"I grew up with a little red wagon in a small town," Cecil Bradford, Food World Store Director in Fairhope noted. There is something about a little child pulling a little red wagon down the street that evokes the picture of small-town, good-life America. What is happening in Baldwin County is what is happening across America. Small-town America is assimilating big-town America, and this is what has been happening in the grocery business in Central Baldwin. "I began my grocery life using a metal can stamp for prices. It was a great innovation to use a label gun," Bradford noted. But innovation has been very rapid with new technologies coming. Remember when bar codes were new? Now we see groceries scanned when we check out those bananas or packaged goods, and we are moving towards a time when we can just push carts through a scanning system that will read the whole basket. "There will be only limited manual pricing of items. In fact, the only thing the consumer will be concerned about will be the bagging," Bradford said at Zion Lutheran Church's July "Men's 710" breakfast and speaker fellowship.
The month of July has seen the introduction in Fairhope and Daphne of another Wal-Mart and a Sam's Club, big national brand stores. With their national following and very competitive prices has come a new level of competition for the area's existing food merchandizers. Market response to new store entry centers on one major issue. Since "new" entries have that aura of newness, existing stores must develop a strategy that helps them to stand out in order to compete.
"We expect that some of the WalMart business from Daphne and Foley," Bradford suggested, "will come to the new Fairhope Walmart, but that will not be 'new' business." Some of Fairhope residents will become customers of WalMart. But, Fairhope has its groceries with their niches or specialty areas, e.g., Bruno's and Winn Dixie towards the "higher" end of the marketing continuum with Food World being more towards the middle of the marketing continuum. Whether high end or center, in Fairhope where Bradford's Food World is located, 60% of the population using the established grocery marketers are seniors. The strategy for competition with WalMart is to program for these consumers. "In the case of Food World, seniors get 5% off of merchandize on Wednesdays," something that appeals to those seniors, Bradford noted. "Seniors appreciate customer service" and other percs.
In addition, visual appeal is a big item for this senior group, so stores must be concerned with appearance and display, especially when it comes to items that seniors desire. "We understand that seniors in Fairhope have special interest in wine, so we have upgraded our wine displays and holdings to meet that interest. Our desire is to enhance shoppers' lives, one shopping experience at a time, and leave those consumers with positive memories about product and customer service." The store's desire becomes one of interaction with the consumer and nurturing communication. The consumer is engaged on entering the store with an attention-catching, attractive lobby. "Good displays sell a lot of product. By keeping wider aisles, better and more productive displays are possible," Bradford stated.
"All existing stores will lose some market with a player like Wal-Mart in the community, but percent of market to be lost is an unknown until this kind of store is up and actively running," Cecil stated. The Fairhope Food World, one of 67 Food World and Bruno stores operated by new owner Lone Star, has been making changes over the last eight months to better compete with the new entry into its marketplace. Cecil Bradford is Store Director for the Fairhope Food World Store just across the street from the Fairhope Bruno's, the upscale corporate brother to Food World, operated by Lone Star. He explored a variety of retail history and market issues with the July "Men's 710" monthly breakfast and speaker fellowship at Zion Lutheran Church, located a block off State Highway 104 at 15875 4th Avenue at 7th Street in beautiful Silverhill. Each month area men are cordially invited to share an hour with an interesting speaker AND a complimentary light breakfast at Zion Lutheran Church.
