Walls and shelves of different treats, and Buc-ee’s even presents its own brand of Beaver Nuggets - a sweet, crunchy corn snack. And in each store, a counter the size of a small New York City apartment is overly stocked with 30 flavors beef jerky, smoked sausages and other cured meats. When standing in that area, you can smell the Bohemian garlic beef jerky, which had a pleasant salty pungency, and the cherry maple, which is a lot more subtly sweet than it sounds. Next to that, there’s a quick-service restaurant, prepping many dishes, ranging from smoked brisket to Tex-Mex tacos. Looking at the options of spicy pickled quail eggs to sweet apple pies, the food provided at Buc-ee’s is more than enough to eat for a small break on the road. The varieties and large portions of food seemed to have a meaning beyond consumption itself. As people carry to go boxes and not even open or taste some of the food during their stop, the food loses its meaning of being eaten and gains a meaning of being a souvenir. The cultural food alone provokes customers to want to keep these seemingly authentic, home cooked items, perhaps to share or give to others as novelties and gifts. With that, Buc-ee’s intends to provide more than necessary.
As I walked into Wawa, I could confidently tell you where everything is because the layouts of every Wawa in New Jersey are almost identical. There is a wall of refrigerators filled with soda to the right as you walk in, a side of the store towards the back reserved for making sandwiches, endless shelves of junk food by the registers at the front entrance and the refrigerators filled with soda, and an open freezer area in the middle of the store with some “healthier” foods. The amount of people inside took me completely by surprise as I opened the door because there was a lack of cars parked in the parking lot. I personally felt like I was in a grocery store rather than a Wawa. What I first noticed was the demographic of the customers in the Wawa. Almost all of the people in the store were either hispanic or african american. With people suffering from poverty and a lack of cars in the parking lot, I realized that many of these people walked to the store probably because they didn’t have cars. As I browsed through each aisle I found that Wawa had a nice selection of milk, fresh bread, and cereals that anyone can afford. As I attempted to search the store for any food filled with quality nutrients that wasn’t a dairy or wheat, the number of options weren’t to thrilling. Wawa’s fresh fruit consisted of about 5 red apples, 3 bananas,
A famous writer for the New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell has written an article, “The Science of Shopping”, which is based on Paco Underhill’s study of retail anthropology. The intention of a retail store is obvious- that is to attract customers and convince them to perchance as much as they can. There is so much knowledge that we can study, such that how the environment affects people’s thinking. These are tiny details that we don’t usually think about. The reason of how Paco Underhill success is because he notices these details. Details determine success or failure. Paco Undnerhill—a talent and passion environmental psychologist, provides us a new point of view of the science of displaying products,
Whenever I go to Stop & Shop, I tend to take interest in the thousands of products that surround me as I walk down an aisle. The wafting aroma of freshly baked pastries and the sight of cold soft drinks are just some of the things that trigger my appetite for food. Most often, I find myself buying more than what I originally planned on. That’s exactly what the layout of a supermarket tries to make consumers do. Marion Nestle argues in her article, “The Supermarket: Prime Real Estate”, how supermarkets employ clever tactics such as product layout in order to make consumers spend as much money as possible. She covers fundamental rules that stores employ in order to keep customers in aisles for the longest time, a series of cognitive studies that stores perform on customers, and examples of how supermarkets encourage customers to buy more product. Overall, Nestle’s insight into how supermarkets manipulate people into spending extra money has made me a more savvy consumer and I feel if more people were to read her article, then they can avoid some of the supermarket’s marketing tactics as well.
We have all been to a supermarket or store at some point in our lives. Have we found ourselves placing items in the cart that we did not come to buy, and why is that? Is there a reason the products we need are located in the back of the store? Marion Nestle wrote an article entitled, “The Supermarket: Prime Real Estate.” She teaches in the department of nutrition and food studies at New York University. Nestle writes a column regarding food for the San Francisco Chronicle. Shortly after reading the title, one can determine Nestle opposes supermarkets. “Prime Real Estate,” indicates that large supermarkets are feeding grounds for them against unsuspecting customers. Supermarkets can determine what somebody will buy, based on where the store places certain products. The general argument made by Nestle in her work, “The Supermarket: Prime Real Estate, is that supermarkets are taking advantage of our unconscious mind and we are purchasing products on impulse.
Every retail location carries a variety of products that distinguishes it from other stores in the same chain. Not surprisingly, it is difficult to achieve economies of scale. Supply Chain Mackey describes his consumers as being “part of a cult”. Whole Foods believes that the company’s emphasis on perishables and locally-sourced produce differentiates their stores from run-of-the-mill supermarkets and attracts loyal and devoted customers. However, “fresh produce” is one of the most challenging product categories to operate due to limited product shelf life and high cost of spoilage. Whole Foods has tried to circumvent most of the problems inherent in supplying fresh produce to its stores by sourcing locally and having short and flexible supply chains. In the case of fruits and vegetables, Whole Foods has buying relationships with local farmers who supply the store with seasonal produce. Thus, if one farmer is unable to produce a sufficient amount of yellow corn or heirloom tomatoes, the shortfall can be made up by another farmer. Although challenging to perfect, these short supply chains are agile and difficult for other big retailers to duplicate.
In a poor Detroit community with majority of its people living under the poverty line, is organic, higher priced food really a necessity? After researching what kind of people shopped in his stores, Walter Robb, the CEO of the well known Whole Foods, began to realize that race and income were a huge dividing line between who purchased the healthy, organic, and more expensive produce vs who shopped in discount stores like Aldi’s. Compelled by this research, he set out in hopes to not only fix health issues but decline the race separation as well. As we see this “investigation” advance, readers will see the true colors of this company’s goals and the outcome of their social experiment. In “Can Whole Foods Change the Way Poor People Eat?”, author Tracie McMillan uses ethos, pathos, and logos to inform readers that healthy food has the ability to change lives and to show individuals that the company wants to cut out social racism without breaking the bank, but it might not be that easy for Whole Foods itself to fix.
On the one hand, the location is a major advantage. It is close to major transportation and near Kennedy-King, a newly designed City College, with the enrollment of 6000 students. Whole Foods can be a very good place for a hungry students or business people who work in this former “second downtown” (3). Having said that, one of the biggest changes Whole Foods can make is to provide an opportunity to shop for the finest, freshest, the most natural and organic food available. In other words, to bring a new “food oasis” in a long standing “food desert” right within the community. On the other hand, the background history of the neighborhood is a surprising factor that promises a great chance to sell fresh and healthy products: It has a “number of bona fine community’s assets, including many working and middle-class families living there” (3). One of the findings in the Chicago Food Desert Progress Report on June 2011 by Mari Gallagher is that “The Food Desert has many low-income residents, but not everyone is poor. Middle and upper middle class residents also live there. For example, in 2010, we identified over 12,000 Food Desert households that earn over $100,000 per year” (3). In my point of view, these families are willing to shop for better and healthier foods. Gradually, they will be able to make a great influence on the
Every Sunday morning for the past 38 years, at exactly 8 am, the Encino farmer’s market, located on Victory Blvd. comes to life. The smell of freshly baked breads and pies wafts around the area and mixes with the scent of fresh fruits and berries, creating an aroma that brings along with it memories of large family dinners and a sense of community. It is a small farmer’s market, but it doesn’t lack the chaos one would always associate a farmer’s market with, as soon as the doors open, it fills to the brim with the hustle and bustle of elderly couples and families young and old, and vendors welcoming them to their stands with friendly hellos and recommendations of seasonal products that just came in stock. The shoppers all seem to be familiar, greeting each other as they exit their cars and waving to one another as they pass by, with
This won’t stop here. Loblaws is stepping into the ugly food game; however, our highest quality food won’t be stepping out. We are stepping in because we believe that ugly is too strong of a word to describe food. The “ugly” food that goes to waste is still healthy, delicious, and fresh. We are stepping in because we believe in sustainability, and the need for environmental, social, and economic change. We are stepping in because we believe that throwing away the food is more of a waste than not giving it a home at all. It isn’t ugly food; it is Naturally Imperfect food. Loblaw will embrace a “Naturally Imperfect” branding as we distribute foods of all shapes to all of our grocery branches. Loblaw’s runs by three principles that every business- no matter the size- should run: growth, innovation, and flexibility. That is exactly what we are accomplishing today. By taking this step, we are also taking growth, innovation, and flexibility into our future actions. I’m here today to ask you to step in with Loblaw. Step in and change the grocery industry. Keep up the with the tide of social
Trader Joe’s was founded by a guy named Joe Coulombe in 1967 under the idea of being a store that offered products aimed at sophisticated costumers interested in finding good bargains and products that are natural and organic, and not typically found in general supermarkets. Although, there are many changes that happened with the company and the industry since 1967, Trader Joe’s is still going strong with the way they do things whether it be on the customers’ aspect or the employees’ aspect. However, as Trader Joe’s tries to implement new processes and procedures, things start to shake the very foundation of the company itself like growing bureaucracy that the company never has, or the increased competition between employees who try to advance
Ever wonder why the windows of stores are captivating that give you that desire to purchase their item? According to Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Science of Shopping,” individual named Paco Underhill studies the behavior of millions of American shoppers by looking at statistics and recorded footages inside the stores. Consumer researcher Paco helps increase the income of the retailers by providing a false sense of public space inside a shopping area by tracing the behavior of shoppers through the lens.
From the moment I had entered the store, I smelled the fish that I had guessed would be readily available to the customer. Then, as I went through each isle, I found many of the other items I had mentioned previously. However, there were items I was not expecting to find such as certain types of meat that was available. This market had octopus, squid, and duck for sale. Also, they had other common items that could be found similar in other grocery store. Such as toiletries, kitchen wear, and even some fruits and vegetables I had never encountered before in my life.
On July 2, 1962 Sam Walton opened the very first Walmart store in Rogers, Ark. Each week, more than 140 million Americans shop at Walmart. The company has over 11,000 stores in 28 countries. In fact, just recently the company opened a new store in my neighborhood. All summer I watched them build and build and I would say to my mom, “I can’t wait for them to finish so we can stop having to go to that ghetto Walmart.” I know “ghetto Walmart?” but it’s the truth. There was one other Walmart in my neighborhood and it was known as the ghetto Walmart. So when I received the essay assignment I knew immediately where I wanted to go. At ghetto Walmart the norms became abnormal and the abnormal things started to be accepted. The Walmart Company knows how to get costumers to come into their stores, I’ll give them that, but something just went wrong with that one.
Whole Foods Market has expanded by a mixture of opening its own new stores and acquiring already existing stores. Today WFM does not follow this strategy, instead their motivation is to open its own large stores. This is due to noticeable sales differences in larger stores as opposed to smaller stores. WFM locates these newer stores in upscale areas of urban metropolitan centers and high-traffic shopping locations. Not all WFMs are isolated structures; some are located in strip malls. WFM offers a larger selection of natural and organic foods than any other grocery store. WFMs marketing expenditure is extremely small. They spend a measly 0.5% of their revenues on advertising. Their chief marketing strategy relies on word-of-mouth. WFM strives to meet or exceed customer expectations. This is so customers receive competent, knowledgeable, and friendly service and become advocates of WFM. The employees here have a decentralized team approach for store operations. This is so some personnel, merchandising, and operating