Whole Foods Market uses digital installations to elevate store experience

Atlanta --Whole Foods Market has taken the shopping experience to a new level at its new store in Apharetta, Ga. The store is home to four interactive installations that are designed to create a more informative, entertaining and immersive shopping experience—including connecting shoppers more closely to the farmers who provide the food they eat, and educating them on the sustainable growing practices that Whole Foods Market uses to rate farms in its new produce ratings program.



“Every Whole Foods Market is filled with these amazing stories about the foods we eat and the local farmers, ranchers, and fishermen who provide them,” said Joel Krieger, creative director, Second Story, part of SapientNitro, which created the installations. “We designed the installations to connect shoppers to these stories in a new and meaningful way.”



In the store’s café area, an interactive wall of window panes offers shoppers a glimpse into the lives of the local suppliers. Each window is dedicated to a different local supplier, displaying real-time images from their Instagram feed, allowing customers a peek into authentic moments — such as hands patting down freshly planted herbs or shots of the farmer's daughter blowing out candles at her birthday party.



Additional curated content such as Q&A, maps, and video profiles are displayed for each supplier.



Another installation, a 12-foot tall x 2.5-foot wide wooden tower, tells the story of Whole Foods Market’s new “Responsibly Grown” produce rating system. Customers—including families with children—can transform a farm landscape by pulling a series of wooden knobs, to learn more about a specific sustainable farming practice that is part of the program. Pulling the “Energy Conservation” knob, for instance, causes a set of wooden windmills to appear out of the ground and start spinning.



An installation called Whole Body Mirror is designed to help shoppers discover body products that match specific needs. Customers see their forms reflected in a “magic mirror” as one of three auras: refresh, energize, relieve. They are prompted to align their whole body by mimicking a pose, such as flexing a muscles. Achieving a pose activates a burst of the shopper’s aura and reveals a product within Whole Body related to the pose just completed.



At the juncture of the wine, beer and cheese sections, Second Story created an in-the-round installation of modular stacked crates to help shoppers discover products. On each of the three faces of the installation there is an exposed open crate, revealing one of three interactive touchscreens:



• “Expand Your Palate” allows shoppers to discover products they might like based on their individual taste preferences. For example, tapping the tile “tastes like dark chocolate,” reveals a coffee and wine product recommendation. Tapping the “I like” tile for curry or BBQ ribs, reveals a relevant beer pairing for each.



• “Celebrate Your Passion” is an Instagram feed of photos of favorite pairings from the Avalon, GA community using #WFMAvalon.



• “Become a Connoisseur” educates and assists customers by answering questions such as, “I’m having a party, how much wine should I buy?” Or, “How do I make a cheese plate?”