Store Check: Food Lion's Bloom

Salisbury, N.C. -- 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."Food Lion LLC, a subsidiary of Delhaize America, plans four more Bloom pilot stores, all roughly 28,000 to 40,000 square feet that will open later this year in the Charlotte area. 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."We don't have any type of endcap advertising or manufacturer display advertising in the store," he says. "Customers told us they wanted a store where they could maneuver easily, where they didn't have to move their carts around displays." The reasons for the candy/gum ban in the checkout aisles are perhaps obvious to any parent: "If it's not there, they don't have to get into a fight with their children."Food Lion does not have any plans to extend this concept to its flagship stores. "Food Lion stores will have things such as the floor stickers and some manufacturer displays and things like that," Lowrance says. "At Bloom, we are trying to offer a new and different concept and take a different route."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." He adds, "We have the capability to add more if needed. We are still observing and learning to determine the optimum number."Customers receive a brief orientation on how the scanners work and are given a personalized bar code sticker to put onto their wallet or purse. "They can scan and bag at their leisure," Lowrance says. "The scanners provide a running total for them so they can find out how much they've scanned as they shop."When finished, the customer hits an "end of trip" button, pays his or her bill and leaves. Cashiers have been randomly spot-checking to make sure all items have been scanned -- and none has been scanned more than once -- Lowrance says. "We have had no problems to speak of. Customers are telling us they enjoy using them," he says. "The children pick up on them in a hurry. Mom will be shopping, the son will be doing the scanning, and mom will be bagging [groceries]. It's kind of an interactive experience for the whole family."The scanners have not led to the need for adjustments in packaging, Lowrance says. "All packages currently come with a bar code; that's all that is needed," he says. "The whole idea behind it for us is to try to make the shopping experience more hassle-free. We think it will be fairly seamless. It has been a fairly quick transition."If the Bloom concept catches on, in-store marketers will have to make some transitions of their own.

Store Check: Food Lion's Bloom

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