Need More Room? These Retailers Moved Up

If you’re considering expanding your operation but the building you want isn’t the perfect fit, it may be time to think outside the box and consider going vertical.

That’s what retailer Will Aubuchon, president and CEO of Aubuchon Hardware, says his company did during a recent expansion.

“There was a grading issue with that plot of land, so we went with a two-story option to get the type of square footage we wanted,” he says.

Will Barnhart, retail district manager of Wilco, says his company’s decision to build a two-story store also came down to square footage.

“We really wanted this store in a particular building because it was in a great location, but as a one-story store, it would be much smaller than we wanted,” he says. “We added a second floor to give us some additional space.”

Of course, Aubuchon, Barnhart and their colleagues had other factors to keep in mind after construction was complete. If you’re considering adding a multi-level store to your operation or expanding a current store, keep these things in mind:

Checkouts

Aubuchon says his two-story stores have checkout stations on each level, allowing customers to pay for their purchases on the same floor as where they found the items they wanted. “Customers can enter the store at either level from the parking lot, so we wanted for them to be able to check out on either level as well,” he says.

At Wilco, however, there’s only one checkout station on the lower level of the two-story store. “We were concerned that if we put a checkout upstairs, we’d have to have someone at the door to check receipts and make sure customers who said they had paid upstairs had done so,” says Barnhart.

Stairs

Wilco’s store has a set of stairs as well as an elevator. Aubuchon also has stairs, but no elevator. However, customers can enter the store through doors on both levels, which makes it easily handicap-accessible.

Both retailers suggest making the staircases prominent in the stores so customers are aware as soon as they walk in that the store has two floors.

Employee Availability

With two separate floors to monitor, it’s not as easy for employees to go between departments as they might in a one-level store, so extra attention must be paid to staffing and scheduling.