Grocery Store Loyalty!

 Coupons, Grocery Store Ideas, Professional Grocers Talk  No Responses »
Jul 062012
 

I recently cleaned out my wallet and I found about ten receipts from my local grocery store. At first I just brushed it off because they were just trash at the moment. But then I realized that I have ten receipts from the SAME grocery store! Not ten receipts from different stores, but ten from the same one! I mean how weird is that?! Is it just me or do all people go to the same grocery store every week or do they like shopping at different ones?

Grocery Aisle

So I decided to do a little researching. There are three big grocery store chains in my area that I visited. At each supermarket, I approached five different people, introduced myself, told them what I was doing and then asked them one question: “when you need to restock on groceries, is this your main grocery store?” And after they answered with a yes or a no, I would follow-up with a why.

To my surprise twelve out of fifteen people answered that they do go to the same grocery store every week! Meaning that four out of five people are loyal to their grocery store and one out of five people like to bounce around from grocery store to grocery store. But the most interesting part of this research was the last question I asked customers: why (or why not) go to the same grocery store? One person told me that the reason that they go to the same grocery store every week is because they enjoy shopping there! They told me that the customer service is the friendliest they have ever encountered, that every worker greets them with a smile and asks how their day has been. The customer went on to say that it is just so convenient because they found that the grocery store stocked all the items they needed!

As far as those the customers that do NOT shop at the same grocery store every week did not have anything specific to say about each store. They simply stated that every store has different prices at different times, so they just shop where the bargains are.

Grocery Shopping

This research showed me that the grocery store the customers go to has a lot more to do with the customers’ experience than with the prices. Customers value more about being greeted by the workers then the price tag of groceries. Customer service plays a huge role for why people go back to the same store. Also, people like how convenience of finding all their grocery items in the same store.

It is no wonder I had ten receipts from the same grocery store in my wallet… I too enjoyed feeling welcomed and sticking with a grocery store that always stocked the items I wanted and made me feel welcomed.

How is your customer service? Do you have a system in place to periodically evaluate and improve the changing customers’ demands? Do all stores have a policy in place to greet every customer? How often do you re-stock? Especially the most popular products?

Aspirin Can Help You Lose Weight!

 Eating Healthy  No Responses »
May 012012
 

You always hear about how people are trying to lose weight and you always hear about how they’ve attempted to do it. For instance, I’ve heard of people only eating five-hundred calories a day or people taking diet pills; but this is my favorite one, I once heard of a person going on a beef jerky diet! I’m not saying that any of these “dieting methods” are wrong; I just think people go a little extreme sometimes.

A Bottle of Aspirin.

Anyways, what if I told you that the key to you losing weight was located inside of your medicine cabinet! A research team led by cell biologist Professor Grahame Hardie has found that aspirin contains an enzyme that burns fat! His research has shown that once aspirin is digested it breaks down into salicylate, a compound that was once used as a drug for thousands of years.

In Professor Hardie’s animal based study, mice were given salicylate and the results showed that the compound affected the AMPK enzyme, which is known as the main regulator of cell metabolism. So then it was correlated that the mice that were given the salicylate were losing weight at a much faster rate than the mice that were in the control group.

Organic Structure of Salicylate

This is an interesting topic because I believe that this new discovery will soon catch on to certain trends. Whether its vitamin companies selling pure pills of this compound or having salicylate added to certain food products, I have no doubt in my mind that we will soon see grocery products that contains salicylate!

Now it’s your turn readers, would you have expected aspirin to help you lose weight?! Leave your comments below! :)

Grocery store relief for food deserts!

 Grocery Store Ideas  No Responses »
Oct 102011
 

How many of you are located in an area where there isn’t a grocery store near you, forcing you to travel to the nearest one? Congratulations, you are probably located in a food desert! Food deserts are affecting people everywhere in the United States because they are forced to travel by car, foot, or through bus just so they can purchase their weekly groceries. Can you imagine having to travel 30 minutes just to get a gallon of milk?

Luckily mobile grocery stores have been coming to these locations to help those in need. The only bad part is that these mobile markets close early, which causes a lot of problem for those who work late. But one business has come up with a new idea. How about a mobile grocery store without wheels?

Stockbox Grocers is a mini-market inside of an old shipping container! Weird right? But kind of cool at the same time. The purpose of creating a mini-market inside of a shipping container is that they’re fully mobile, have a long-life span, and you can place them just about anywhere. And that is what Stockbox Grocers wants to do! They want to place these mini-markets all through-out the United States to help those who are affected by living in a food desert. Stockbox Grocers will be filled with 300 different types of products and the container will be about 10% produce.

All though these mini-markets are still in trial mode, I believe that it will be a great idea that can benefit many!

Now its your turn readers, what do you think about these mini-markets? Do they have the potential to give regular grocery stores a run for their money? Leave your comments below, thank you! :)