Off the Shelf: The Retail & CPG Blog: Is variety still the spice of life?

Why are there 24 varieties of mustard but only one variety of ketchup? Yeah, there is regular, bold & spicy, Dijon, whole grain Dijon, deli style, stone ground, organic, sweet hot, honey, horseradish, hickory smoked – well you get the idea – if you go search for mustard in a grocery website, you will probably get 20-30 varieties of mustard. And with ketchup? Well, its 2 – organic and regular – okay if you stretch it there is the “no salt” version – well that is not fair because you can always have a no salt version of almost anything you eat! I wonder why they did not think of a no-salt version of mustard (mmm!!!).

I am intimidated like probably many of you are to head out to the grocery store; especially the inner aisles. There is barely a comedian who has not joked about the variety in the grocery stores. Milk, beans, mustard, bread! I must mention Lewis Black (on milk) and Jerry Seinfeld (on being lost in the grocery aisles) were at their best in these routines. I know there is nothing like too much money, and I do like options – but not to the extent of not knowing what to pick. Try a cold medicine – there is long lasting and fast acting – what do you want? And better still, many times of the same brand. It is good to challenge the consumer and give him/her the closest to what they need; but it is another deal to intimidate him/her with options – and that is where we are! Consumers are beginning to pickup items that are less intimidating. I am beginning to love the produce aisles – it’s there or it’s not. Okay, I can deal with the organic and inorganic varieties – but that’s probably the most I can deal with. It is interesting to see that variety is quickly beginning to “not be the spice of life” - and grocers are taking note of this. The recent economic crisis also has triggered many of the grocers to “urbanize” their store and to become neighborhood markets giving it a local presence and character. There are even companies building stores with reusable items from local communities and schools – gives it a very local character and has the kudos for being reusable and thinking green. Grocers attempting to manage a foot print in much smaller scale with 15 to 40 thousand square feet of space as opposed to 80 to 200+ thousand. All this is triggering the grocers to rationalize the number of SKUs they should carry in the store – this would also simplify the whole selection process for the consumer. However, the challenge on hand for the grocers is to identify what to cut and what to keep? Several cycles are being spent in this rationalization process.

It will be important that grocers begin to pay attention to working within the fine line boundary of not carrying too much vs. carrying a small range of what the consumers in the locale wants to buy. Energies and monies on effective space planning, merchandize planning will play significantly in the launch and sustenance of this model. Micro space planning, micro merchandizing, keeping in mind the consumer demographics of each region will become super critical to maintain the loyalty of the consumer. The consumer will begin to test the loyalty of the grocer – I don’t want my grocer to stop carrying that 18^th variety of mustard that I like the most! Grocers will have to dodge some requests, but ensure they thrive overall by being available at a convenient location within probably footsteps of your home. New consumers and new loyalties will continue to emerge. Neighborhood grocery markets will be prevalent – grocery stores will go to where the consumers are.

Off the Shelf: The Retail & CPG Blog

Is variety still the spice of life?

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