How To Buy Gondola Shelving
Whether you are opening up a grocery store, convenience store or package store, one piece of equipment is essential to your retail store - Gondola Shelving. Sometimes called cantilevered shelving or metal store shelves, these are super-sturdy and adaptable store fixtures for storing dry goods or grocery foods.
Store Floor Plan
The most important step to buying your gondola shelving is deciding on the right layout for your store. Decide where your service counter will be situated and design a floor plan for your customer flow. There are many different store configurations such as a ‘grid layout’ or ‘spine-track’. See examples of these below:
Once you have designed your floor lay-out, measure the space between your aisles (in some areas there are fire codes that dictate how many feet of allowance is needed between each row). Adjust your spacing on your floor plan.
Steps for Building a Parts List
1. Decide how many rows of store shelving you will need.
2. Plan on how long each row will be. Each section is 48” long, so your row length may be 8 feet, 12 feet, 16 feet and so on.
3. Once you lay-out your aisle gondola on the floor plan,determin how many walls will require gondola shelving too.
4. For each wall, measure a space that is also in sections of 48”. Figure your wall length which will also be 4 feet, 8 feet, 12 feet and so on.
5. Decide on the height of your gondola shelves. Most convenience stores have gondola shelf heights of 48” – 54” high. Grocery store heights range from 60” to 78” high.
6. Decide on the width of your base shelf and upper shelves. Most base shelves are 18” or 24”deep, and upper gondola shelves range between 14” to 22” deep.
You should now have:
- 1. Number of aisles or rows in your store
- 2. Length of each aisle section
- 3. Number of walls needing shelving
- 4. Length of each wall section
- 5. Height of gondola shelves
- 6. Base and shelf size of gondola shelves
Pricing your Gondola Sections
Now it is time to determine how to price your gondola shelving needs. Shelving sections are made up of what is called “starter” gondola shelving and “add-on” gondola shelving. The difference between a starter section and an add-on section is the ‘upright’ or legs. Starter sections are stand-alone 4ft. shelving sections, and Add-on sections make a row another 4ft. longer. For instance, a 12 foot aisle gondola section contains one (1) starter and two (2) add-on sections.
Don’t forget to plan end-caps into your lay-out too. An end-cap is a section of gondola that covers the end of each aisle row with shelving sections and extends the section length by 18 inches. These end-caps are perfect for featuring promotional items or store clearance items.
Delivery and Installation of Gondola Shelves
Gondola shelving is shipped or delivered unassembled. Most used gondola shelving will be shipped stacked and banded on freight pallets, and new gondola shelving will be boxed and shipped on pallets as well. A freight company shipping a load of gondola will often deliver the pallets “curb-side”.
It is important to have a knowledgeable work team who can receive the shelving, identify the parts and then assemble the gondola shelves on-site. Most suppliers of gondola shelving have assembly guides to assist with identifying parts as well as instructions for installations on site. The process of assembling gondola requires at least two people for setting up the aisle and wall shelving.
Used shelving will always require a little cleaning and touch up on site to get it ready for products to be added to the shelves. New shelving is clean out of the box and ready for product once it is installed.