This is in the latest In-Store Marketing Institute newsletter and certainly should be a great interest to anyone doing in-store work! Now, even Food Lion says that they are not going to roll this out to all of their stores, but it sure will be interesting to see how the audience reacts to a POP free store!
With convenience as a goal, Food Lion bans in-store displays in 'Bloom' concept store, offers customers clear aisles, portable bar code scanners.
Point-of-purchase advertising stands in the way of a "stress-free, intuitive" shopping experience, customers told executives from Food Lion, a 1,200-store supermarket chain that operates primarily in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. The company responded in part by banning P-O-P from its new "Bloom" store that opened May 26 in Charlotte, N.C.
The store has no endcaps, no floor stickers, no danglers -- not even candy and gum in the checkout aisle, says Jeff Lowrance, communications manager for Food Lion. "We don't have any point-of-purchase advertising," he says. "The store is designed and the products are arranged so customers can see the products and see price. It's simple."
Two years of research and analysis led to the P-O-P ban as well as several other departures from the grocery-store norm, most notably hand-held, portable scanners that customers can check out and use to ring up their own purchases as they shop, Lowrance says.
The scanners, of which there are 48 at the first pilot store and 20 to 30 in use at any one time, are another step on that different route. Offered as an option to customers, the rechargeable scanners were being used by about 20% of those who shopped at the Charlotte store during its first month of operation, Lowrance says.
"What the [research] team determined is that there is a big need for added convenience in the marketplace," he says. "Shoppers are busier than ever. They're looking for something to get them through their shopping experience quicker and take some of the hassle out of it."
If the Bloom concept catches on, in-store marketers will have to make some transitions of their own.
Now, that's an understatement!
IN-STORE MARKETING INSTITUTE, Do-It-Yourself Grocery, Zero P-O-P
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