Internet has made shoppers smarter
By Shelly Banjo and Sara Germano, Wall Street Journal
OCONOMOWOC, Wis.— Elisabeth Hoffman and fiancé Josh Loeser paused by a display of artfully decorated cakes and pastries while shopping recently at a Pick ‘n Save grocery store here. But after a split second of interest, their expressions faded.
“They’re not on the list,” said Hoffman, a 35-year-old interior designer and remodeler, as they pushed on to pick up chicken breast and diced tomatoes for a chicken chili recipe.
She and Loeser, a 30-year-old heating and ventilation repairman, have adopted a series of habits to make sure they buy only what they came for. They shop together, for instance, and when possible they avoid grocery carts, which come with the temptation to fill them up.
Retailers wondering what’s gone wrong with their business could learn a lot from the couple—and from other Milwaukee-area families The Wall Street Journal spent time with this fall. Observations of their carefully executed shopping plans identified what may be an endangered species in the retail landscape: the impulse buy.
A new intentionality has taken hold of shopping. Many Americans have the money and the will to spend. But they are time-pressed and deal savvy, visiting stores only when they run out of items like cereal or toilet paper and after doing extensive research on purchases online and with friends. They buy what they came for—and then leave.
Those habits threaten more than just gum sales at checkout. Impulse is why stores offer deep discounts on loss leaders, why they put the milk in the back corner and why marketers spend heavily to pile up products in displays at the ends of the aisles. If shoppers just target the deals and don’t let their eyes wander, long cherished models for boosting sales fall apart.
Raley’s at the Y has been on some plan to make people walk all over the store, by continuing almost daily to change the store locations of various items. Must be to expose us to the impulse buys.
They also have begun to limit brands they carry, and have eliminated larger or economy sizes of many foods.
It is beginning to be more satisfying to drive the extra distance to Safeway. Grocery outlet is kinda like Costco…good deals but the items and the brands are quite random. It does feel good to come out of there with an incredibly good deal.
It IS kind of disappointing what’s happened at Raley’s. It LOOKS real nice. And if you’re looking for liquor, holy moley, they’ve got 5X what they used to. But everything else (except produce & meat) has taken a huge hit. The selection has been cut in half of actual groceries! Guess they’re looking to supply the vacation rental visitors rather than people who live here full time. At least, that’s the impression they’re giving.
raley’s/booze=pre-emptive market share attempt, bevmo response