Nonfood supermarket executives were attuned to the varied necessities of their customers this year and responded appropriately with both more and sometimes less personal service.
For example, in-store financial-service centers opened, easy gift-giving options were promoted and in-store clinics made a slow but steady march forward.
On the other hand, video moved from high-service rental departments to serve-yourself automated kiosks.
In pharmacy, directors went to bat in Washington, hoping to keep their own funds intact to continue serving lower-income customers.
For instance, the major retail pharmacy associations came together to speak to Congress about what they believed was an unreasonable Oct. 1 deadline requiring that all Medicaid prescriptions be written on tamper-resistant paper. If doctors didn't acquire the new paper by the deadline, pharmacists would have to turn away customers carrying the old paper. Shortly after, President Bush signed into law a six-month delay of the deadline.
Also, after Wal-Mart began launching its new financial-service MoneyCenters designed to serve lower-income customers, Sandy Skrovan, senior vice president and manager of the Food Drug Mass Program of the Retail Forward Intelligence System, Columbus, Ohio, said the concept was working well. “On a recent trip to Wal-Mart, I saw one of the MoneyCenters and there certainly seemed to be a need for it. There was quite a long line.”
Retailers demonstrated that serving customers in every area of the store is also serving the bottom line; turn to the following page for more examples.