The Basket Runneth Over
Aug 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Jennifer Popovec
“Grocers have been asleep at the wheel. For 75 years they didn't give a damn about customer experience,” Peterson asserts. Today, he contends that grocers are adapting the same remodel cycle as specialty retailers, rolling out new prototypes and updating stores every three to four years.
Salisbury, N.C.-based Food Lion, for example, has rolled out two new concepts:Bloom, an upscale brand that emulates Trader Joe's and Whole Foods; and Bottom Dollar, a no-frills type of discount store. In Hampton Roads, Va., the company is converting 18 traditional Food Lions into eight Bloom and 10 Bottom Dollar stores.
“Food Lion has taken the approach that one size does not fit all,” says spokeswoman Karen Peterson. “We used to have a shotgun approach to remodels, but now we have an approach where we go into one market at a time and redo all the stores, updating some of the Food Lions and rebranding some of them as Bloom or Bottom Dollar.” Food Lion has 52 Bloom stores and 17 Bottom Dollar stores across the U.S.; the remainder of the company's 1,200-plus stores remain branded as Food Lion, at least for now.
The Food Lion store in Williamsburg Shopping Center in Williamsburg, Va., will soon be transformed into a Bloom store, says Ifshin of DLC Management, which owns the center. The Food Lion has suffered from the competition with Ukrops and a nearby Wal-Mart Supercenter.
“With Bloom, Food Lion is really trying to differentiate itself from regular competition and from Wal-Mart,” Ifshin explains, adding that the Bloom is expected to drive traffic at the center and help “reassert this corner as a retail destination.”
But chains don't have to roll out entirely new concepts to reap renovation rewards, experts contend.
Consider Pathmark Stores Inc. The Carteret, N.J.-based company has been working with Colemanbrandworx on a new prototype design that combines freshness, neighborhood stores and farmers' markets, Bona says. So, instead of the boring and typical meat department, Pathmark customers buy their fish from the “Chesapeake Fishing Company” and get their deli meats and cheeses from the “57th Street Deli.”
Pathmark recently rolled out the new design to its store in Edgewater Commons in Edgewater, N.J. The store features an expanded food demonstration area and a café that stocks gourmet coffees and specialty pastries.
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