Creating the Shopping Experience
By George Anderson
The Food Marketing Institute’s (FMI) Todd Hultquist says supermarkets ‘want
consumers to think of shopping as fun, not a chore.’
One-way stores are looking to accomplish this goal is by opening up food preparation
for shoppers to see as they move throughout the store.
Mary Ethridge, a reporter for the Akron Beacon-Journal, recounted her
experience watching a cake being decorated at an Acme Fresh Market Cake Center.
She wrote, “I’m not alone in liking to watch manufacturing, especially food
preparation. That’s why restaurants put in open kitchens and why Acme took down
the walls of its cake center so shoppers could watch its six decorators in action.
There’s even a special platform for kids in front of the glass-enclosed center
so they can get more than a tiptoe peek at the operations within.”
Moderator’s Comment: Are supermarkets, in general,
accomplishing the goal of making shopping fun and not just a chore? What’s the
difference between an adequate shopping experience and a great one?
[George
Anderson – Moderator]