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Richard J. George, Ph.D.'s RetailWire Blog

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Richard J. George, Ph.D.
Professor of Food Marketing
Haub School of Business, Saint Joseph's University
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July 28, 2010

Grocery Theatricals Put Under the Spotlight

FROM RETAILWIRE:
Enticing smells will increase spend and build loyalty. What you see, however, isn't always what it appears to be. Do you buy the argument that supermarket theatricals are a means of misleading the consumer or do you see them as an essential element of improving the shopping experience?
MY COMMENTARY:
Most supermarket visits are too sterile, prompting a boredom and annoyance response from many consumers. We have five senses for a reason and the olfactory dimension is an important one. Walk through a farmers' market and smell the fresh fruit and vegetables or the pies emerging from the oven. How can one not buy? How about Pike's Market in Seattle with it's multitudes of aromas not to mention the visual theater or the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia?

We are selling food, not hardware or household goods. The variety of bouquets is an opportunity to enhance the shopping experience and increase the basket size. Let the drugstores be sterile, not the food retailers.

Wegmans and Whole Foods are the leaders in romancing food.

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Grocery Theatricals Put Under the Spotlight


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