THE EVOLUTION OF THE STORE – 1940-1999

Immerse yourself in the stores of the time with our Late 20th Century Playlist!

Was it the lack of food throughout Europe during the war that created the basis for discounting? Quite possibly! Or was it the low purchasing power of a defeated population that generated this idea in the minds of the Albrecht brothers? Almost certainly! When Théo and Karl Albrecht took over their mother’s small 100sqm shop in 1946, no one expected them to radically transform the world of retail; but that’s exactly what they did…

With their hands initially forced due to limited product quantities, the brothers were inspired by the post-war frugality in Germany and settled for minimalism rather than the modern, innovative outlet they had hoped for when they first took over the business. Life in post-war Germany was difficult and shaped the way the brothers did business. They had little money themselves and could only afford to offer basic, staple items. However, things changed for the brothers rather accidentally when they stumbled upon a brilliant business model: offer the basics at a cheap price point, and people will come. They started cutting costs and waste right from the beginning, and that included cutting out what had been a common sight in grocery stores until then: the counter clerk. The Albrecht brothers picked up on the American tradition of self-service, allowing them to cut costs further. This is a practice that Aldi still uses today by having customers bag their own groceries!

Across Canada and the United States supermarkets rapidly propagated with the growth of automobile ownership and suburban development after World War II. A few years later, they began to grow into hypermarkets across the globe, pushing the earlier models to the extreme. In France, supermarket chain Carrefour set up the first of these new giants in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois. This new format consisted of 18 automatic checkouts with conveyor belts, 400 parking spaces, a petrol pump, lines and lines of shopping carts, lots of special offers, and low prices. But above all, fresh produce, groceries, textiles, and household appliances all under the same roof created the perfect combination of choice and convenience. The supermarket customer experience was becoming enhanced for a working population that had no time to waste and desired everything under one roof. With working days getting longer, it was also time to take action on shop opening hours. In 1946, the convenience store chain “7 Eleven” introduced the first extended opening hours of 7am to 11pm and the famous “seven days a week”, revolutionising the customer experience.

In addition to these payment changes, this period has also seen a profound change in marketing approaches, which have become increasingly targeted. In particular, incorporating the senses and methods for activating them, sensorial marketing began its development of innovative ‘personalisation’.

In terms of atmosphere, some shops got into the habit of playing music while their customers shopped, in order to entertain them and, of course, encourage them to stay as long as possible in these new living spaces. However, the technological resources of the time meant that retail outlets had to employ someone to take care of the continuous broadcasting of music. This was where Muzak (the forerunner of Mood Media) came in, and in 1954 it invented the first endless musical tape that “automatically” covered the duration of the shopping experience.

In 1992, Abercrombie & Fitch became one of the biggest players in this field when they repositioned the company to focus on sensorial marketing. Combining lighting, music, and olfactory signatures, points of sale became real examples of attraction, and sales results increased significantly, giving even greater prominence to the importance of in-store ambience, sensorial marketing, and its impact on overall consumption.

In France, Mood Media renewed sound design by creating personalised playlists, with Celio and Sephora as its first clients. This involved working on the precise targeting of customers and providing them with music that matched their expectations. The early 90s also saw the appearance of the first point-of-sale screens, mainly for advertising purposes, and these were to become widespread in the 2000s, finding an entirely different use.

Sensorial marketing makes it possible to “entertain” the customer at the point of sale, but it does not prevent retailers from asking themselves a simple and extremely important question: how do you get customers to come back to the shop? The airline industry, condemned to increased competition as a result of deregulation, provided the first answer. In 1981, American Airlines launched the Frequent Flyer Program, a reward scheme for its best customers.

As you will have gathered, the first genuine loyalty programmes had just been launched, and they quickly spread to other sectors, starting with the hotel industry (Holiday Inn and Marriott – 1983), through car hire (National Rental Car – 1987) to Groupe Casino and its “Club Avantage”. Other big names in French retail soon followed, such as Galeries Lafayette and BHV in the early 2000s.

Building customer loyalty is becoming one of the major challenges in a resolutely consumerist world where competition is increasingly fierce and digital data storage is progressing day by day. Customers are being given the opportunity to benefit from discount offers that allow them to acquire a product free of charge, as a reward for their previous purchases! What an experience!