Gene Hoffman

'Good is Not Enough' for Cub Foods

August 31, 2010

FROM RETAILWIRE:
Cub Foods is a household name in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, but its history has not prevented shoppers from seeking cheaper grocery alternatives. What are the primary challenges faced by Cub Foods and what are the answers to overcome those?      [more...]

CUB started out as Consumers United for Buying. That said, "we have cheap prices" and they did. Cub shoppers marked the prices on the products selected, then checked out and bagged their groceries happily since they were saving more money than elsewhere.

Time passed. Things evolved. New well-focused competition arose. Wal-Mart and then Super Target became strong competitors, offering good customer services, good value in comparable items, and they also bagged groceries for their customers.

Now Mr. Wyche is running Cub and saying he will offer a greater product selection, superior choices in produce and fresh meats but customer-bagging remains, which seems a nonparallel balance. Meanwhile SVU's CEO says he intends to cut the number of SKUs in stores. That's more possible imbalance.

What should Cub do? Reinvent itself--or else reconcile itself to the current notion and motion of SVU or vice versa.