THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 10, 1996 TAG: 9603070054
SECTION: FLAVOR PAGE: F1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RUTH FANTASIA, ASSISTANT TO THE FOOD EDITOR
LENGTH: Long : 153 lines
A PIGGLY WIGGLY grocery store in Memphis, Tenn., opened the first checkout lanes in 1916. Since then, some customers - feeling trapped in long lines and cramped aisles - think supermarket service has gone down the conveyor belt and out the automatic door.
Now, supermarkets are changing and adopting a more service-oriented approach.
``The food industry has finally admitted that people don't like to grocery shop,'' said Mike Julian, chairman and chief executive officer of Farm Fresh, the market leader in grocery sales in Hampton Roads. ``Once upon a time, the most frequently shopped items were placed where you had to walk past everything else,'' Julian said. ``That's passe these days.''
Some stores, such as a Harris Teeter in Greensboro, N.C., have a milk case adjacent to checkout lanes, so shoppers can grab a gallon and go.
``Customers want `quick in' and `quick out,' '' said Pete Bonneau, store director of the Hannaford Food and Drug Superstore in Virginia Beach. ``So we're changing how we look at shoppers.''
Karen Machleit, associate professor of marketing at the University of Cincinnati College of Business Administration, says studies show that shoppers distinguish between human and spatial crowding. And spatial crowding - where the store layout and design are confining - dissatisfies customers more than does human crowding.
We don't mind waiting for people to move, but don't clutter the aisles.
Those 60-foot-long lanes of products have been called ``the jail'' by industry critics. Store designers now are creating wider walking areas and ``clustered'' displays.
Customers find clustered designs more logical, says Hannaford's Bonneau.
``When they want bread, they can go to the bakery section. It doesn't matter if it's commercial bread, whole loaves, rolls or bagels; it's all in one place,'' Bonneau said.
In some Farm Fresh stores, the cereals are on the ends of two center-facing aisles with a row of shelving in the center. The center shelves are lower so you can see the cereals on the adjacent aisle.
Between the cereal cluster and a baby-items section is a break, so shoppers can turn around and bypass either section.
New floor plans also cater to ``perimeter'' shoppers - folks who want to run in and out without going to ``jail.''
Grab a basket and pick up some produce, a loaf of bread, dessert and something from the meat case along the back of the store. Continue around and snatch milk, eggs and ice cream from cases before you get in the checkout line. FOOD TO GO
Grocery stores also are attracting non-cooks with specialized areas such as Hannaford's Meal Center and Farm Fresh's Gold Cafes. Harris Teeter, which will open in Virginia Beach early this summer, features juice and coffee bars.
`` `To Go' was never a primary part of our business,'' said Farm Fresh's Julian. ``But now we're considering separate entrances for the food-to-go and restaurant area.''
``It's not even out of the realm of possibility that we could put a drive-through in here,'' he said while sitting in the corner of the dining room at Farm Fresh's Wards Corner store in Norfolk.
``Amenities such as specialty cafeterias, where people can eat while doing their shopping, all go to the core of the business,'' said Francis Domoy, food marketing expert from the Rochester (N.Y.) Institute of Technology. ``Supermarkets want to grab the largest share of the customer's stomach any way they can.''
Other changes to the landscape include restrooms at the front of the store; special lighting to make reading easier and fruits and vegetables look truer to color; and content signs at each aisle's end instead of in the middle, so customers won't have to strain to see.
Hannaford, a Maine-based chain, puts its refrigerated products behind glass doors - to keep customers warm and save energy. There's also a gravity-fed milk case that keeps milk moving forward as cartons are removed. Egg-carton ``carts'' go from hen house to store and back, so breakage is reduced.
Produce departments are undergoing face lifts too.
``We've found in our focus groups that people perceive food in a farmer's market to be fresher. So we make this area look like a farmer's market,'' said Susan Mayo, customer development manager for Harris Teeter.
European-style market tables and new upright display cases hold half the inventory of the old-style produce cases, but because the merchandise is rotated more often, it's fresher, says Farm Fresh's Julian.
Even shopping carts are riding the change.
Push carts with bench seats and seatbelts ``are great if you have two children or someone who wants to shop but has trouble walking,'' said Mayo. EMPHASIS ON SERVICE
Service is the name of the game, and it's not limited to groceries.
``One-stop shopping continues to be the dominant trend among supermarkets,'' said RIT's Domoy. ``Supermarkets are striving to become relief centers where people can bank, pay bills, make airline reservations, rent movies or perform any number of other activities.''
By summer, more personnel in Hampton Roads grocery stores will be looking to help you.
The recently renovated Farm Fresh at Wards Corner in Norfolk boasts a 32-foot-long custom-cut meat counter and the people to operate it.
Hannaford's Meal Center touts a chef to answer questions, help plan meals and cook items you're not sure about buying.
Want to have a dinner party without all the work?
``We have people bring in their china serving pieces and vases and we'll fill up the dishes, garnish them and send them out the door,'' said Bill Tanner, head chef at a Greensboro, N.C., Harris-Teeter.
And don't forget the wine. Harris Teeter stores have wine consultants to help you choose the appropriate bottle.
It's ``customer service like what is in a gourmet store,'' said Ruth Ellen Kinzey, Harris Teeter's corporate communications manager.
But what will all this service cost?
``Because you are in the Southeast corridor, you have the greatest concentration per capita of grocery stores than any other place in America,'' Kinzey said. ``So we have to be very competitive.''
``Think of it this way,'' she added: ``Some people walk out and say, `My food bill is higher.' Did you buy wine instead of going to a wine store? Did you buy flowers instead of going to a florist? Did you buy a meal instead of going to a fast-food joint or a restaurant? Yet if you compare the price of a can of green beans, shoppers will find we're competitive.''
And can the chains guarantee their staffs will be friendly and helpful?
``We have what we call the Model Store Program,'' Farm Fresh's Julian said. ``We're taking it store by store and evaluating the situation, identifying the problems and retraining the staff, from the managers to the associates.''
Hannaford calls its plan ``Customer Focused Attitude,'' said local store director Bonneau.
``The goal is to create better communication, through rewarding associates for making suggestions. Before, we might have thrown up our hands and given up. We'd have said: `Take it or leave it. This is who we are.' Now the goal is: Satisfy the customer,'' he said. ``And I think the associates get a certain charge out of serving the customer.''
Associates.
Not checkers, not clerks, not bag boys.
At Harris Teeter, they're associates with stock in the company.
At Hannaford, associates with ergonomically correct, adjustable bagging stands. (The theory is that if the associate is comfortable, he'll be happy, and if he's happy, the customer will be happy.)
``Take a look at the most successful stores out there today and there is some commitment to quality service from Nordstrom to Walmart. We have to compete to survive the next 10 years,'' Julian said.
Competition through customer service.
``Years ago, these were the first textbook examples of shopping utopia,'' Hannaford's Bonneau said of the changes. ``Now it's here.'' ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC BY JOHN EARLE/The Virginian-Pilot
WHAT'S NEW IN FOOD SHOPPING
This floor plan is a composite of changes Hampton Roads supermarkets
are making to better serve the customer. Other features include
wider aisles, take-out meals prepared by in-store chefs and
customer-service training for employees.
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
KEYWORDS: GROCERY STORES SUPERMARKETS by CNB