Strategic design. Instant impact. Lasting growth.
Fresh Baked Design
It takes the right ingredients to deliver a high-touch service experience in a small footprint.
Think
COBS has a winning recipe for success: every day, each location bakes their own goods from scratch on site.
You just can’t get bread, scones and pastries this fresh from a centralized bakery. Every location has a large back-of-house, leaving a small storefront where staff deliver a full-service experience that’s also unbeatable. With a high volume of product to sell every day, our first challenge was to maximize space effectiveness. The second was to amplify the promise of freshly baked goods, every day, on site.
Blink
Telling customers products are fresh is important, but seeing is believing. Our approach was to make freshness more visible.
We enhanced the back wall behind the counter, allowing a view of the bakers in action through shelves of freshly baked bread. In the old design, queueing customers blocked the view of under-the-counter display cases. Using height to our advantage, a glass tower elevates the baked goods, making them visible from anywhere, even the street. A mobile prep table allows staff to complete tasks, such as icing scones, while still being visible and available to customers. And a rich burgundy tile backdrop is tagged with a simple message: BAKED TODAY IN THIS BAKERY.
An easier experience for both customer and front-of-house staff supports different shopping trips, while reinforcing high-touch service.
Some COBS customers want to browse, while others quickly make their purchase. We shifted the front counter to one side, creating clearer separation for full-service. The grab-and-go area, now larger, was enhanced with custom fixtures to show off popular items. A menu board with thoughtful graphics supports product storytelling for best sellers and seasonal items, and a dedicated online order area with clear signage streamlines pickups.
The result: a bakery experience that celebrates the COBS commitment to freshness, service, and community.
Every aspect of the design was carefully chosen to elevate what makes COBS unique. From framing the toasted hues of bread in the burgundy tile, to signage and storytelling graphics throughout the store, to human-centred service design, the new bakery packs a lot of impact into a small footprint.