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Tim Manners

February 29, 2008

Supermarket Sweep

How is it that an entire industry could take something that people inherently love and turn it into something they barely tolerate?

That's what's been going on in the grocery industry for the past 50 years. People love to shop and yet don't love to shop for groceries.

What's to love? Most of the stores are messy, the help is surly and the selection is at once lacking, overwhelming and worst of all, predictable.

Looking in from the outside, grocery appears to be the craziest business on earth. Well, with the possible exception of the airline business … or maybe the magazine business.

Shoppers would love nothing more than to love to shop for groceries. And the thing is, it would not be all that difficult to make grocery stores more lovable. Better lighting. Faster checkouts. Clerks who smile.

It's not as though grocers would have to blow themselves up or try to replicate Stew Leonard's, Trader Joe's or Wegman's (although that would be nice).

In fact, their model could be as simple as that of Amelia's Grocery Outlet. Amelia's is a so-called "salvage grocer" that trades in goods that are either damaged, discontinued or past their sell-by dates.

Don't laugh -- Amelia's same-store sales were up 12 percent last year, about twice the rate of Kroger. The reason isn't just the low prices. What shoppers say they love about Amelia's is that you just never know what you're going to find there. When you get down to it, isn't that what we love most about shopping?

So, surprise us. Pleasantly. Show us you understand who we are, what we want and what we need. We could learn to love grocery shopping yet.

Posted by Tim Manners at 11:39 AM

January 5, 2008

Born-Again Virgin

I recently had a great conversation with Dee Mc Laughlin, the marketing chief for Virgin Megastores. It was a great conversation because Virgin Megastores is growing rapidly (sales up 14 percent in 2007) in the music category, where industry-wide sales for the year were down by a similar percentage.

Not only that, but Virgin is zooming just as one of its main competitors -- Tower Records -- succumbed to the music industry's depression and closed its doors.

How is this possible? Why is Virgin Megastores sailing where others are sinking? According to Dee, the answer is pretty simple: "It's about coming up with easier ways to give our customers what they want."

And how do you do that? Well, here's what Dee has to say about it:

"We observe and then we innovate. For example, HD and Blu-ray are hot right now. We observed that our customers were saying, "what is the difference between the two?" You can tell them what the difference is, but unless they're actually seeing what the difference is, it's not going to help sales.

"So, we've put an HD and Blu-ray wall into all our stores. It's really spectacular looking. Where before we had consumer confusion, which was potentially stifling sales of both systems, now our customers actually can see what the difference is and choose for themselves which format to buy."

So, the key words for today are: "observe" and "innovate." The result, says Dee, was not only a more entertaining and engaging shopping experience, but most important, an increase in sales. If you'd like to read the rest of my conversation with Dee Mc Laughlin, you can find it at http://hubmagazine.com

Posted by Tim Manners at 11:56 AM | 1 Comment

December 10, 2007

Fresh & Bumpy

"Arrogant" is probably about the worst invective you could throw at anyone purporting to be in the business of building brands. After all, creating a brand is supposed to be premised on supreme respect for your customers. But, shockingly, "arrogant" is the adjective-of-choice Richard Guha and Kevin Price applied to Tesco's long-anticipated entry into the U.S. market with its Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets.

"Tesco would have done better to have copied from Trader Joe's and simply updated and improved," say Richard and Kevin in an analysis posted (here) on their website. "Sadly, the company seems to have had an attitude of arrogance and decided to show the unwashed colonials the benefits of civilization, which will backfire."

Yowch. I haven't had the opportunity to visit a Fresh & Easy store yet (I live on the East Coast and apparently the Brits decided they might have better luck if they launched their attack from the West Coast this time). But I know Richard and Kevin, and don't doubt the sincerity of their opinions. They were just as excited as I was before the stores opened that Tesco was going to bring something truly remarkable to our shores -- a small-format grocery store, with high quality goods, at reasonable prices, with excellent customer service.

Continue reading "Fresh & Bumpy"

Posted by Tim Manners at 5:15 PM | 2 Comments