Designing the “Self-Service”

Equipment Shops for the Sale Food Sector

Abstract

The self-service practice, in Italy, is a commercial revolution that began with the first supermarkets and department stores, in the second half of the fifties and then spread widely to grocery stores, big and small, bringing the techniques and equipment “free service” to all categories of goods. The text describes, particularly through the work of propaganda represented by magazines focused on the art of the sale, the principal steps of the spread of this “new style of sale”. This new style was exported, strategically, from America to Europe during the forties and widespread in Italy during the “boom economico” with its core in the city of Milan.
With the transition from the traditional shop to the self-service layout, organized in specialized areas, the store becomes a modern work environment.
The aim of this paper is the organization and the display of the food product according to sale marketing, “visual merchandising”, advertising, packaging.