SACRAMENTO, CA
It would be great to say that we visited the local Nugget Market out of pure happenstance, but that’s not true. To get to Nugget and shop its snazzy aisles is about a 20 minute drive, but a drive worth its while.
The outside view of the store snags attention, enough to project luxury without being cheesy, even with the greek-style statues above both doorways.
Stepping into the store, deli and produce clearly get the star treatment. While it’s becoming a growing trend to see fresh foods, bakeries, and deli sections pushed closer to the entrance, this is different. You really have to work to get to the packages and snack aisles, and you go by quite the deli setup to do so.
A counter featuring numerous cheeses and cross-merchandise items meet shoppers almost immediately upon entering, with a large ceramic-looking cow to hail your arrival.
On the one side are all kinds of cheese varieties, as well as chocolates, jams, and deli-centric books, while on the other there is a display of gelato and smoothies to be made in-store.
The employees were a refreshing add to this new layout, offering key descriptions on cheese-questions on one hand, or sharing with us where the gelato we were eating came from on the other (Berkeley, California, evidently).
The trip was, overall, an educational one on how displaying deli products a certain way can change the perception of them. The items looked brighter and the shapes made the trip one more of fun than obligation, more than likely putting patrons in a happier, much more cash-spending sort of mood.
