What Else Can Kosher Retailers Offer?
I was intrigued by the news that Blue Square, Israel's second largest retailer, has acquired an on-line travel business and will offer the service in its supermarkets. Creating profit centers in a supermarket is nothing new as grocers have expanded into housewares, flowers, photos, newspapers and magazines and more. Smaller retailers have always wrestled with the idea of giving up precious space for non-food related items especially as they seek to add more sku's to the mix. Some stores feel that providing the additional services and products helps attract more customers to the store. The service or product must obviously be well chosen. One retailer told me that a copy and fax service he offered for years turned into a big nuisance and did not necessarily translate to business. "They'd come in, make the copies and leave," he said. But others who have expanded into a full flower shop or even an ethnic restaurant said that the additional services definitely impacted sales. Customer surveys have shown that shoppers would rather have more amenities directly related to their shopping experience. They listed offering scanners throughout the store to determine price and discounts, newer carts, special loading zones for their cars, and more convenient hours.

There is no question that the traditional grocery is becoming outdated with the passage of every day and retailers at all levels need to think about making changes that will bring their stores into line with 2008 retailing. The surveys showed that customers rated stores on such items as cleanliness and number of check-out counters, which in the end were probably more important than adding other services. The prudent course to take for a retailer is to carefully weigh the opportunities before taking the next step in redesigning their existing game plan for the store.