Temma Cologne

It looks good enough to eat and carries with it all the organic food credentials you’d expect to find in Germany, but which remain relatively infrequent in the UK. Developed as a pilot project by the Rewe Group and with in-store lighting by Ansorg, the stated aim is that this should be a store of the future.

It’s hard not to suppress a sigh when you hear this term being rolled out once more, but if this is a future shop, then it’s probably a case of back to the future. The shop features regional products, substantial tea and wine departments and natural cosmetics and accessories, all backed up by a foodie area known, unsurprisingly, as the ‘deli’.

Whatever your view of the naming, the store does capture a lot of the excitement found when visiting a covered market in France, with dark ceilings, exposed concrete, oak parquet flooring and simple product presentation.

And, at about 8,610 sq ft, it’s bigger than most organic supermarkets. It’s worth noting the use of light in this store too. Ansorg has followed a brief that demanded as great a degree of naturalness as possible. Practically, this means there are lighter and darker areas, and the inclusion of a simple wooden dining table - complete with flowers - a short distance from the ‘deli’, succeeds in creating an ambience that makes you want to linger.

Probably not cheap to do, but a good example of how a store of the future doesn’t have to mean robots and multiple shelf-edge screens.