Key information
Created in 1971
26,000 m2 of store space
10,000+ references
Annual hypermarket sales: €170M
Annual footfall 4.5 million
Carrefour
Europe’s largest hypermarket
Saguez & Partners has carried out the complete renovation of France’s largest hypermarket. At a time when online shopping and local commerce are on the rise, offering convenience and saving time, how can we make customers want to walk through the doors of a 26,000 m² store and stroll down a 450-meter central aisle, amidst 10,000 product references?
It all starts with a good plan
Everything under one roof, but on a human scale. Saguez & Partners designed a new layout that structures the space into two paths better adapted to the needs and time of today’s customer: recurring useful shopping and quicker pleasure shopping.
Everything under one roof, but on a human scale! To break with the impression of excess, while retaining the same surface area, Saguez & Partners began by drawing up a new plan that structures the space into two paths adapted to the customer’s needs and time:
- The Hyper for useful replenishment shopping.
- The Shopper for faster, more pleasurable shopping.
The former single checkout line, a real human barrier, is “broken” into four referent sectors. No longer a source of anxiety between two checkout lines, the “Around the counter” food court is a natural and delicious extension of the store’s offering. While retaining the same oversized surface area, the impression of gigantism has subsided.
A hypermarket that becomes a marketplace
Like a large covered marketplace, under a beamed drop-paper ceiling, the market brings together all the food trades. Each area of expertise is showcased in open-plan workshops, facilitating exchanges between customers and professionals. The materials chosen echo the world of food: white faience, oak and hazelnut wood, galvanized steel structures.
A strong, structured visual identity
The challenge of Carrefour Villiers-en-Bière’s new visual identity was to prioritize an offer of over 10,000 products while ensuring overall graphic consistency. Saguez & Partners developed an effective graphic system, based on clear visual codes: specific typography and iconography, distinctive colors and distinctive materials. In this way, each of the store’s professions and universes finds its own expression while integrating with the whole.
Four stores in one
The hypermarket is redefined through four distinct entrances, each associated with a strong expertise and led by professionals:
- The Market
- Home & Beauty
- Hypermarket entrance
- Culture & Media
In-depth work on lighting, flooring, heights and materials ensures optimal legibility and fluidity, facilitating the customer experience.
40 years after its creation, how do you reinvent France’s largest hypermarket?
A differentiating global design
Beyond the transformation of the hypermarket, Saguez & Partners extended its expertise to the design of adjacent spaces: the shopping mall, the Soy beauty salon and the florist. This attention to detail ensures overall coherence, enhancing the site’s appeal.
Implemented in November 2016, this global design reinvents the hypermarket by reconciling three major objectives: offering an optimal customer experience, enhancing Carrefour’s offer and expertise, and communicating its commitments.