Why Wegmans is Tops
A modest retailer, Wegmans has a lot to crow about. The 75-store mid-Atlantic chain rose far above giants Kroger, Publix and Safeway to be named the Top Grocery Retailer in a consumer survey by Market Force.
Shoppers applauded the typical characteristics necessary even to make the list — such as low prices, high quality meat and produce, variety of merchandise, courteous staff, fast checkout, convenient location, accurate pricing and tags, and cleanliness. But it also far outpaced the others with its promotions.
“It’s an enormous accomplishment, and clearly earns the chain customer loyalty,” says Janet Eden-Harris, CMO at Market Force. Across all grocery stores, merchandising efforts like end cap displays and shelf talkers drove 39% of new product trials, respondents to the Market Force survey said. Another 31% specifically mentioned promotions such as coupons as a factor in trials.
“Between those two, 70% of trial was driven by merchandising or some kind of promotion in-store,” Eden-Harris says. “It was because something caught their eye. People bought something that they hadn’t counted on buying.”
Cereals were the most responsive to promotions and couponing, and snack purchases were influenced most by merchandising. Brand extensions created multiple opportunities for new trial in snacks, with 44% of consumers trying a new brand of snack in the last 30 days.
Market Force conducted the survey in January among its network of 300,000 independent mystery shoppers and merchandisers. Some 6,000 consumers responded.
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