In the third part of our year-long pet store make-over, we see what goes into creating an efficient, exciting new floor plan that capitalizes on Critters Pet Shop's strengths.

By Karen Long MacLeod.

If 70 percent of all retail sales are impulse purchases, it stands to reason that customers who spend more time in a store will spend more money in that store.

When retailers can see a payoff in every sales report, they are willing to put more effort into making their stores more open and inviting.

And that's exactly why Mark and Caroline Janczak are redesigning their store, Critters Pet Shop Inc. in St. Charles, Ill., as part of the PET AGE Pet Store Make-over project. Having seen sales erode in the last two years, they realize it's time to take dramatic steps to modernize their full-line independent pet store and make it more customer-friendly.

In the early stages of the make-over project, Mark and Caroline made a "wish list" of possible upgrades for their store, and worked with our well-known consultants--Mike McCahill of Retail Store Planning (Roseville, Calif.) and Simon Handelsman of Out of Hand Inc. (Newburyport, Mass.)--to develop some general strategies based on their business's strengths.

In this segment of our year-long series about Critters' redesign, we'll see how Mike uses that information, as well as feedback from Simon and the Janczaks, to create an exciting, efficient floor plan with distinctive departments, modern fixtures and a bright, contemporary decorating scheme.

The Design Process

The design process began in earnest on April 24 when Mike, Simon and members of the PET AGE staff met with the Janczaks at their store. On May 25, we held a teleconference to discuss basic objectives. Then Mike went to the drawing board to produce a core layout with a more effective traffic pattern and three to four focal points.

"My premise is to design a beautiful, functional store that's easy to work in," Mike said.

Several conversations and multiple revisions later, Mark and Caroline signed off on the floor plan. Mike prepared final blueprints, along with recommendations for fixtures and decorative elements, on July 30.

In many cases, we were told, the design process can be completed in as little as 30 days. As you can see, our project took a lot longer. For one thing, it involved extra collaborators--including an additional consultant (Handelsman) and PET AGE representatives. For another thing, Mark and Caroline wanted to see a lot of different options.

It sometimes made us wonder whether two heads (or half a dozen) were really better than one.

Basic Design Strategies

In "Taking Stock" (September 1999), our consultants recommended seven basic design strategies to emphasize Critters' strengths:

* Redesign the floor plan to highlight exciting animal displays and reinforce the strongest departments.

* Update the interior décor to appeal to Critters' upscale, family-oriented customers.

* Re-do the fish department by installing more attractive, low-maintenance display tanks and remerchandising the aquatic supply section.

* Expand the pet food department by bringing in better-known lines and adding racks.

* Give the small-animal department more display space in a prime location.

* Improve the puppy department by making the "love room," where customers interact with puppies and kittens, more appealing.

* Remerchandise the dog supply department and deepen inventories of better-selling products.

The Original Layout

Critters' original layout was based on long aisles that directed traffic straight to the back of the store--do not pass go, do not collect $200.

Animal displays were scattered throughout the store: small animals in playpens in the front and in wire cages down the center aisle; birds in cages to the right along the wall; some reptiles a little farther down the wall; fish, more reptiles and more small animals in built-in units in the back; and puppies in the left corner.

Racks of dog and cat food dominated the left wall. Dry goods for dogs and cats were merchandised in the first two aisles and in the first set of gondolas along the center aisle. Dry goods for small animals were shelved on gondolas farther down the center aisle. Bird products were displayed near the door, on gondolas parallel to the front window. Aquarium products occupied the rest of the gondolas and floor space.

A cash/wrap stand incorporating glass display cases and two cash registers occupied the front left corner, next to the front window.

The First Floor Plan

Decor Board for Critters Laminates: Formica in Merlot Terra, Spectrum Blue, Decometal Waves and Sea; and Pionite in White Decor Maple. Paint: Sherwin Williams Diamond. Floor Tile: Mannington Essentials in Wedgewood and Sapphire. Cove Base: Mercer in Neutral Blue. Sheet Vinyl (not shown): Armstrong Translations in Cobalt. Flooring Tape (not shown): 3M in Dark Blue.

Mike's first floor plan was based on a racetrack or loop--he likes the term "buy-way"--with angled aisles and several focal points. Taking advantage of our natural tendency to move counterclockwise, this layout exposes customers to more product and gives retailers more opportunities to sell additional categories of pets and supplies.

On average, racetrack layouts use 8 percent more floor space than layouts with long aisles, Mike noted.

Caroline had misgivings about angling the aisles. "We used a similar approach once, but the fixtures were harder to restock," she said. "We ended up detouring just to get from the front to the back."

For this plan, Mike moved the puppy adoption center and love room to a more prominent location along the right wall.

Although they understood Mike's logic, Mark and Caroline just couldn't go along with this idea. First, they argued that the puppy display's existing location helps draw traffic to the back of the store. Second, they worried that the proposed location would complicate maintenance chores, since it would be farther from a utility sink. ("I don't want to spill water--or poop--through the store when I'm cleaning the cages," Caroline said.) Third, they said the design would not accommodate their back-  serviced puppy enclosures, which are in good shape and are not scheduled for replacement as part of the make-over.

To add drama to the bird displays, Mike created a rain forest for larger birds in the left rear corner of the main sales area. Next to this, he designed a nursery with a window so customers could watch employees care for hand-fed baby birds.

A vocal advocate of exciting animal displays, Simon loved the rain forest idea. "Let's do three of those to make focal points out of livestock," he said.

Caroline wanted a pond as a focal point, but Mark was enthusiastic about the rain forest. "Birds sell faster at a higher profit than pond products," he said.

For the fish room, Mike proposed a floor-to-ceiling wall to create two entrances. With 15 4-foot-wide aquarium display units, a long flat to accommodate fully decorated display tanks and a 4-foot-wide packing station, the fish room would be functional and attractive.

To maximize pet food sales, Mike specified additional pallet racks to occupy the length of the left wall.

To provide merchandising flexibility, Mike suggested a floor-to-ceiling kiosk with 12 lineal feet of display space near the cash/wrap stands, plus a variety of flats on the sales floor and in the front windows.

Mark, Caroline and Simon shared concerns about the reduced number of gondolas represented in the plan.

"Once we start remerchandising the store, we'll see that we can fit more into the gondolas," Mike said. "We'll consolidate merchandise that's now spread out all over the store."

He also split the existing office to provide a private office for the owners and a separate employee lounge.

Mark and Caroline voted to eliminate the employee lounge in favor of the bird nursery.

Mike proposed two cash/wrap stands (for simple transactions) near the main entrance, plus a separate customer service desk (for more involved transactions, complaints and paperwork) along the right wall.

Mark liked the idea of a separate customer service desk, thinking it would let him stay on the floor instead of in his office. "I could work on the computer or do paperwork, but be more available to sell on the floor," he said. But he was concerned that it would eliminate too much display space.

Mark wanted a simple cash/wrap setup, while Caroline favored an island. However, she gave in when Mike explained how much more floor space islands require--and that they are now considered old-fashioned.

In terms of design, Mike said each department would be distinguished by a soffit.

The Second Floor Plan

The revised floor plan retained the racetrack layout, but featured key animal displays in different locations.

For example, Mike shifted the puppy adoption center to the right rear corner of the main sales area, to make maintenance more convenient. However, he wasn't happy about the traffic bottleneck around the love room.

Unfortunately, Mark and Caroline noted, employees still wouldn't have easy access to the puppy enclosures, which are serviced from the back. They wanted to move the puppies back to the left rear corner (essentially, where they were in the original floor plan), and shift the other animal displays to the right corner.

In this floor plan, Mike reduced the rain forest area and moved it adjacent to the puppy adoption center.

Mike also made some changes to the fish room, eliminating one entrance to gain additional wall space for displays.

Simon wondered whether the 6-foot-wide entry to the fish room was prominent enough. Mike figured he could expand the fish room entrance to 7 feet if he shifted the rain forest 2 feet.

Mike also cut the office and bird nursery in half to accommodate more animal displays in the left rear corner. There, he suggested housing reptiles, small animals and small birds.

Nervous about shrinking the office too much, Caroline suggested omitting the nursery for hand-fed birds.

In this floor plan, Mike further expanded the pet food department. With seven sections (vs. 4.5 sections in the original floor plan), it would provide up to 20 additional linear feet of display space.

He re-oriented the cash/wrap stand, and killed the kiosk.

The Final Floor Plan

Reflecting significant evolutionary changes, the final floor plan turns animal displays into exciting focal points and provides functional, flexible display spaces.

The puppy adoption center is back in the left rear corner of the sales area--albeit farther back, now that the owners' office is smaller. Included in this area is a love room with a storage bench.

The fish room features fewer sections of built-in tanks than it did in previous plans, but it incorporates a space-saving packing station in one corner, as well as two reptile display units. A new door offers access to the puppy adoption center.

The rain forest is a dramatic focal point in the right rear corner. Flanking it are display units for small animals and birds.

The customer service center--which survived several incarnations of the floor plan--is gone. After seeing similar setups in other stores, Mark and Caroline realized they would be hard pressed to keep the area tidy.

"Besides, we felt we couldn't afford the sales space," Mark said. "We wanted to get in as much product as possible."

Also gone is the bird nursery, which occupied a prime location in several versions of the floor plan. Mark and Caroline didn't want to devote that much space to such a small segment of their business.

The final plan features more gondolas and shelving units than earlier renderings. A solid wall of shelving on the right balances the wall of pet food on the left. In addition, the kiosk from Mike's first floor plan was resurrected to provide flexible display space in the center of the sales floor.

The blueprints came with details about colors and finishes to be used throughout the store. The overall scheme is light and contemporary: white painted walls; white gondolas; floors in various tones of blue; blue and cherry laminated fixtures; and silver and neon accents.

The floor in the main sales area will be wedgewood, accented in sapphire. Floors in the fish room and the puppy adoption center will be covered in sheet vinyl in cobalt.

Display units for small animals and reptiles will be laminated in "sea." Free-standing animal playpens will be laminated in "merlot terra." Tonnage flats will laminated in "sea," with silver sides.

Cash/wrap stands also will be laminated in "sea."

In fact, the plan addresses nearly every item on Mark and Caroline's ambitious wish list ("High Hopes," August 1999).

"We're really happy with the floor plan and the layout of the gondolas," Mark said. "We also like the color scheme Mike recommended."

According to Mike, the key advantages of the design include merchandise exposure, accessibility, visibility and a clean, fresh look "that customers will take possession of."

The next challenge involves executing the plan. What will the Janczaks learn when they request bids from general contractors? How much will it cost to do everything outlined in the blueprints? What compromises will Mark and Caroline make to stay within their budget? What can they do to maintain a good working relationship with the contractors they hire?

Next month, we'll compare contractors' bids and review the project timetable. In the December issue, we'll discuss construction. PA

Karen Long MacLeod is editor in chief of PET AGE.