FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Customers entering Whole Foods stores are funneled into a colorful produce department with plenty of opportunities for impulse buys. [Photo: Tim Healy]

› Publix's Push into the Lucrative Hispanic Market

There’s a reason grocers typically display milk and eggs in the back of a store: Placing staples far from the entrance forces consumers to walk past more potential impulse purchases. Other traditional strategies: Placing high-margin goods at eye level, three or four rows from the bottom because shoppers are more likely to reach for the first item in their direct line of sight.

Read how grocers analyze you and try to manipulate your spending. What kind of shopper are you?

Those tried-and-true strategies pale beside what’s going on with the design and layout of grocery stores these days, as chains face more competition from convenience and warehouse stores while trying to meet consumer demand for an increasing array of goods and services, from fresh arugula to rotisserie chicken.

Design still fulfills its traditional role of funneling consumers strategically through the store. But it also has become a way for the chains to differentiate themselves. “Up until very recently, according to shoppers, the traditional food stores looked very similar to each other — or they looked just plain bad,” says Chris Ohlinger, a supermarket industry veteran who heads up SIRS Inc., a market research company.

Most major chains in Florida have reworked their stores in recent years. Sweetbay, the Tampa-based supermarket chain own by the Brussels-based Delhaize Group, recently completed a rebranding of what had been Kash n’ Karry; the redesign spotlights an expanded array of fresh goods as part of its “passion for food” marketing approach. A reorganized Winn-Dixie is dumping its old pink and turquoise color scheme for warmer earth tones and refocusing on its perishable departments. Publix Super Markets has introduced two new formats: Publix Sabor, geared toward Hispanic shoppers, and Publix GreenWise Market, a store focused on natural and organic products.

IMAGE CORNER: The execution of a meat department like this one at Sweetbay is key to creating an inviting shopping experience: Research shows that even vegetarians judge a supermarket on the cleanliness and freshness of the store’s meats and seafoods. [Photo: Tim Healy]

The chains know that these days they have to generate an emotional response from their customers. Says Ohlinger: “The successful retailing space today is the one that uses sound, smell, architecture, painting, the printed word, interior design, sculpture, ergonomics, theater and technological advancements (i.e., video and virtual reality) combined to create a strong emotional experience for customers. Or, in other words, 21st century art — which moves people to action.”

The Front Door

Most stores funnel customers to the right as they enter — and with good reason: Stores with right-sided entries promote a counterclockwise movement around the store, and counterclockwise shoppers spend an average of $2 more per shopping trip than clockwise shoppers, says shopping behavior expert Herb Sorensen of Sorensen Associates.

Some chains have modified the traditional entrance so that customers entering their stores never see the backs of the cashiers and checkout aisles. Whole Foods Market and The Fresh Market funnel their customers directly into vibrant fruit and vegetable sections, sometimes having them enter the left side of the store; Sweetbay introduced that approach into its design as it overhauled the Kash n’ Karry brand.

The ‘Racetrack’

Insiders call the perimeter area of a grocery store the “racetrack.” Most shoppers dart in and out of aisles rather than methodically moving up and down aisles as they shop. That behavior, which Paco Underhill, founder and CEO of Envirosell Inc., calls the “boomerang” effect, makes the perimeter area — including the wide aisles at the front and rear of the store, the displays at the end of the aisles and key departments on the rim of the store — a crucial selling point. Sorensen’s research shows that consumers who follow the racetrack as they shop spend more than shoppers who chart their own courses.

Deli-Produce-Bakery

Most chains now use some combination of produce-deli-bakery to try to engage consumers with sights and smells as they enter. Regardless which “sensory” department is closest to the front of the store, the design focuses on slowing a customer’s progress into the store, encouraging more stopping, looking and buying. Long, wide aisles are few. Bakery sections, for example, usually feature an array of carts and tables. The bakery is particularly prominent in the design of Publix’s Sabor markets, which target Hispanics. The bakery in the Publix Sabor store in Hialeah, for example, is 2,700 square feet, offering more than 100 fresh pastries daily. Sabor’s bakery accounts for 3.8% of store sales — twice the industry average of 2% — according to the trade publication Progressive Grocer.

THE GOODS: The bakery at Publix’s Sabor market, which targets Hispanics, is 2,700 square feet and offers more than 100 fresh pastries daily. Sabor bakery sales are twice the industry average. [Photo courtesyPublix]

Bakeries are also popular for cross-merchandizing — using special displays to pair items from separate departments. Winn-Dixie, for instance, pairs its cakes with party bags and dessert wines.

Meanwhile, produce sections of many grocery stores have gotten larger in recent years as demand for both more produce and more kinds of produce have grown. The U.S. Department of Agriculture charted a 12% increase per capita in consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables between 1987 and 1997.

Many chains highlight offerings of locally grown or organic produce or offer racks of recipe cards to prompt a customer’s interest in a particular fruit or vegetable. Sweetbay’s produce section features low tables and wheeled carts that customers can see over and around and that encourage people to move in a circular, rather than linear, fashion. Red peppers and other colorful vegetables are purposefully interspersed with heads of lettuce to provide a palette of color to entice the shopper: “A long run of green product becomes overwhelming,” explains Steve Smith, Sweetbay’s vice president of merchandizing. The deli department — usually located in the right front or left front of the store — also is getting bigger. The size of the average service deli has risen from 1,390 square feet in 1998 to around 1,610 square feet in 2005, according to Progressive Grocer. Aside from sliced-to-order meats and cheeses, that space is used to offer a wider array of prepared “to-go” foods than the now-familiar rotisserie chicken. According to the International Dairy Deli Bakery Association, “today’s deli selling environment is not about selling individual products, but selling the ‘eating occasion’ ” to the consumer.

TEST CONCEPT: In addition to its own prepared foods, the University Walk Publix in Sarasota includes a 1,000-sq.-ft. Carrabba’s that sells takeout dishes. [Photo courtesy Publix]

More than 60% of consumers eat meals that were not prepared at home at least once a month, according to the Arlington, Va.-based Food Marketing Institute. Eighteen percent do it once or twice a week, and 4% three or more times a week.

Publix is blurring the line between traditional grocery store and restaurant even further, opening a 1,000-sq.-ft. Carrabba’s Italian Market at the University Walk Publix in Sarasota. The market features a wood-burning pizza oven and wood-fired grill and offers on-the-go soups, pizza and panini sandwiches. The grocer is also testing an expanded deli concept with sit-down and take-out meals at a store in Lake Mary.

Americans consume 17 fewer pounds of red meat, 40 more pounds of poultry and 4 more pounds of fish than they did in 1970 [Photo courtesy Whole Foods Market]

According to Mark Lilien, a consultant with the Retail Technology Group, checkout time is the No. 1 criterion shoppers use to measure customer service.

Paco Underhill, CEO of Envirosell, cautions retailers to consider the “butt-brush” factor in how they organize their space. Women who are bumped from behind while shopping consistently leave the store faster and buy less. Wide aisles and cul-de-sacs minimize the possibility of contact, encouraging them to relax and linger.

Endcaps

ENDCAP : Grocers often use the ends of aisles to pair products that typically are found in different parts of the store, like these cookout-related items at Whole Foods. [Photo: Tim Healy]

Stores are also making better use of the special displays at the end of supermarket aisles, particularly for cross promotions. At a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market in Tampa, bags of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee are paired with Post cereal and bananas. Bart Weitz, executive director of the University of Florida’s Center for Retailing Education and Research, says that placement of a product on an end-cap can boost sales by 300%.

Endcaps are also key locations to introduce new products to customers. Sweetbay has loaded up the first endcap in its natural foods department — located directly across from the bakery near produce — with its own line of Nature’s Place natural and organic products. The store’s intention is to “create awareness around the distinctive packaging so it starts to become visible” when consumers see the products in the rest of the aisles, says Smith, Sweetbay’s vice president of merchandizing.

In the Back

Along with dairy, fresh meat and seafood sections are still typically found at the rear of most stores, but new designs accommodate changing consumer tastes, calling attention to new cuts of meat, recipe racks, organic meats, displays of special seasonings and the like. While the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market provides only prepackaged meats, many Florida supermarket chains today emphasize their full-service butcher shops. Some stores such as Whole Foods Market in Sarasota integrate prepared offerings — vats of clam chowder or lobster bisque, for example — into their fresh seafood sections. Sweetbay designs both its meat and seafood departments to give customers a 360-degree shopping experience: The section literally pops out of the back wall. Meats — visible from every direction — are displayed in European-style cases, stand-alone pods and self-service gondolas. Instead of being blocked in, associates can easily move between the counters and shopping floor to interact with customers.

OPEN SPACE: The Fresh Market makes a point of keeping shelves low and aisles wide. Some of the store’s aisles are oriented diagonally. [Photo courtesy The Fresh Market]

Center Store

The center store portion of a grocery has traditionally been where items like paper products, canned goods, pet food and cleaning supplies are stocked. While this section typically generates about 50% of a store’s sales, consumers are buying more of those traditional center store products at super centers, warehouse clubs and other venues. As a result, the center store has acquired a reputation as the supermarket’s “dead zone” and is actually shrinking, says Ohlinger, as stores move items to the periphery to try to boost sales. The Fresh Market, a boutique grocer with stores in 20 Florida locations, eschews the traditional center store strategy altogether. Its center section is dominated by a large deli. A limited selection of groceries is located in five aisles in the back left of the store that are angled to funnel customers back toward the perishables sections along the perimeter and in the middle.

Traditional grocers are employing new techniques to break up the monotony of the 80-foot-long aisle: Sweetbay has introduced black convex shelves that bow out to display products like marinades, oils and spices. Publix has blocked out “GreenWise” areas in its center aisles to highlight its line of organic products.

The Front End

Aside from an increased number of displays near the cash registers, offering sodas and cold bottled water along with gum and batteries, the biggest change at the checkout aisle is the slow emergence of self-scanning technology. At an Albertson’s store in Clearwater, four customers scan their groceries while a single clerk at a centrally located register keeps an eye on the process. Sweetbay is testing the technology at two locations. While relatively few Florida supermarket chains are using the self-checkout technology now, Ohlinger expects more food retailers will adopt it. The do-it-yourself technology answers the consumer demand for a speedy checkout while reducing labor costs. Self-checkout terminals cost about $92,000 upfront but only $15,000 a year to maintain — or about 58 cents per hour at a store that is open 24 hours a day.

Contrary to the assumption that the self-checkouts would primarily appeal to the customer who wants to get in and out quickly, Sweetbay discovered that the self-checkouts are most popular among elderly clientele who don’t want to be rushed through the checkout.

One big drawback for grocers: Self-checkout reduces impulse buys. The IHL Consulting Group found a 43% drop in sales of candy, gum and breath mints, a 53% drop in sales of chips and salty snacks and 50% decline in soda and water at self-checkouts.

DO-IT-YOURSELF: Self-checkout aisles like this one at Winn-Dixie are catching on slowly. One drawback: They reduce impulse buys of items like candy and gum. [Photo courtesy Winn-Dixie ]