Omni Superstore

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Omni Superstore
Type	Defunct supermarket
Founded	1986
Headquarters	Northlake, Illinois
Industry	Retail
Products	Bakery, dairy, deli, frozen foods, general grocery, meat, pharmacy, produce, seafood, snacks, liquor
Website	None

Omni Superstore was a chain of supermarkets in the Chicago area and was owned by Dominick's. In the late 1990s Dominick's phased out Omni and converted the stores into Dominick's due to the purchase by Safeway. ^[1][2][3]

Contents 1 History 1.1 Opening 1.2 Dominick's Entry into Indiana 1.3 Expansion and conversion to Dominick's 2 Store Layout 2.1 Omni Superstore Graphics and Departmental Naming 2.2 Store layout 2.3 Other Unique Features 3 Slogans 4 Former locations 5 References

[edit] History

[edit] Opening

In late 1986, Dominick's Finer Foods opened the first Omni Superstore in the Lake View Plaza in Orland Park, Illinois, at the corner of 159th Street and LaGrange Road.

Dominick's created Omni Superstore in order to compete with the introduction of Cub Foods into the Chicago grocery market in the mid 1980s. Dominick's and their developers referred to Omni Superstore as a Cub Foods with more pizazz. Omni Superstore was Dominick's reaction and answer to the low prices and warehouse/no frills attitude that Cub Foods possessed. ^[4] Cub Foods has recently left the Chicago Market due to its parent's company Supervalu acquisition of Jewel-Osco because of anti-trust laws.

17 more stores were to follow in the next 10 years in the Chicago metropolitan area. Omni would eventually be phased out by Dominick's and Safeway for various reasons ranging from consumer preference to responding to competition from new stores such as Meijer, Whole Foods and Wal-Mart entering the Chicago market. Some Omni Locations (see below for complete list) included Orland Park, Clybourn Avenue in Chicago's Lincoln Park, Melrose Park, Aurora , Crestwood, Round Lake Beach, Niles, McHenry, Prospect Heights, Glendale Heights, Cicero, Elgin, Bridgeview, Schererville Indiana, Damen Avenue Chicago, and 87th Avenue in Chicago. Former Omni's in Crestwood and Round Lake Beach are slated to close in early April 2007. ^[5]

[edit] Dominick's Entry into Indiana

Dominick's opened an Omni Superstore in 1991 in Schererville, Indiana. The store became a Dominick's in 1997 and closed in 1999 and sat empty for four years.

When Omni Superstore moved into Strack and Van Til's home territory of Northwest Indiana in 1991, Strack's posted billboards that said "We still bag em" referring to the fact that Strack's still bagged your groceries but customers at Omni have to bag their own items. Omni Superstore and Strack and Van Til competed effectively and both sustained loyal customers and good business, up until the fallout of Omni Superstore to Dominick's.^{[6] [7]}

Dominick's also planned for there to be an Omni Superstore in Hammond, Indiana at the Hammond Mills shopping center at 165th and Indianapolis Boulevard. The transition to Safeway was happening at Dominick's and the Hammond Omni Superstore opened as a Dominick's in January 1999. Due to the local shopping habits of consumers in Hammond, Dominick's European higher price point Fresh Store did not succeed in Hammond and the store closed 7 months later. This was Dominick's final exit out of the Indiana market. ^[8]

[edit] Expansion and conversion to Dominick's

Omni Superstore continued to add stores under the leadership of Dominick's. Prior to the sale of Dominick's to Safeway, it was suggested in Crain's Chicago Business that a potential buyer might have done well to expand the Omni stores beyond Chicago. In 1997 the chain was purchased by Safeway, which operates no similar discount chain. This created an opening for Meijer to enter the Chicago market, with Cub foods being the only operator of 12 similar stores in the Chicago market area.

In all, 17 stores existed until 1997, when Safeway-Dominick's management decided that the locations would be better utilized as Dominick's Fresh Stores as opposed to Omni Superstores. Many of the Omni stores converted to Dominick's closed because many customers were used to shopping at Omni for lower prices and a "no frills" type shopping experience. Even though the store decor was much improved and gave a European feel, many regular customers fled because prices increased dramatically. ^[9]

Crestwood, Illinois, Round Lake Beach, Illinois, McHenry, Illinois and Clybourn Avenue Dominick's in Chicago are the only remaining Omni Superstore buildings now occupied by Dominick's. According to a Dominick's manager, the Dominick's that opened in Matteson, Illinois in 1989 was supposed to be opened as an Omni Superstore, but at the ninth hour was changed to a Dominick's due to municipality issues. In 1997 in nearby Chicago Heights, Illinois the Sun Times reported construction began on a 91,531 square foot Omni Superstore, which never opened at the northwest corner of Lincoln Hwy and Western Avenue. Additionally, according to the Northwest Indiana Times newspaper, the Dominick's that opened in Hammond, Indiana in 1999 was supposed to be an Omni Superstore as well. This store opened as a Dominick's and closed within 7 months. It was later reopened as a Kroger under the name of Food4Less. ^[10].

Safeway appears to be keeping the rights to the Omni name by using it on a line of organic store brand foods in Dominick's and other Safeway stores.

[edit] Store Layout

[edit] Omni Superstore Graphics and Departmental Naming

Omni Superstore featured a bakery, Hero's Deli, Field Fresh Produce Section, Great Lakes Seafood, The Dairy Depot, The Greenery Floral Department, 1 hour photo department, large general merchandise department, Homestyle home goods department, The Cheese Shop, cosmetics counter, pharmacy department, and a wholesale/family pack foods area with large 20' orange industrial steel shelving that separated the general merchandise area from the grocery area. Early Omni Superstore's contained a video department while newer ones dropped this department. The Orland Park Omni had a separate Video store entrance next to the exit doors.

Departmental names were synonymous with Chicago, the Midwest and Great Lakes. This was highly innovative as most US grocery stores at the time, called departments simply, "produce," "dairy," and "meat department." This new naming convention was the responsibility of the team of Louis Germano, Director of Dominick's store planning, Schafer Associates who was Omni's project architect and Jarob Design/Programmed Products who were responsible for the signage and graphics. ^[11]

[edit] Store layout

Except for Round Lake Beach, IL and McHenry, IL Omni, which was laid out like a conventional Dominick's, most all Omni's followed a similar layout. The only deviation from this was the constant experimentation of where to place the 1 hour photo department/electronics counter and cosmetics counters. Orland Park Omni had the Cosmetics at the back of the store with the 1 hour photo on a mezzanine, while Aurora had the 1 hour photo counter directly next to the pharmacy while Crestwood and Schererville had the cosmetics at the front on the other side of the wall from the Hero's Deli. Merchandising and store layout experimentation was frequent at Omni. Although the stores followed the basic floor plan, each Omni had a different feel than the other.

There were no "flipped floor plan" Omni's. That is, you entered every Omni on the right hand side of the building and exited on the Left side of the building.

A large 15' wide aisle led customers from the front entrance directly towards the back of the store. On the right, perpendicular to the main aisle, were the general merchandise shelving gondolas. A tall mezzanine housed the 1 Hour Photo Department in the center of these general merchandise aisles. To the left of the main front to back walkway was the large 20' shelving and beyond that the grocery department, which was larger than the general merchandise aisle and consisted of over 15 aisles.

The produce department and bakery were located at the far left end of the store. Unlike most supermarkets where the produce department is near the main entrance, the "Field Fresh Produce" department, "The Greenery" floral department and Main Bakery were located at the last stop before the checkouts.

The Hero's Deli was located directly to the right of the entrance in the general merchandise area. Customers were forced to walk through the deli area and naturally walk through the general merchandise area before they made it to the grocery section. A section called Omni "Superbuys" was located in the general merchandise area, which featured deep discount items. ^[12]

Space-frame canopies held signage and lighting at many of the departments along the back wall near Great Lakes Seafood, Dairy Depot, Meat Department, Field Fresh Produce, and the Greenery. The department names were labeled with different fonts and different graphics mounted on the space-frame canopy.

An Average Omni Superstore was 75,000 sq. ft. to 95,000 sq. ft., while its sister Dominick's Food and Drug combo stores ranged around 65,000 sq. ft.

[edit] Other Unique Features

Omni's designers experimented with a terrazzo flooring in the main aisle running from the front entrance to the back of the store and in the "warehouse" 20 foot high shelving area. This could be because Omni's competitor Cub Foods used terrazzo flooring throughout the entire store. In later stores, terrazzo was not used. Instead a VCT tile that closely resembled terrazzo was used.

As shown by the attached pictures, 1980s Omni/Dominick's stores were illuminated by HID lighting with incandescent track accent lighting and other decorative lighting fixtures. Later 1990s Omni stores were illuminated solely by fluorescent lighting.

Omni stores were open 24 hours a day and was a major convenience for late night shoppers, with some department exceptions of the photo lab, and service departments I.E. fresh bakery.

Omni featured a 1-hour photo lab in its first store in 1986, which was uncommon for the 1980s. Only in the 1990s, did 1 hour photo processing become more common in grocery stores.

Omni shopping carts were bigger than a conventional grocery cart so the customer would look down and feel that they didn't have enough food. The customer would than continue to shop, fill the basket and buy more groceries.

The 1st Omni Superstore in Orland Park originally used a large black 10' high banding with photographs of the different items in the department on the perimeter walls. This was eventually painted over and a white and orange color scheme with an orange band running the length of the perimeter walls. ^[13]

Omni Superstore handled many calls in the store and required an extensive communication system. The store in Schererville, IN (1991) used a Nortel Meridian 1 PBX ( ROLM Redwood Series PBX's were used in the earlier Omni and Dominick's Stores 1986-1991) as the main phone system for the store, as opposed to other retailers who used much smaller scale telephone systems. The largeness of the system allowed the service desk to "park" calls at a particular extension and then "page" the appropriate department via the phone system paging code and store's external omni-directional speaker or paging horn system. It was very common to hear "General Merchandise you have a call parked on 627" or "Bakery you have a call parked on 616." This method of paging is now a standard method in most modern retailers today.

A large "flying wave" Orange and White banner was hung in a curved wavy fashion over the entire grocery sales area. Early stores said "Lower Prices Overall" while the newer stores said "Discount Food and Drug." ^[14]

St. Paul Federal Bank was the main banking center in the Illinois Omni Superstores. In Indiana, Centier Bank from Northwest Indiana opened a branch in the Omni Store. ^[15]

Instrumental Smooth Jazz was the main music played constantly at the early Omni's while the newer Omni's moved into light rock, jazz, and even country at the Schererville, IN store. Phone system paging and background music was always very loud at the Omni Stores. Paging announcements were very frequent at Omni Stores.

Omni stores were built with a large mezzanine that overlooked the main cash register area and entrance/exit vestibules. The bank, the customer service desk and restrooms were located under this mezzanine. Offices and a break room were located on the mezzanine.

Although Omni was considered a "warehouse styled" store, the only actually warehouse type industrial shelving was in the main Power Aisle that led from the front entrance to the back of the store. Unlike Cub Foods, where all of the shelving was industrial warehouse styled, Omni's shelving gondolas consisted of standard store shelving.

Most Omni Superstores also had a huge canopy built on the front of the store where people could drive under and load groceries into cars quicker.

[edit] Slogans

• "Take Home the Difference"
• "Lower Prices Overall" (the most common slogan)
• "Discount Food and Drug"

[edit] Former locations

• Orland Park, Illinois - 15854 La Grange Road (opened late 1986, closed 1999, reopened as split tenants, Best Buy and Linens-N-Things)
• Glendale Heights, Illinois - 151 E. North Avenue (opened 1987, closed 1999, location is currently empty)
• Cicero, Illinois - 4779 W. Cermak Road (opening not available, closed 1999, currently occupied by a temporary tenant)
• Chicago, Illinois - 2550 North Clybourn Avenue (opened 1988, currently under Dominick's operations and was renovated summer 2006 to a new Dominick's Lifestyle store, the only former Omni still open)
• McHenry, Illinois - 2000 Richmond Road (opening date not available, renovated 1997, closed in 2008)
• Niles, Illinois - 7801 N. Waukegan Road (opening date not available, renovated 1997, closed 1999, currently opened as Super H Mart Asian Superstore)
• Round Lake Beach, Illinois - 750 E. Rollins Road (opening date 1987, renovated 1997 and became Dominick's. Closed in April 2007, to be possibly torn down)
• Melrose Park, Illinois - 8315 W. North Avenue (opening date not available, renovated 1997, closed 1999, building now houses Lincoln College of Technology)
• Aurora, Illinois - Illinois Route 59 and 75th Street (opening date late 1988, renovated 1997, closed 1999, is now an American Sale store)now vacant.
• Prospect Heights, Illinois - 1241 North Rand Road (opening date not available, renovated 1997, closed 1999, location is currently empty)
• Chicago, Illinois - 4700 South Damen Avenue (opening date 1989, renovated 1997, Currently a Value City Department Store.)
• Crestwood, Illinois - 13180 South Cicero Avenue (opening date 1990, renovated 1997, Dominick's in operation at this location slated to close April 2007)
• Schererville, Indiana - 1515 US Route 41 (opening date 1991, renovated 1997, closed 1999, currently operating as a Strack and Van Til Supermarket which opened in 2003)
• Chicago, Illinois - 3250 West 87th Street (opening date 1992, renovated 1997, closed 1999, operating as Ultra Foods as of May 31,2007)
• Bridgeview, Illinois - 7755 South Harlem Avenue (opening date 1989 as Auchan Hypermarket, renovated to Omni in 1991, relocated to a new Dominick's location further south (closing April 2007) on Harlem Avenue in 1999, former Omni building location abandoned in 1997. Demolished in February 2006.)
• Elgin, Illinois - 250 Randall Road (opening date 1993, renovated 1997, closed 2004, location is currently empty)

[edit] References