When Dorothy Lane Market decided to host its first-ever Gluten-Free Food Lovers' Club meeting, creating its invitation list was a piece of cake.
The three-unit grocer simply looked at information gleaned from its Pay by Touch system that allows shoppers to use a fingertip scan to call up and print a list of 10 targeted offers at an in-store kiosk.
“With the Pay by Touch system, we're able to draw a list of people that have purchased any given stockkeeping unit,” explained C.A. Diltz, DLM's allergy guru. The next time these shoppers made a purchase, a small invitation was printed and presented to them at the point of sale.
Schenectady, N.Y.-based Price Chopper is also tapping into the information it's collected about shoppers' dietary needs. It keeps a database of topics that specific shoppers raise with its corporate dietitian. The list came in handy as its first Gluten-Free Food Festival approached.
Grocers are also becoming more mindful of shoppers' cultural needs, noted Kimberly Wallace, ethnic category director for Tree of Life.
“When we're looking at a store that skews toward Jewish shoppers, we'll do things like call the local synagogue to check on its location,” she said. “If there is a large Orthodox Jewish population in the area and a synagogue within five miles of the store, there is a good possibility that these shoppers will be walking there on the [sabbath], when they're not permitted to drive.”