This is excellent! Supermarkets don't sell groceries, they sell solutions to problems. Everything about the modern supermarket is about short-circuiting human behavior and leveraging that same understanding of human behavior to generate sales and profit for the retailer, sometimes with a questionable value proposition for the consumer. Everything, from POS candy displays, perishables (high profit) at the corners, and shelf-placement is created for the benefit of the retailer and the manufacturers, with the consumers needs trailing behind.

You make an excellent point, rzklkng. Rather than lay out supermarkets from one narrow point of view: trying to get customers to shop the entire store to make additional impulse purchases, maybe it's time to redesign it for their convenience. There's something to be said for layouts that are conducive with the way consumers make purchases, isn't there? By grouping complementary items together, I'm betting customer loyalty and word of mouth will garner more sales and profits for Piggly Wiggly. It may also spur the entire industry to make the first substantive merchandising changes in 50 years. Thanks for the insights, rzklkng. Much appreciated.

Overall it sounds like a very interesting experiment. Neat concept to point out.

I might buy more if "complete meal solutions" were grouped together, if they planned those meal solutions properly to include things I might not have thought of myself.

But I'd still have to travel the entire store - because there's no way they can group all the meal ideas together. It would save me stress, not time or money.

Meal preparation stations sound interesting - I know there are already companies that do that as their entire focus - but I'm just not sure I'd take advantage of them. Although it sounds like a great hit if they're in a part of Myrtle Beach focusing on the vacationers!

Beth,

Thanks for the observations of a seasoned food shopper. There may be a pun there, somewhere.... You're right in saying that lots of customers will probably shop the store in spite of meal groupings. Others, though, may scoop up what they need for dinner tonight, and head out, grateful to not have to shop the entire store. New concepts either take off, catch on slowly or die out. I'm betting this one might be a hit, but we'll have to wait and see. Thanks, Beth, for making some great observations.

Let's hear from some Myrtle Beach residents--what do you think of this new concept?

Ted,

What I like about this new grocery store model is that PW is integrating "Special stations where weeks’ worth of oven-ready meals can be prepared and brought home", to quote you.

There are separate businesses offering this amenity to busy people, where they can come in, purchase and prepare food for the week. Some of these enterprises are quite successful, from what I hear. How smart is it for a supermarket chain to offer this service?

Great idea. Thanks, for sharing this, Ted.

It will be interesting to see how consumers respond to this, Claire, I agree. Since supermarkets offer prepared meals already, will Piggly Wiggly customers also like the idea of coming in to prepare their own? We'll see. Thanks for weighing in, Claire. I appreciate it.

fantastic idea. Funny to see ideas flow from the Web where you often see retailers do this to the offline world.

Julie,

You are so right. As is the case with many consultancies, we have to be aware of new trends and ideas. By reading business articles in a host of publications, we can then spread the word and get the pulse of business people and consumers to new marketing trends. Thanks for commenting, Julie.

This concept IS great! Wow - will be interesting to see how successful it becomes. Catering more to the customers' needs is definitely key in competitive markets!

"Catering more to the customers' needs is definitely key in competitive markets!" Exactly, Brick Marketing. Exactly.

Thanks for adding your comment. Much appreciated.

This sounds like Microsoft redesigned the supermarket; can you say feature bloat?

And I wonder if all this stuff adds to PW's overhead. I'm unconvinced of the whole concept. Yes, I admit I'm a purist & a traditionalist, and perhaps this makes me some kind of freak in the eyes of the mainstream, but I don't need a "lifestyle experience" every time I enter a store. As long as it's clean & well-stocked and has helpful, courteous staff, I don't need the bells & whistles.

One thing I am curious to know -- how do they pull off grouping canned/frozen produce in the same place?

You raise a valid point, Patricia. Some people are probably not convinced this is the way to go. However, 50 years ago when supermarket layouts changed to become what we're familiar with today, I'll bet some customers didn't feel comfortable with that, either. My point is that things change and I think we need to experience something new before we pronounce judgment on it.

Consumers are changing and their demands are changing, too. Smart retailers are trying to accommodate consumers' busy lifestyles, rather than ignoring them. If this concept doesn't work in its totality, parts of it more than likely will. Models can always be tweaked, and I suspect changes will be made to this new concept over time.

I'm not sure how canned goods, frozen and produce will be merchandised in one area of the store--I suspect smaller freezers will be placed near shelving units?

Thanks for bringing balance and perspective to this post, Patricia. I appreciate it.

Ted, I'd be curious to understand the analysis behind the decisions to group like minded items together.

On one hand, it seems inituitive to put like minded items together but was that how the decisions were made -by intution? Through survey? Through watching customer buying patterns and charting their movements? Were the decisions made to group like items based on a data-based approach drawing from POS data (market based affinity analysis)? I suppose I need more information here...

I'd like to know more about how this supermarket chain made its decisions to change its format, too, Paul. You ask some very good questions. I'm sure significant marketing research was conducted before Piggly Wiggly decided to launch a prototype store. Whether information was collected from consumer surveys and focus groups, consumer observation coupled with sales data, we simply have no idea. The newspaper article didn't give the details of the process. I will follow up with more info if I can find it.

Substantive research and analysis should always underpin the implementation of any new marketing concepts. Too much is at stake to just work from "the gut", as you always remind us, Paul. Thanks for your comments and questions, as always.

I'm very much with Julie. While I like the idea of 'shopping experiences', I am afraid of the potential for over-design and feature creep to overwhelm and distract from the most notable store improvements which pure utilitarian-minded shoppers would appreciate. This is just my general opinion - I'm not casting judgment on PW's strategy; perhaps it will work out great for them.

Hi Mario,

I understand what you're saying. I'm not sure if this is a case of "over-design". To me, it's more of a re-design. . .based on what this supermarket chain sees as aligning better with the way its customers are shopping and using the store. And that as you point out is something "utilitarian-minded shoppers would appreciate".

As you pointed out, we'll have to wait and see whether the new strategy works for Piggly Wiggly or not. . .

Thanks for weighing in, Mario. I always appreciate your comments and insights.