Talking strawberry plants? Levitating berries? A strawberry-flavoured mist gently floating through stores? This might sound impossibly futuristic, but for four days only, berry shoppers on London’s Oxford Street will experience a multi-sensory taste of future retail concepts, thanks to a new installation from flavour experts Bompas & Parr, and trade body British Summer Fruits.
According to Sam Bompas and Harry Parr, consumers of the future could feasibly pick strawberries from plants growing in-store, while surrounded by the berries’ aroma dispersed through mist.
And that’s exactly what they have created, on the ground floor of Marks & Spencer’s Food Hall at Marble Arch.
Commissioned by trade body British Summer Fruits, the project is timed as strawberry production gears up for the Wimbledon sales peak, and aims to showcase how retailers could create an experiential buying environment using both smell, sight, sound and taste.
Two pyramids are pumping strawberry-flavoured mist into the air, made using Jubilee strawberries, water vapour and other misting supplements, using the concept that aroma can heighten the perception of taste.
A pedestal of levitating strawberries sits on a platform of mock-gold, while live strawberry plants are growing in coir substrate underneath blue and red LED lights. As well as using the LED growing system to heighten flavour, the leaves of the plants are wired up to voice recordings from growers, explaining what the varieties are and how they are grown.
“This installation was made with the idea that consumers are always going to want more,” Bompas & Parr events manager Dania Muller told FPJ. “This is the next step. Nowadays it’s all about being interactive, but in the future retail will become multi-sensory. This is our take on the future. We already have retailers selling living lettuce, we could also have living strawberries.”
Harry Parr, one of the co-founders of Bompas & Parr, said: “British strawberries have a special place among the public’s hearts, but you don’t realise this when they’re just on the shelf.
“By levitating them we wanted to signify their importance, and make them stand out. In addition, in typical chilled cabinets there is no aroma of the fruit, and it’s been proven that aroma leads to an increased ability to perceive taste.
“Supermarkets tend to smell neutral, apart from the bread aisle, but there are instances where smell could also used strategically. Strawberry is the most universally-liked flavour, so it is an ideal place to start.”
Chairman of British Summer Fruits, Laurence Olins, said the Bompas & Parr installation was a “large investment” for the trade body, but said it was a logical step after last year’s campaign began to focus on the multi-sensory impact of berries.
“The idea was to show what strawberry retailing could look like in the future,” he said. “Modern growing methods are using artificial light and substrates, and that’s what we’ve got here. It may not be viable commercially, but retailers could use living strawberry displays as a draw,” he said.
On display until this Sunday (28 June), this installation may be short-lived but its snapshot of the future will surely leave a lasting impression among consumers, retailers and marketers alike.
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