ALL FOR FLORAL

MINA WILLIAMS

SAN FRANCISCO (FNS) -- Spring is busting out all over in supermarkets in the Bay Area. During a recent tour, SN noted that floral departments in both large chain stores and local independents were positioned up front and center during the weeks surrounding Easter and Passover.

Virtually all of the stores burgeoned with blooms in true spring style, with entrance areas abloom with seasonal favorites, including tulips, lilies and azaleas in pots, and cut offerings coming in all colors of the rainbow. The displays were both a bow to the season and designed to spark impulse sales during a prime floral selling season; floral was also used to set the mood in the stores for Easter and Passover shopping.

While each unit presented floral with a slightly different merchandising flair, during store visits from San Francisco to San Jose, and Sunnyvale to San Mateo, there was a decided emphasis on big displays.

Smaller and urban units offered up a good selection of cut flowers, generally positioned at the front end in two or three merchandisers, or in water buckets at select checkout counters. Suburban units put the additional floor space to good work building large displays of potted blooming plants to go with the cut varieties. Upmarket and specialty operators pulled out all the stops, positioning the department as a greeting card for customers and using it to decorate the store entrance.

All operators -- whether traditional, urban, upscale or trendy -- presented plants and flowers primarily in the self-service environment. Those with more floor space gave customers the backup of a service counter for special requests, orders and questions.

Safeway Inc.

Pleasanton, Calif.

Of the several units visited, all presented floral items at the front end. Additionally, potted selections of lilies and tulips greeted customers entering units. Safeway's Redwood Station unit stood apart, offering a great variety presented over a wide price range. What keeps this roughly 450-square-foot department operationally sound is its decidedly self-service flair.

A 12-foot tiered merchandiser, positioned at the unit's outside wall, markets potted selections. An adjacent customer-friendly refrigerated reach-in features traditional arrangements. Out on the sales floor, a dedicated rose display gives customers prepackaged convenience, and three self-serve walk-arounds float like islands of flowers.

Even with this emphasis on self service, the department boasts a service counter next to the cooler, where customers can place special orders and ask advice. In-store signage offered up special wedding services, tying in the bakery department. During SN's visit, the counter was staffed and a friendly greeting out on the sales floor inquiring if any help was needed in making a selection.

Because of the season, potted lilies, priced at $5.98 for a six-inch pot, served as a backdrop to the department. Tulips in six-inch pots were available for $7.98. One creatively potted pleasure was a "Mum Easter Egg Bouquet." This item paired four varieties in one six-and-one-half-inch pot for $6.98.

One walk-around merchandiser boasted azaleas at $13.98. Still another offered bouquets for $6.98. Tulips were offered on the third walk around. The rose merchandiser featured cut roses, prewrapped with a color-coded dot to determine price. The roses are offered by the dozen for $10, $15, or $20 and come in traditional shades along with champagne-, peach- and red-tipped petals.

Albertson's

Boise, Idaho

Bay-Area Albertson's floral presentation also was wide and varied during SN's springtime visit, and the chain promoted its offerings in the weekly circular. Lilies in six-inch pots were featured at two for $12; eight-inch potted orchids were offered at $34.99; tulips in six-inch pots sold for $8.99; and a special Palm Sunday Bouquet, featuring a spray of white-hued cut flowers with a palm frond , were presented at $8.99.

Again, smaller units had cut flowers at the front end and a limited offering of potted presentations. Larger units, such as the San Bruno location, have the floor space necessary to more aggressively position the department. Four small walk arounds created a festive springtime feeling, complete with baskets and cute bunny planters ready to be filled with small house plants.

The lily presentation was expanded to include not only the traditional Easter version, but also the Oriental, at $12.98. Calla lilies were cross-merchandised with Fetzer wines. Freesia, Hyacinth, tulips, azaleas and Cyclamen complimented Chrysanthemums, which were offered in a variety of spring colors at $7.99 per six-inch pot.

Heading down the greeting card aisle, a traditional four-deck bucket-style display merchandised the Palm Sunday Bouquets. Another, mirroring the first on the other side of the aisle, offered assorted bouquets in a range of prices from $6.79 to $8.79.

Off to the left, a self-service walk-in cooler offered "Roses and Fresh Cut Flowers." Customers could walk into the about-60-square-foot area past a floor-vented, forced-air cooling system. Inside, tiered decks with water buckets provided an easy-access display for roses, irises, Liatris, mums, gladiolas and spray roses. Carnations, mums and snapdragon bouquets were priced at $3.99. Orchid corsages, priced at $2.49, were premade and boxed ready to go within Albertson's special flower room.

The unit had a service counter tucked behind the cooler, but it was not staffed during SN's visit. This counter's position does not give customers the advantage of knowing help is just around the counter and the service staff might not know if a shopper needed help in either the cooler or at the cut-flower displays. In addition to floral servicing, the counter offered balloon bouquets.

Just outside the cooler another floral display featured cut-flower bouquets priced at $3.99 each or three for $10. Carnations, mums and Alstroemeria were just a few of the offerings.

The operator presented some nice touches, including fresh-cut flower wet bags and insertion-size gift cards.

Draeger's

Menlo Park, Calif.

This three-unit operator definitely caters to the cater-to-me crowd. High service, specialty items and exquisite merchandising are just a few calling cards this operator leaves all around the store. Draeger's uses floral as a prop, positioning the department first in the shopping pattern, and then gives it the room it needs to deliver a powerful punch.

In the operator's San Mateo store, the floral presence is felt even before entering the automatic doors. Out on the sidewalk at the atrium entrance, a flower cart and merchandiser tempts customers with things to come. Once inside, customers are greeted with floral at the entrance, along the wall, to the left, to the right and then straight ahead, on a walk-around merchandiser that provides plenty of in-your-face attitude with a sophisticated flair.

During SN's visit, festive springtime potted blossoms ranging from lilies to hydrangeas and hyacinth, primroses to tulips, roses to Lily of the Valley all delighted the eyes at the unit's entrance. Orchid plants were also available, priced at $32.99. Freesia and azaleas were grouped around the service counter -- across the aisle from the walk-around merchandiser and in the shopping pattern towards the produce department. This service counter was active during SN's visit. An associate was busy taking a customer's special order for an Easter centerpiece. The store's refrigerated 16-foot floral case is located adjacent to the service counter.

The centerpiece walk-around merchandiser featured a four-step display using shiny galvanized buckets. A bevy of cut-flower bouquets, ranging from lilies, sunflowers and iris, along with mums, roses, daffodils and tulips, tempt shoppers to mix and match to make the perfect bundle.

Mollie Stone's Market

Mill Valey, Calif.

This six-unit operator focuses on two worlds -- the one of necessity and the one of passion. While technically floral falls into the one of passion, Mollie Stone's treatment of the category is that of necessity.

Again, customers arrive to the sweet smelling greeting of flowers. The operator had six-inch pots of lilies and a dozen roses on special for $9.99, while a bundle of mini carnations was $3.99 during SN's visit. Sunflower and iris combination bouquets, gladiolas, Asiatic lilies and tulips rounded out the cut floral offerings. A step merchandiser with galvanized buckets was used to present the product.

Then things got interesting. In the Burlingame unit, the entire store seemed to explode with old-time spring favorites. The front end was decorated with blooming potted plants on four-step merchandisers at three checkout stands. On one display, pink azalea and roses were used; at another white Cala lillies and Easter lillies provided a soft spring look; at the third display, dark pink bleeding heart and dark pink tulips grabbed customers' attention.

The floral action did not stop at the front end. In the wine department, azaleas, priced at $15.99, and hydrangea mixed it up with Merlots. On the floor in front of the cheese case, rubrum lillies, priced at $14.99, and more azaleas bloomed. Back in the meat department, $10.99 white Easter lilies were positioned, again on the floor, in front of the case featuring lamb and ham.

Andronico's

Albany, Calif.

Like deja vu, SN entered Andronico's units through a show of seasonal flowers. Whether at a simple lean-to outside the store or amid a plethora of posies, Andronico's brings a statement of simple abundance to its floral departments.

The operator featured floral in its circular featuring Asiatic lilies at three stems for $4.99; mini carnation bouquets for $7.99; and, Easter lilies for $8.99.

At the Danville unit, customers walked from the parking lot through a sea of hydrangeas, lilies, amaryllis, freesia, roses and tulips into a surf of chrysanthemums -- before even getting to the unit's entrance. Once inside the cozy entrance foyer there are more flowers. Here, there were cut selections including tulips and sunflowers, plus arrangements in the four-door, reach-in cooler. Also found here were seasonal items and gifts. Tulips, specially planted in a wooden box, sold for $21.99. An eight-inch hydrangea was priced at $31.99.