From Planning to Opening Day: Inside The Way Station Mercantile's Modern Bulk Food Store

Case Study  ·  Bulk Food Retail  ·  Zero Waste Shopping  ·  North Carolina, USA

A look inside a thoughtfully planned independent mercantile, and how bulk dispensing can turn everyday pantry shopping into a simpler, more flexible retail experience.

There is something different about shopping when the product comes first.

No rows of competing packages. No fixed bag size deciding how much you need to buy. Instead, you see the food itself, choose what you want, dispense the amount you need, weigh it and pay accordingly.

At The Way Station Mercantile in New Bern, North Carolina, that simple idea sits at the heart of a beautifully considered new retail space.

The independent mercantile brings together bulk pantry staples, natural household products, handmade goods and locally crafted items, with a focus on quality, community and simple living. Its bulk section includes everything from wheat berries, oats and rice to beans, lentils, flour, sugar and locally roasted coffee.

For us at IDM, this was also a chance to be involved before the dispensers ever reached the wall.

Starting With the Space

When Jen Giambertone contacted IDM, she had already done a lot of the work.

The store concept was clear. The fixtures and overall layout had been planned. She knew how she wanted the space to feel and had detailed dimensions and assembly plans to work from.

Our role was not to redesign her store. It was to help translate that plan into the right dispensing setup.

Together, we looked at the available wall space, fixture dimensions and intended product range, then worked through the dispenser configurations and mounting options that would fit naturally into the design.

It is an important part of planning any bulk food store. Capacity matters, but so do the dimensions of the room, the height of the dispensers, customer access, the products being sold and the space needed underneath and around each dispensing point.

Getting those decisions right on paper makes the installation itself much simpler.

One Store, Different Ways to Shop Bulk

The finished store uses three IDM solutions for different types of products.

Twenty FBD100 Free Flow PRO Bulk Food Dispensers form the main wall display, holding grains, oats, beans, lentils, rice, sugar and other dry pantry staples.

Ten SB-101 Scoop Bins provide easy access to products such as flour, cornmeal and salt, where scooping is the more practical way to serve.

Two G10 Supremo Coffee Bean Dispensers create a separate station for locally roasted whole coffee beans.

Rather than forcing every ingredient into the same format, the combination allows the dispensing method to suit the food.

And visually, it all works together. Clear containers put the products themselves on display against the warm timber and black backdrop, giving a large assortment a sense of order without making the store feel clinical.

Choose. Dispense. Weigh. Pay.

This is where bulk retail becomes interesting from the customer's point of view.

The process is remarkably simple.

Choose what you want. The transparent dispensers make the product visible before purchase. With the Free Flow PRO system, customers can control the flow as they dispense, taking a small amount to try something new or a larger quantity for an everyday pantry staple.

Take the amount you need. There is no predetermined package size. A customer buying rice for tonight's dinner does not have to buy the same quantity as someone stocking a family pantry.

Weigh it. The product is purchased according to weight, so the amount in the bag is the amount the customer pays for.

Pay for the product. Without the conventional retail package dictating the quantity, the focus shifts back to the food itself and its price per weight.

That flexibility is one of the most compelling things about bulk shopping.

Customers can buy a little or a lot. They can experiment with an unfamiliar grain without committing to a full package. They can stock up on ingredients they use every week. And they can make those decisions themselves, right at the dispenser.

Less Packaging, Less Waste, More Choice

There is an environmental benefit built naturally into the same model.

Traditional grocery retail relies heavily on individually packaged products in predetermined quantities. Bulk retail offers another option: store larger quantities centrally and allow customers to take only what they need.

That can reduce the amount of individual packaging associated with each purchase and, just as importantly, can help reduce food waste caused by buying more than is actually needed.

For retailers, refill and bulk systems can also make one container work repeatedly rather than turning the container itself into part of every transaction.

It is a relatively simple change to the way food is presented, but it changes the relationship between product, packaging and customer.

The Product Becomes the Display

One of the things we particularly like about The Way Station is that the bulk section does not look like an equipment installation.

It looks like a food store.

The wheat berries, oats, beans, lentils, popcorn, rice and sugar provide the colour and texture. The transparent containers simply give them a consistent framework.

Labels identify each product and its price clearly, while the long rows of dispensers make it easy to browse and compare what is available.

There is no need for colourful packaging to fight for attention. The ingredients are the visual merchandising.

That simplicity works particularly well with The Way Station's combination of timber shelving, vintage furniture, jars, handmade goods and locally sourced products. The bulk wall feels like part of the mercantile rather than a separate supermarket fixture.

Local Coffee Gets Its Own Corner

The two G10 Supremo dispensers were used differently.

Mounted separately from the main bulk wall, their gold mechanisms and cylindrical containers create a small dedicated whole bean coffee station.

The transparent tubes keep the beans fully visible, with the local roaster's branding displayed directly on the container. Customers can see the coffee they are buying and dispense the quantity they want.

It is a small part of the overall installation, but a good example of how bulk merchandising does not have to mean one enormous wall of identical products. Individual categories can have their own identity within the same store.

From Installation to Opening Day

We were lucky enough to follow this project as it came together.

First came the plans. Then the empty shelving and newly installed dispensers. Then the first photos with the containers filled and labels in place.

Just before opening, Jen sent us those finished photographs along with a message that made our day:

"Your company has been incredible to work with and I have highly recommend you to anyone who will listen! I will definitely be ordering more from you in the future!"

 

And now we have the best photographs of all: customers actually using the finished space.

That is when a retail plan stops being a plan.

The dispensers, shelves and fixtures become part of an everyday shopping experience, and a store that existed first on drawings and measurements becomes a place people actually visit, browse and buy from.

Project Highlights

Project: The Way Station Mercantile
Location: New Bern, North Carolina, USA
Concept: Independent mercantile and bulk food store
Application: Bulk grains, beans, pantry staples, baking ingredients and whole coffee beans
IDM products: 20 x FBD100 Free Flow PRO Bulk Food Dispensers, 10 x SB-101 Scoop Bins and 2 x G10 Supremo Coffee Bean Dispensers
Configuration: Wall mounted bulk merchandising with integrated scoop bin and dedicated coffee areas
IDM involvement: Product selection, layout consultation and fixture planning support

What The Way Station Shows Us About Modern Bulk Retail

Bulk shopping is sometimes presented primarily as an environmental choice. It certainly can be one, but projects like The Way Station show why the model has a much broader appeal.

It gives customers control.

Control over what they buy. Control over how much they buy. The ability to see the product rather than only its packaging. The freedom to try a small amount or stock up on a staple.

For the retailer, the same system turns the food itself into the display, creates an interactive shopping experience and allows a broad product range to be presented clearly within a relatively compact footprint.

And yes, reducing unnecessary individual packaging is an important part of the story too.

The result at The Way Station Mercantile feels neither futuristic nor complicated. In many ways, it is a return to a very traditional way of shopping, adapted for a modern retail environment.

And perhaps that is exactly why it works so well.

Planning a Bulk Food Store?

Every bulk retail project starts with different products, different dimensions and a different idea of how customers should move through the space.

IDM offers bulk food dispensers, scoop bins and specialist dispensing solutions for grains, cereals, beans, pulses, coffee, confectionery and other dry foods, with configurations for independent refill stores, supermarkets and larger retail projects.

Explore our Retail Bulk Merchandising solutions or contact us to discuss your project.