Consumers needs and trends at the grocery store are constantly changing and becoming more involved. It’s not enough to offer the lowest price or the best customer service anymore. Consumers now expect an experience even when shopping for their weekly groceries. What does this mean for a retailer? You need to offer something in your store that adds more value to your customers shopping trips. Health and wellness have been on the rise and is a driving factor in grocery purchasing decisions. How could a store both increase value to a customer’s trip while also being conscious of health and wellness? According to the Food Marketing Institute 80% of grocery chains have dieticians either at the corporate or in store level. For example, Hy-Vee and ShopRite’s have had in store dieticians for years. This offers an in-store experience while still promoting healthy lifestyles and eating. These stores were ahead of the game but now even independent grocers are starting to add retail dieticians to their workforce. Your first question is probably, “What does a retail dietician do?” That answer will…
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Grocer Pod- Episode 2
On this episode of Associated Wholesale Podcast Sean talks produce with Rick Stein of FMI (:59). He dives into the booming gift card industry with Dammon Stutes from Blackhawk Network (21:00). Finally, Sean and Rebecca Mueller discuss organics (32:00)
Leveraging the Power of Private Label & Organics
I recently listened to a webinar from Store Brands titled The Power of Private Brands. As someone who is focused solely on marketing our private label, this webinar confirmed my belief that AWG Brands consist of great products that carry considerable growth potential. Four key insights presented in the webinar lead me to this belief: (Almost) everyone is buying some private brand products today. Millennials embrace them. Consumers are more and more brand agnostic – they are willing to try private brands instead of always buying the national brand they consumed throughout childhood. Private brands are moving from emulation to differentiation. These key insights present exciting opportunities for AWG Brands in a variety of areas, but one that I wanted to spotlight in this post is the organics category. If you’re reading this as an AWG retailer, you should be familiar with Clearly Organic. Through rebranding, and a focus on product innovation and expansion, Clearly Organic has been a sales success for many of our retailers. Currently, organic only represents 7% of total brand sales. This presents an opportunity for…
Supporting Nutrition in Schools
The focus on nutrition in schools as well as other governmental regulations might finally be paying off. Childhood obesity rates appear to be plateauing, though still unacceptably high. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what is making the difference, but providing children with education on nutrition is certainly an important factor. For the past five years, Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign and the Partnership for a Healthier America have been teaching children the importance of a balanced diet and an active lifestyle. They’ve made great strides in changing the way food and beverage companies market to America’s youngest consumers. Thanks to those iniativies, food companies have created healthier versions of their products, cutting 6.3 trillion calories from the nation’s diet by reformulating recipes and reducing package sizes. Many convenience stores are selling fruit, protein bars, and other healthy options; even kids meals at fast food restaurants now offer apple slices and skim milk as alternative options. As I discussed in a previous blog post, grocery retailers across the nation are supporting nutrition in various ways. 54% of food retailers have established health and wellness programs for customers and employees, according to…
How to Successfully Market Organic & Natural Foods
If your store isn’t selling organic or natural food products, you should change that. According to a recent webinar by NGA (National Grocers Association), 8 in 10 U.S. families purchase organic products. The growth of organic and natural sales are trending upwards at increasing rates, reaching $29.5 billion for organic and $27.4 billion for natural in 2013. The marketing strategy a retailer uses for selling naturals and organics is extremely important. 41% of U.S. Families are new to organic products, meaning their first purchase of organic products occurred within the past 2 years. If 4 in 10 shoppers are new to organic, you have to keep educating your shoppers on organics and naturals if you want them to continue buying these products. Here are the top five things a retailer can do to successfully implement a sales and marketing strategy for naturals and organics: Start with your natural and organic merchandising strategy. What natural and organic products are you going to sell? How much space are you going to dedicate to this? Where specifically are you going to put that…
Organic Food is for the Average, Ordinary American
The belief that only wealthy people buy organic food is actually a myth. Ali Partovi disproved this misconception at the 2015 TedxManhattan talks, where he presented recent data on the growing market of organic shoppers. In the past year, 3 out of 4 Americans have consciously chosen to buy organic. 25% of Americans buy organic for the vast majority of their food purchases. 2 in 5 organic shoppers make less than $50,000 a year. 20% of organic shoppers are non-white and 15% are Hispanic. During Partovi’s Tedx talk he point blank states, “The foodie elite who are buying organic are actually the average, ordinary American.” Organic has shifted from being an all-encompassing lifestyle choice of a small population to being occasionally consumed by at least 75% of Americans. According to the USDA Economic Research Service, “Consumers prefer organically produced food because of their concerns regarding health, the environment, and animal welfare, and they show a willingness to pay the price premiums established in the marketplace.” The primary reason why organic food is more expensive than its traditional counterparts is because…
Keeping up with the Nutrition Competition
What is your store doing to keep up with the competition in nutrition? Retailers across the nation are recognizing the vast opportunities in the growing nutrition market. In this day and age, if you want to keep up with competitors your store needs to do something to support health and wellness. According to FMI’s Retail Contributions to Health and Wellness: 54% of surveyed food retailers have established health and wellness programs for both customers and employees. 63% view health and wellness as a selling point. 70% view health and wellness as an opportunity for growth. 78% view in-store health and wellness programs as a responsibility to their communities. Here is a glimpse of what the competition is doing to grow business in the health and wellness arena: Whole Foods— They are the first national grocery chain committed to labeling all food products with GMO’s in their stores by 2018. Whole Foods already caries 25,000+ organic products and 8,500 Non-GMO-verified products. After introducing their first loyalty program in September 2014 and launching its first national marketing campaign, Whole Foods first-quarter sales went up 10.2%…
Better Nutrition Labels Simplify Health Food Decisions for Customers
Better Nutrition Labels Simplify Health Food Decisions for Customers As a health-conscious grocery shopper, I am constantly checking nutrition labels when deciding between food products. Unfortunately, this process is extremely time-consuming, and often leaves me confused. Nutrition Fact labels are supposed to help us make healthy decisions, but the format is certainly not easy to follow. I want to eat healthy, but I’d rather not spend so much of my time calculating what the percentages and serving sizes actually mean for my diet. According to a 2012 Nielsen survey, “59 percent of consumers around the world have difficulty understanding nutritional labels on food packaging and more than half (53%) consider themselves overweight.” Without clear guidance on nutrition at grocery stores, many consumers turn to the media for health advice. Magazines, books and TV shows promote the latest trendy diet with slogans like “Drop 10 pounds in two weeks!” Some of these fad diets may help people lose weight, but physicians across the nation recommend exercise and a healthy diet. “It turns out that no matter what region of the world…
Should I Eat That?
Hm, what’s for breakfast? Certainly in the Midwest, a ‘traditional’ breakfast of Eggs, Bacon, Toast, Orange Juice and/or Coffee sounds good to many people. It’s easy, fast and nutritious, right? You have your protein and your whole wheat toast with your ‘smart’, heart-healthy margarine, your freshly squeezed OJ with no added sugars or preservatives and your black coffee. Good to go! But wait…what if you have high cholesterol problems, or diabetes? What if consuming any kind of whole grain makes you bloat like a dirigible? What if you don’t have time to fresh squeeze your OJ every morning and what if you like your coffee fully loaded with milk and sugar added to it? Suddenly your simple, healthy breakfast has become something that requires a lot of forethought and planning. Maybe the thought of all that planning makes you throw your hands up and grab the Cocoa Pebbles to just be done with it! Deciding what to eat, how much of it to eat, when to eat it, when not to eat it and if you could be allergic to…