Supermarket Perimeter - February 2019 - 13

grab and go selection or a specialty product?
"Exciting displays of these unique categories help drive customer
sales and should be placed in a prominent area to pick up the incremental sales," he says.
Millennials in particular, Chenoweth says, have much different
buying habits than other generations. They prefer fresh, organic products and - for their busy lifestyles - pre-cut, prepped and grab and
go items.
AirFlo provides a variety of merchandising sets that enable retailers
to grow their offering of new products, Chenoweth says.
Retailers need to think about the sales volumes of their perimeter
departments and how much holding power its perimeter cases require,
he says. Many AirFlo systems help to better merchandise larger volume
stores who need holding power in their cases.
The company also offers low-volume systems for smaller stores. In
those settings, displays need to limit how much product can be placed
in the cases, due to the fact that some stocking employees may tend
to overstock shelves resulting in shrink due to damaged or expiring
product.
"AirFlo has a variety of vertical racks, ﬁller blocks and step racks to
help prevent the overloading of displays," Chenoweth says. "The merchandising systems must be tailored to each store in order to provide
good inventory turns and eliminate shrink. Stores that are known for
their freshness can command a better price on their products. "
Product assortment also is crucial. The offering can change from
store to store, and having a ﬂexible merchandising proﬁle is important
to ensure you have exciting-looking displays, solid inventory management and a product roster best suited for the local target audiences.
A cafe, a sushi bar and
a fresh popcorn minidepartment - all part of a
perimeter revamp - help
Alpena, Michigan-based
Neiman's Family Market
stand out from the crowd
in a competitive ﬁeld.

Visual impact, for example, is key. "Customers are driven by their
senses," Chenoweth says. "The best way to drive fresh sales is to engage
visually exciting displays."
Pick areas of the department that will catch the customer's eye
as soon as they enter the department, Chenoweth recommends. That
will create a unique look that will differentiate your store from your
competitors.
"By elevating the merchandising in fresh areas many of our customers see immediate impact to their sales, many times a double digit
increase," he says. "AirFlo has a large number of display options to help
excite and engage customers to buy more."

Close eye on trends
Retailers must also make a close reckoning of product and consumer
trends before going forward with their perimeter redesigns or newstore designs, Chenoweth says.
What items are pulling customers into your store and driving
sales? Should a department lead with an organic set, fresh juice, a

Let there be light
Lighting plays a critical role in merchandising product in grocery stores,
especially in the fresh perimeter departments, says Bill Plageman, vice
president of marketing for Oakland, New Jersey-based Amerlux.
"Fresh foods look their best under lighting that showcases its natural
colors," Plageman says. "Think lush greens and rich reds. Color is the
language of fresh, so it is critical that fresh foods, such as produce and
red meat, be seen in the best light. LED light showcases the natural color, making grocers' tomatoes look like they were picked that morning."
Mehmert's Knab couldn't agree more.
"The No. 1 physical upgrade you can do is lighting," he says. "You
can make a real awesome store look bad with really poor lighting, and
you can make a kind-of-a-bad store look pretty good with lighting."
Some retailers just want to turn all the lights on in their perimeter
departments, Knab says. Not a good idea. Instead, consider the effect
good spotlighting can have in a department like fresh produce.
"You want consumers to have that feeling you get when you walk
up to a really nice orchard bin full of oranges and apples, where the
colors are just popping out at you. It makes you want to put that stuff in
your cart."
Lighting considerations should also be taken into account when
you're making decisions about what kind of ﬂooring to put in, Knab
says. Light will bounce off the ﬂoor differently depending on the surface,
lighting parts of the department and creating shadow lines that may not
have been anticipated.

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