Leadership


Terry Roberts brings over 30 years of experience to Merchandising By Design, Inc. / The Design Associates, which she established in 1994, to specialize in retail store planning and design. A native of upstate New York, now based in Florida, Terry has held leadership roles with acclaimed industry leaders, and has completed many notable and successful supermarket, convenience store, and specialty food store planning projects, both in the US and internationally.


  • President, Merchandising By Design, Inc/The Design Associates
    • Designing consumer and community focused store plans and interiors from concept to completion
    • Developing sound operational plans for increased ROI
    • Providing leadership training and development at all levels
    • Unprecedented attention to detail and execution standards
  • Director of New Store Formats, Northgate Markets, Anaheim, California
    • Leadership role in developing and rebranding Hispanic fresh format
    • Store planning, custom fixture design, sourcing, program development, training
  • Director, US Operations, Nualight Ltd
    • US Ambassador, business development and marketing for Nualight LED lighting business
    • Explore and develop strategic US relationships and partnerships to launch Nualight
    • Review and recommendations on design and implementation of product line
    • Assist Nualight with US retail customers and design community in expert usage of LED lighting
  • Vice President, Brand Management, for eatZi’s Easygoing Gourmet of Dallas, Texas
    • Designed new prototype stores
    • Retooled the culinary and business operations
  • Sr. Director of Organizational Development for Thornton’s Quick Café and Market of Louisville, Kentucky
    • Designed prototype, fresh market convenience stores
    • Developed Stackhouse University for structured training and employee development
  • Wegmans of Rochester, New York: twelve years in leadership positions in store planning, operations, training, buying, and management
    • Six years of project development and management in prepared foods, coffee bars and most notably, the industry acclaimed Market Café
    • Six years in leadership roles in HBC and hard goods categories as well as visual merchandising specialist
  • Rite Aid Pharmacies
    • Ten years in leadership roles, specialized in store acquisitions covering 13 states as well as senior trainer and merchandiser
  • Terry is a “go to” source and frequent speaker for industry associations, including FMI, IDDBA, Global Shop, Canadian Association Chain Drug Stores, Whole Health Marketing & Retail Strategies and Supermarket News.



When your project requires additional resources, The Design Associates team will consist of the most experienced and talented professionals in the industry. Our colleagues have produced some of the most acclaimed and successful projects in the industry, and each client's project has the contract associates specifically suited to the disciplines required. The bottom line, you are never paying for more people or services than needed to accomplish your project goals and time lines..