Grocery stores get personal
As Wegmans enters mix, a push to carve niche
For discerning foodies in southern Connecticut, there’s plenty to choose from in the realm of grocery shopping.
In a short drive down I-95, a local shopper can find a cornucopia of food items from around the globe — packaged in clever marketing and designs that might have more to do with experience than groceries, but which market chains large and small have turned to in order to stand out in a crowded field.
Trader Joe’s staffs its workforce in Hawaiian shirts, concocts backstories for goods and sells products you can’t find anywhere else. Whole Foods offers a cosmopolitan sensibility blended with an earnest environmental commitment and $50 skin-care products. A few miles away, a shopper can pull into the family friendly Stew Leonard’s store, complete with animatronics, model trains and an aesthetic that owes more to Disneyland than the typical supermarket.
Even traditional supermarket chains have been rolling out more upscale specialty aisles, including soft lighting and fauxwood flooring as an accompaniment to shelves stocked with organic items and specialty cuisines.
Into this competitive marketplace comes Wegmans, just a few miles from the Connecticut border — and bringing into the crowded field its own marketing formula to attract and retain loyal shoppers. The store opened last week in Harrison, N.Y.
The concept of “retail theater,” a business strategy that took off in the past decade that emphasizes customer engagement and spectacle, is gaining a new foothold in area supermarkets. It’s part of the “experience economy” that makes its sales pitch to consumers through strong sensual and visual cues.
Wegmans is well-known to shoppers across the Northeast for its vast selection of products, in-store dining options and a strong sense of presence.
“My husband and I, we went on a date at Wegmans,” said food writer and author Hannah Howard. “We had lunch there and stocked up on groceries for the week. It felt like an occasion.”
Wegmans is up against stiff competition in the suburban marketplace, as a kind of arms race has taken hold in the already volatile retail-food sector.
Ends of the market
David Cadden, an emeritus professor in the business school at Quinnipiac University, said there has been a “bifurcation” in the supermarket field, with some chains such as Aldi pushing lower prices and bare-bones facilities to keep costs down. At the other end of the field, there has been a surge of innovation and new technology.
“Everybody is coming up with ways to revitalize the supermarket experience,” he said, including through ambiance, building “social relationships” with consumers, classes and activities.
“The trick is, when you go into the store, they want to keep you as long as possible,” he said. “The longer you’re in the store, the more you’re going to spend.”
Another element in the supermarket field is the emerging use of big data and high-technology, from apps to personalized discounts to delivery services like Instacart, Peapod and Amazon Fresh.
“They’re going to throw in as much technology as they possibly can,” said Cadden. “They’re going to get into your soul, and try and predict what you want.”
But technology can only go so far.
Mike Geller has been working in the grocery field for over a decade, as the owner of Mike’s Organic Delivery based in Stamford, and he has seen how important the social connection with customers can be. He recently started a newsletter that has been gaining engagement with readers and customers, typically generating dozens of responses. Smaller businesses in particular can benefit from that kind of bond, he said.
“The grocery industry in particular has always been cutthroat,” said Geller, a Greenwich resident. “A deep connection with the community can make a big difference. Connection, transparency, authenticity, they’re paramount in life, and for sure in groceries.”
Competing for customers
As they compete for grocery dollars, large supermarkets are all trying to one-up each other, said Howard, who worked at Fairway and the Dean and DeLuca chain, and has written a memoir about working in a high-end restaurant while coping with an eating disorder.
“It’s becoming harder and harder,” Howard said. “Even at a non-fancy grocery store, the quality of the products is probably much higher than it was a few years ago. To differentiate themselves, there’s more and more they have to do. Everyone is stepping up their game.
“I’m someone who always loves grocery shopping. Now they’re trying to convert the regular person, who thinks of it as a chore, to get excited about a trip to the store. They all tailor to different aspirations.”
Howard said the trend toward upscale supermarkets ties in with the ever-increasing attention given to food and its production in society at large.
“I think people care more in general about what they’re eating — they’re more educated about where the food is coming from, what’s on the label. And during the pandemic, as more people eat at home, groceries really matter to them.” At the same time, the Brooklyn writer said, “Stores have a big array of specialty goods, high quality stuff, natural and organic, products from all over the world, a breadth of selection.”
Besides the new emphasis on technology and marketing, supermarkets have become increasingly sophisticated in finding new areas to do business. Wegmans can spend as many as five years identifying and planning for a new store.
“When selecting store sites, we look for great regional locations that are easy to find and easy to access,” Wegmans spokeswoman Marcie Rivera said.
The goal often is to make a store feel like a destination. Through characters who kids enjoy, in-store dining suitable for a date, sampling stations or design elements that mimic streetfronts, stores try to accomplish that in many ways — including app and scanning programs that allow customers to bypass the checkout line and make the shopping part of shopping less cumbersome.
“All of these things used to be so unusual,” said Howard. “Now they’re so common.”