Round route for Migros customers

The self-service principle at Migros shops necessitated a new architectural concept. Specialists tried out various ideas to come up with the ideal «customer pathway» that would result in the highest possible sales. Migros deliberately rejected a «one-way system» that would restrict customers’ movement within the store.

At first, Migros customers are served by sales assistants who gather the goods together from behind the shop counter. With the introduction of self-service in 1948, the branches are converted one by one. This presents some new problems for the architects. One question is how the customers will move through the shop space. Another is whether there is a form of ‘customer guidance’ that increases turnover. The solutions to these problems define the floor plans of the Migros branches.
Basically, the areas of the self-service shop – the entrance and exit areas, which in some shops are in the same place, sales and checkout areas – are arranged to create a round route. The arrangement of the shelves guides the customers through the shop space, so that they leave only by passing through the checkouts. A door only for staff leads to rear spaces, such as the storeroom, cold storage facilities and offices.
In the first self-service shop in 1948, this gives a simple floor plan. The plan becomes more complicated, however, the larger the sales area and the greater the range offered for sale. In the Migros Markets from 1952, there are separate spaces for the butcher section, snacks and the flower corner, and often there is also a second floor.
Only once, when the floor space allowed no other option, has Migros used the “one-way system”. According to the business report of 1961, the customers in the shop in Freiburg are “unconsciously ‘forced’ to pass by the entire range displayed in the shop from the entrance to the checkout”. This system becomes known in Switzerland later with the Denner shop branches. And in 2007, when Migros takes over Denner, Migros once again has one-way shops.