The bath and body phenomenon is beginning to hit the supermarket aisles as retailers test the waters for popular bath elixirs that carry very attractive margins.
It began with specialty retailers like The Body Shop, which opened its first store in 1988 with a dazzling array of exotic and natural bath specialty products such as shower gels, foaming beads and body scrubs.
Since then, other specialty retailers such as Bath and Body Works, H20 Plus, Nature's Elements and Garden Botanica have spawned the movement that now has invaded the mass market.
This is evidenced by popular-priced mass market lines such as Sarah Michaels, Village Bath, Fruit of the Earth, Naturistics, Bare Elegance and Bio Pure, which now are being merchandised at grocery chains, according to Towne-Oller & Associates, New York, a division of Information Resources Inc., Chicago.
Many boutiques acknowledge some shoppers now go to supermarkets for their bath sundries.
"There is competition," said Scottie Jones, franchisee for The Body Shop in Phoenix. "The bath industry is a major industry these days, and [supermarkets] are smart because they know people are buying it. The price range for our products is out of some people's price range, and people think if they shop at a supermarket it will be cheaper there."
Sales of bath sundries in food stores rose 23% to $75.5 million for the 12 months ended July 31, 1994, according to Towne-Oller.
Most retailers polled by SN who are venturing into bath sections are doing so because of high margins.
Big Y Foods, Springfield, Mass., has installed a 4-foot bath section featuring high-end products from Sarah Michaels. Said Jan Winn, director of health and beauty care, "The margins are eroding in analgesics, cough and cold and oral care. Fortunately for us, the margins [in bath] have not eroded as dramatically. That's a key. We try to keep developing categories like this one where we can get better profits."
Abco Foods, Phoenix, currently sells products manufactured by Bodecology, according to a chain source. Bodecology sells more exotic bath products, such as almond and sesame body oil and apricot loofah soap, to 21 supermarket chains nationwide, said Mary Pat Hastings, marketing manager for Bodecology.
The category generates margins in the 50% range in all of Carr Gottstein Foods' stores, said Gay Odsather, cosmetics coordinator at the Anchorage, Alaska-based chain. Odsather said lotions and bath products are a hit in Alaska's subzero weather.
A source at Raley's, West Sacramento, Calif., which is experimenting with bath boutiques at several stores, told SN that while the chain made about 50% margins, its prices were still 20% lower than a specialty boutique.
"We hope that we're going to be competing with boutiques," said a buyer from a Phoenix chain, who wished to remain anonymous. "We're hoping the boutique look will draw the customer that would originally have gone to the mall, but instead is going to go to our stores to save time and buy groceries."
The buyer said her chain will eventually have bath sections in every store. The chain had tested the market with a large section and is refining it according to customer demand, she said. "We're going to narrow it down to a 16-foot section, including 4 feet of children's bath," she said. "We're only going to carry five major brands and incorporate a private label." These brands will include Yardley and Sarah Michaels.
Bath foams and bubble baths sell the best at Spartan Stores, said Shari Steinbach, consumer affairs representative for the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based cooperative wholesaler. Instead of opening a separate department, Spartan has found success incorporating bath products into its skin care category, she said.
Still, some retailers are wary of investing into this relatively new category. Allen Karpe, director of HBC and pharmacy at Valu Food, Baltimore, said he doesn't think the bath products are "worth it." Copps Corp., Stevens Point, Wis., is evaluating various product lines and still mulling over whether to sell the category, said Jane Jansch, HBC and general merchandise buyer.
Harvey's Supermarkets, Nashville, Ga., sold the products unsuccessfully in two stores.
"The sales were not good," said Wyman Butler, nonfood merchandiser at the chain. "It's a big investment; you've got to put a lot of product on the shelves." Butler instead has found success selling more traditional lotions and bubble baths.
For retailers who think selling this category will only get them in hot water, trial sizes may be the answer.
"By units, I would say trial sizes outdo anything," said the Phoenix buyer. "The hand cream does well, and the bath gel does very well."
The buyer's chain plans to promote the category during the holiday seasons, with a back-to-school coupon book, a fall bath ad and Christmas advertisements.
"We promote baths during the winter because people tend to take more baths when it's cooler," she said. Carr Gottstein has found success cross-merchandising the products, which no longer seem to be impulse buys, Odsather said.
Odsather is planning to promote gift sets during the holiday season.
Both Carr Gottstein and Raley's have unique decor in their bath sections that make use of props such as barn wood, lattice work and vines. "It not only calls attention to a section but it makes it look more special to someone walking down the aisle with a cart full of groceries," Odsather said.
