Posts Tagged grocers

Just the sound of that phrase makes some people quiver, but there can be fun ways to fill the larder. After touring a new Whole Foods store, I now understand how the company survived so handsomely during this past, difficult year. They signed onto the sale and coupon philosophy and figured out how to communicate their new strategy. Customers no longer needed to quake at the mere thought of entering a store; instead, they have learned how to shop and what to buy with each visit.

Basically, Whole Foods learned how to offer sizable price reductions in each of the major departments. For the consumer, the translation is quite simple: Buy strawberries when they are on sale; not when they are back to their old prices. A basic example. You can plan your menus easily around the sales. This week you’ll buy one type of fish and next week it may be a whole different flavor profile. This type of  shopping’s much easier: You buy the freshest foods with the biggest reductions and you leave the store a much wiser, healthier individual. Those are the products you want to plan your meals around. Nothing foreign about this concept. This is how chefs shop for restaurants. What looks good, what just came in, and what about the price point are considerations when they tour the markets.

At this new store, there was a product innovation that is sure to interest the curious and captivate the regulars. Some shoppers will continue to create their own salad/main course meal from the cold and hot selections which are sold by the pound, and then there are the newbies. Individuals who will want the $7.99 box with 3 compartments of items stuffed to the gilder-sterns as long as the lid closes: One price, one huge possibility!

The healthy focus has certainly helped drive their business as more consumers are focused on purchasing healthy foods for their families. Combine that strategy with the emphasis on finding producers of local foods, and you have a pretty good understanding of how the company has made such major strides across the grocery aisle.

Innovations are great as long as the price point stays in the center of the radar. Competition will remain strong, as at the other end of the spectrum is major competition in the form of Wal-Mart. Here’s a company that has made significant strides in its food line this year and just announced plans to continue to increase the depth of possibilities–they call it the aggressive Rollbacks program. We are talking about a major retailer that has reworked its aisles and departments to limit some selections in favor of increasing the overall breadth of food selections. This is where to shop for the basics that every household needs: It’s a win-win situation: You fill your house with great price-point savings on pantry essentials.

Everybody else in between plans to continue its coupon-driven enticements. The consumer has become a more savvy shopper after this past year of economic upheaval and has learned how to save shopping dollars. Markets cannot return to their old ways.

Shopping need not be Guerrilla warfare. I am more a believer than ever.

Tags: grocers, grocery coupons, trends, whole foods