Save Mart to Open New Value Format

ELLIOT ZWIEBACH

MODESTO, Calif. — Save Mart Supermarkets here said Monday it has converted a 34,000-square-foot conventional store to a new limited-assortment, price-oriented neighborhood format called Maxx Value Foods, which will open its doors Wednesday.

The store will carry approximately 19,000 SKUs — compared with a mix of 50,000 to 60,000 SKUs at a conventional Save Mart — and will stress its value message with low-priced offerings in a center aisle featuring large pallet displays, along with pallet displays across the front of the store to emphasize the key value message, Alicia Rockwell, a chain spokeswoman, told SN.

If the value format is successful, the company plans to seek additional locations for Maxx Value Foods, she added.

"This launch is a major event for our company," said Steve Junquiero, president and chief operating officer. "We continuously strive to remain relevant to our customers, and this new store format is an innovative response to the needs of shoppers who look for quality and value but don't need frills and the full range of any product.

"The Maxx Value Foods format will also enable us to consider smaller locations that normally would be incompatible with a warehouse-store format."

Save Mart operates a warehouse format — Food Maxx — but those stores are larger and require higher volumes than the Maxx Value Foods store, Rockwell said. "This store is targeted to a specific neighborhood — in this case, a store designed to meet the needs of a mix of Hispanic and Asian consumers."

The store will offer pre-packaged goods in all departments, including bakery/deli and meat/seafood, with no service offerings; it will also offer a combination of standard checkouts and self-service lanes — a new touch for that particular store, which did not have self-service checkouts before it was converted, Rockwell noted.

The store here was closed for two weeks to complete the conversion, she noted.

Save Mart operates 243 stores with volume estimated at $4.8 billion.