The goal of our food access & transportation project is to make it easier for people to get to good food and for good food to get to people in South Los Angeles. One of the ways to strengthen and expand this connection is to have healthy food stores that are accessible and welcoming to people as they go about/ move around in their daily live. I’ve been looking into store design strategies and policies that:
- are ‘urban’ in that they connect stores to surrounding sidewalks/ neighborhoods rather than erect a suburban-style moat of parking
- welcome and protect pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users
- feature healthy food in their connections to the surroundings
Here is a list of ideas for policy makers and food retail stores. It draws upon research Yelena Zeltser did when she interned with UEPI last summer and a number of interesting blog posts and informative reports. There are obviously also lots of ways to design the interior of stores to impact food choices but I’m here focusing on connections to streets/ sidewalks/ transportation options (since getting folks into stores is a precondition for them buying healthy food).
- Face the sidewalk. Locate main store entrance facing the street/sidewalks instead of side/back parking lots
- Embrace the sidewalk. Stores should be built right up against sidewalks (with zero lot zoning) rather than having parking lots between sidewalk and store
- Protect people from cars. provide a sidewalk all the way to the front entrance and install safety measures at any sidewalk cuts/places where cars will be turning into parking
- Shrink parking. reduce minimum parking requirements for stores in areas that are dense, walkable, near transit and/or with high percentages of transit-dependent residents
- Bury parking. If possible, locate parking spaces in underground lots, rooftop lots, or on street spaces rather than parking lots in front of or surrounding store
- Surround with small shops. Integrate smaller shops into/ next to/ or below the food store so there is a mix of retail along street
- House people above. consider building housing above store or building store above ground floor small retail shops
- Hide trucks. Regulate location and hours of truck delivery and idling, ideally concealing loading docks (underground if there is underground parking)
- Widen sidewalks. Provide wide sidewalks to allow a pedestrian plaza feel & usages in front of store
- Open sidewalk cafe. Put chairs/ tables in front of the store, and better yet, operate a cafe there
- Be transparent. Have windows facing sidewalk rather than blank wall, to promote sales and make surrounding environment feel safe and welcoming
- Sell to outside. Have to-go window opening onto sidewalk to sell coffee or food
- Sell on sidewalk. Display/sell things in front of store- especially fresh produce
- Locate at transit. Build food store in a transit-oriented development
- Team with transit. Locate transit stops in front of store
- Be nice to bikes. Provide adequate bike parking through racks and/or bike valet parking
- Light right. Provide enough lighting to make pedestrians feel safe at night (while reduced parking will mean less light pollution for neighbors)
- Host farmers/ vendors. If the store has outdoor parking or sufficiently wide sidewalks, host farmers markets and/or mobile vendors
- Encourage two-wheeled shopping. Co-sponsor bike training programs focused on transporting groceries on bikes
- Let carts off the lot. Provide free or cheap push-carts or retrieve grocery carts from customers after they push them home
- Shuttle them home. Offer a free shuttle/ van ride home to customers (all shoppers or perhaps those who purchase a certain amount of groceries)
(cc image from flickr user kevin h)
Tags: store design, supermarkets
