trends

Post by veteran+ »

pseudo3d wrote: September 17th, 2020, 5:26 pm
BatteryMill wrote: September 17th, 2020, 8:12 am
Super S wrote: September 14th, 2020, 9:47 am I have seen some epoxy based finishes that are used in new builds that hold up fairly well. The white floors in many WinCo stores come to mind.
As a question, does epoxy = terrazzo? I do know terrazzo was quite common in retail buildings before the 2000s.
veteran+ wrote: September 15th, 2020, 7:24 am True..........but I do not often see those replacement tiles matching very well, especially as time goes by due to normal wear and tear.
I will argue that the end result of tile replacement can come out neater than concrete, which is mostly a patchwork job. Even a Walmart I know, which converted its floors to concrete, has a bumpy collage of floors in certain parts of the store.
My Walmart had tiles originally and after 15 years of use, they really looked bad, so when the store expanded to a Supercenter, the tiles got replaced. After another six or seven years, though, the tiles got torn out for polished concrete. Since Walmart doesn't have kiosks and other features like H-E-B that require piping, the polished concrete looked a lot better than H-E-B's did.

Terrazzo I mostly associated with institutional buildings (even in the 1980s, Randhurst Mall got its terrazzo replaced with tiles because of that reason), and the only terrazzo, or terrazzo-style flooring I've seen is in Publix, and occasionally Albertsons perimeters from the late 1990s.
Perhaps.............still don't like that mismatched tile thing.....probably an OCD thing for me.......LOL.
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Re: Retail design trends

Post by BatteryMill »

klkla wrote: September 17th, 2020, 7:53 pm
storewanderer wrote: September 17th, 2020, 6:32 pmThrifty Drug Stores heavily used terrazzo floors in their stores in the 70's and into the 80's. At this point most of those have been covered up with tiles.
A lot of grocery and drug stores used terrazzo in the 50's and 60's because the maintenance costs are very low and it lasts forever. It started to lose it's appeal in the 70's because the colors chosen in the 50's and 60's were no longer fashionable. The cheaper tiles and faux wood that have been used since then are cheaper to maintain and install but don't last as long.

Does any other store besides Publix still use terrazzo?
Hard to tell. Terrazzo is still common in office buildings, but not in retail it seems.

Giant-Landover I believed used terrazzo up until the Ahold era. Most of these floors were ripped out in exchange for linoleum with the "Project Refresh" remodel wave.
Meanwhile, Wegmans implemented this flooring type at new stores through 2009. They have switched to polished concrete since.
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Re: Retail design trends

Post by cjd »

Publix has always used terrazzo in their stores, going back to the 1950s. Our old 1960s Publix had them originally, but in the 1990s when the store was expanded into an adjacent Eckerd, they were covered with white and gray linoleum tiles. Over time, you could see the lines showing through the tiles.

All of the new Publix stores in my area also have terrazzo, it's more of a tannish color than the old ones which were white with green stripes, with metal strips separating the colors. I like the new terrazzo, but I miss the white and green classic Publix look.

I remember some Eckerd drug stores built from I would guess possibly the 1960s up through at least the early 1980s also had terrazzo, it was a brown color if I remember right.

I agree the concrete floors look best in stores that were built with them. At my Walmart there are a lot of lines and places where the concrete feels uneven. To push a shopping cart on it, you can feel that the floor is uneven. It doesn't roll as well there as it does in a store like Home Depot or Lowes that were built with the concrete floors.

I too liked the brown concrete floors that Walmart used to use. It fit in well with the Project Impact decor they were using in the stores that were built at that time. It was a little dark, but since the stores had skylights it helped.

Another thing I like is wood floors. I really like how Winn Dixie combined them with the concrete floors in their Transformational stores, and they have also been back to installing wood floors again in some of their recent remodels.
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Re: Retail design trends

Post by BatteryMill »

cjd wrote: September 18th, 2020, 7:27 pm Publix has always used terrazzo in their stores, going back to the 1950s. Our old 1960s Publix had them originally, but in the 1990s when the store was expanded into an adjacent Eckerd, they were covered with white and gray linoleum tiles. Over time, you could see the lines showing through the tiles.

All of the new Publix stores in my area also have terrazzo, it's more of a tannish color than the old ones which were white with green stripes, with metal strips separating the colors. I like the new terrazzo, but I miss the white and green classic Publix look.

I remember some Eckerd drug stores built from I would guess possibly the 1960s up through at least the early 1980s also had terrazzo, it was a brown color if I remember right.

I agree the concrete floors look best in stores that were built with them. At my Walmart there are a lot of lines and places where the concrete feels uneven. To push a shopping cart on it, you can feel that the floor is uneven. It doesn't roll as well there as it does in a store like Home Depot or Lowes that were built with the concrete floors.

I too liked the brown concrete floors that Walmart used to use. It fit in well with the Project Impact decor they were using in the stores that were built at that time. It was a little dark, but since the stores had skylights it helped.

Another thing I like is wood floors. I really like how Winn Dixie combined them with the concrete floors in their Transformational stores, and they have also been back to installing wood floors again in some of their recent remodels.
Publix has used terrazzo flooring since their "Dream Store" opened in 1940- it was one of Mr. George's key tenets of design, and it's remained since. As for the striped floors - I thought they were gray actually, but that may stem from 70s/early 80s instances. It's definitely nice to see Publix continue to include these floors within their stores, anyhow.

Walmart does have an interesting history with such floors. Their brown concrete floors were actually introduced in 2004 and used alongside Impact's predecessors. It fit well then at least, seeing as how stores had primarily beige walls at the time and less radical redesigns like Impact and the rest. Speaking of which- I do like seeing concrete with skylights. Wegmans and Kroger are good examples of such.

As for most of these linoleum-to-concrete conversions, you can often see the previous tile grout extant within the flooring. Not the worst thing, but it just looks awkward compared to new or well-refined installations.

Wood floors are alright, but in moderation. I can't imagine carts rolling through a full store of them.
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Re: Retail design trends

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

pseudo3d wrote: September 17th, 2020, 5:26 pm Terrazzo I mostly associated with institutional buildings.
Terrazzo seems to wear like iron too. Good example of that-I graduated high school in 1980 and the school itself was built in the mid-1960's. The main entrance in front of the office and auditorium had terrazzo flooring which looked original to the building. I just saw a recent picture of that entry way and that floor was still going strong 50+ years later none the worse for wear.
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Re: Retail design trends

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

BatteryMill wrote: September 22nd, 2020, 2:33 pm Wood floors are alright, but in moderation. I can't imagine carts rolling through a full store of them.
I remember a Loblaws here in the area (the Gloversville store that was built in the 50's and closed in the 70's with signage intact until it was finally torn down in 2015) which had hardwood flooring throughout much of the sales floor and it held up rather well and that store was open around 20 years or so. And when I say wood floors, I mean REAL actual wood-not veneer or simulated wooden tile flooring.
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Re: Retail design trends

Post by BatteryMill »

TW-Upstate NY wrote: September 23rd, 2020, 8:43 am Terrazzo seems to wear like iron too. Good example of that-I graduated high school in 1980 and the school itself was built in the mid-1960's. The main entrance in front of the office and auditorium had terrazzo flooring which looked original to the building. I just saw a recent picture of that entry way and that floor was still going strong 50+ years later none the worse for wear.
I definitely can understand that - it just feels stable. Not as many cracks, the occasional smudge, no costly measures to repair. I wonder why it's uncommon in retail nowadays - does it look dated to designers? Expensive?
TW-Upstate NY wrote: September 23rd, 2020, 8:48 am I remember a Loblaws here in the area (the Gloversville store that was built in the 50's and closed in the 70's with signage intact until it was finally torn down in 2015) which had hardwood flooring throughout much of the sales floor and it held up rather well and that store was open around 20 years or so. And when I say wood floors, I mean REAL actual wood-not veneer or simulated wooden tile flooring.
How does actual wood look in stores? Hopefully veneer/tile still does look well however.
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Re: Retail design trends

Post by cjd »

BatteryMill wrote: September 22nd, 2020, 2:33 pm Publix has used terrazzo flooring since their "Dream Store" opened in 1940- it was one of Mr. George's key tenets of design, and it's remained since. As for the striped floors - I thought they were gray actually, but that may stem from 70s/early 80s instances. It's definitely nice to see Publix continue to include these floors within their stores, anyhow.

Walmart does have an interesting history with such floors. Their brown concrete floors were actually introduced in 2004 and used alongside Impact's predecessors. It fit well then at least, seeing as how stores had primarily beige walls at the time and less radical redesigns like Impact and the rest. Speaking of which- I do like seeing concrete with skylights. Wegmans and Kroger are good examples of such.

As for most of these linoleum-to-concrete conversions, you can often see the previous tile grout extant within the flooring. Not the worst thing, but it just looks awkward compared to new or well-refined installations.

Wood floors are alright, but in moderation. I can't imagine carts rolling through a full store of them.
The terrazzo I remember from Publix stores like the one here that was built in '62 up through the late '80s ones was white (that had gray specs) with green stripes. Some may have been more of a gray, but the ones I remember were emerald green with a hint of gray. During the late '90s when the one here got expanded and remodeled they covered the terrazzo with white and gray linoleum tiles. Over time you could see the lines from the terrazzo. Not sure when they changed from the original striped style but the replacement store was built in 2016 and has all tannish colored terrazzo with no stripes.

Didn't realize the brown Walmart floors went with an earlier decor package. What I have noticed with stores that originally had tiles but then had them removed for concrete is the shopping cart doesn't feel as smooth on them as it did in a store built with them. Sort of how a car handles when driving on a nice black, newly paved road vs one that's worn for a while.

I don't believe I've seen any stores that have wood flooring throughout the entire store, except for small places like GNC's new store here. The Winn Dixie stores that use/have used wood flooring tended to have it only in the produce department in the earlier late 2008-2009 remodels, with linoleum tile through the rest of the store. The transformational stores expanded the wood into the bakery and deli departments and I think the wine department, with the rest of the store having concrete. I think the stores getting redone with it now use it just in the produce section again but I could be wrong.

And of course Walmart uses wood in their clothing departments only from what I've seen. The newer wood floors they're using in their stores when they do concrete have more of a grippy feel while the older wood look floors were glossy just like the tiles. I saw them putting them down one night and they appear to come in strips that stick on.
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Re: Retail design trends

Post by Alpha8472 »

The newer wood flooring has deeper grooves which make it seem less prone to slipping.

However, it is CVS that is so afraid of customers falling and suing that they installed carpet in their stores. The only exception is the CVS that is next to Disneyland where tile was used. The foot traffic from tourists would make the carpet too dirty to maintain.

Macy's is remodeling their Concord, California store. One section had an unfinished concrete floor that had been there since the last remodel over 10 years ago. It looked like it was under construction all these years. They finally added gray carpeting, and now it at least looks professional. Perhaps too many people were tripping and injuring themselves. If someone were to fall, the concrete was like sandpaper. It was not the smooth polished concrete type of floor.
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