Food LionFood Lion officials are looking to the future with lessons learned from the past with their “Low Price Heritage” advertising campaign. Using consumer data to determine the most popular items in the store, the company lowered thousands of prices on milk, bread, produce, meat, juice, cereal, canned goods, detergent, paper products and pet food, according to spokeswoman Christy Phillips-Brown.”The grocery industry is very competitive, but we’re doing our best to attract new business and new customers,” she said. “We provide customers products they want and coupons as they check out.” Those price deductions are added to savings that shoppers already can have with their MVP Card, Ms. Phillips-Brown said. Customers also can opt in to a text-messaging program that sends online coupon updates straight to a phone or an MVP Card. “It’s serving our customers low prices and a great shopping experience when they come into our stores,” Ms. Phillips-Brown said.– Compiled by Chris CarrollPublixCrediting the company’s good fortune to “a bright environment, clean stores and nothing but fresh product,” Publix officials announced an overall 2.1 percent sales increase for the first quarter of 2010.An internal campaign of explaining the company’s mission statement to workers and refreshers on basic tenets of friendliness kept business humming for the Florida-based grocery chain, which has three locations in the Chattanooga area, company officials said.”We really hang our hat on customer service,” said Brenda Reid, a spokeswoman for the chain. “It’s a tough economic time, but it goes all the way to taking your groceries outside and making sure you find everything you need — that distinguishes us from the competition.”Traditional grocery assistance isn’t the only way Publix is trying to reach out to customers. This summer, officials plan to roll out an iPhone application that will bring customized sales opportunities straight to a shopper’s phone.Ms. Reid believes the upcoming application places Publix on the cutting edge of technology in grocery stores. She said it comes from consumer data the company has taken for “quite some time.””People are focused on saving every dollar they can,” she said. “Customized shopping lists are a way to win back money and time. Those are very high on our customers’ lists right now.”– Compiled by Chris Carroll
Daryl Massey began his grocery career as a Red Food bag boy in 1978.
He has known from the beginning that the business requires more than the clever positioning of goods.
“This is an industry unlike any other,” he said. “You can build a nice store, but it’s more than moving the canned vegetables and fresh produce to customers.”
That holds true today, but other things have changed in 32 years. Red Food morphed into Bi-Lo, bag boy became “courtesy clerk” and Mr. Massey advanced up the chain to become one of Chattanooga’s two district directors.
Through it all, his perspective stayed the same. As with any American business trying to keep the bottom line black, the financial challenges can ruin some days, but there’s a reason why Mr. Massey hasn’t strayed from managing grocery stores.
“It’s a people business, so you either love it or you don’t,” he said. “If we have friendly workers, that goes straight across to the consumer. It comes together for us.”
Bi-Lo’s corporate headquarters did not release specific quarterly reports or any other financial information, but the corporation emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May. The supermarket giant has about 30 stores in the Chattanooga area.
Its latest attempt to persuade customers to spend disposable income is a new Price Lock program, which keeps thousands of essential items such as fresh produce or canned foods stationed at the same price for eight weeks, despite any possible increases in production costs.
Mr. Massey said Bi-Lo remains strong even if some stores are stationed half a mile from a Walmart, the catchall retail titan that promotes its goods with “always low prices.”
Two other chains in Chattanooga battle Walmart with a different approach: organic food.
Greenlife Grocery, which was recently sold to Whole Foods Market, and Earth Fare both opened operations in Chattanooga to fanfare within the last few years.
According to Greenlife store owner Chuck Pruett, the usual challenge of selling high-caliber food at higher prices is not the toughest part of running a business.
“It’s educating the consumer on where the food comes from and what it takes to get to their table,” he said. “Once they know the information, they start to really like local and organic food.”