Bloom, founded five years ago as a spinoff of Food Lion, has grown to 64 stores throughout the Southeast.
Signs in the parking lot at Bloom’s Fort Mill, S.C., store alert shoppers to its new cart-mounted technology, known as PAT. All of the subsequent photos were also taken at the Fort Mill location, by Jon Springer, SN's associate editor of Retail/Financial.
PAT is a cart-mounted touchscreen offering store navigation, product information, recipes and specials.
Bakery goods have been integrated with deli and prepared foods in a vibrant section at Bloom stores.
Tabletop Circle, which offered prepared foods, has been integrated with deli and bakery sections.
The newest Bloom stores include a specialty sandwich shop as part of the deli.
Bloom uses curved shelving in Center Store to “call out” specialty items, such as natural cleaning supplies.
Bloom’s standard shelving in Center Store was set to 64 inches high — lower than industry standards by 8 inches — so as to appeal to the average shopper’s height.
Bloom since its founding has completely revamped its meat program, and now offers all Angus beef.
Signs and messages in stores encourage guests to “shop happy” and interact with employees.
The “Create Your own Six Pack” beer offering supports Bloom’s “unique convenience” positioning.
The Wine in Motion display offers a rotation of specialty wines.
Bloom stores offer a variety of checkout options and “green” bags in its signature shade of blue.