SINGAPORE - FairPrice Xtra at Jurong Point gets a revamp, and becomes the first outlet in the supermarket chain here to make use of a new in-store retail concept in the way products are displayed.

The outlet, which officially reopened on Thursday (Dec 7), boasts several new features, including a reorganisation of some sections of the hypermarket into five zones. It has been closed in phases since August for the revamp.

The zones include a Parenting Zone which houses an interactive play area for children - Kidsmart - to keep them occupied while their parents shop.

Mr Marcus Wong, general manager, hypermarket at Fairprice said: "We want to make shopping fun for the family. We do not want to compete with online, but give shoppers an experience that they can only find in shopping with us in-store."

He said that products in the hypermarket were no longer arranged along the lines of the product-based method of the past in which similar goods were displayed together. The outlet has embraced the concept of mission shopping in which products used together will be displayed together - even if they might not be of similar categories.

One example Mr Wong cited was the stocking of food items and cooking appliances together instead of being in totally different sections.

The hypermarket also boasts an expanded self-checkout area - over two times as many as other FairPrice stores - to free up staff to work on engaging customers.

Mr Wong said that the reorganisation has enabled FairPrice to use its resources more efficiently as the hypermarket has remained the same in size with no change in the number of employees.

Housewife Elaine Chng, 30, who was at the hypermarket with her mother and nine-month-old baby, said: "The revamp makes it easier to shop. The children's items are all in the same area and there is a place where I can keep my child entertained while I do the shopping."

She frequents the outlet as she lives in the area.