BIG Y GETS AGGRESSIVE WITH PET CENTER LAUNCH

RICHARD TURCSIK

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- Big Y Foods here has launched an aggressive attack in the battle for pet food sales with its Paws Professional Pet Center, located in its new store in Spencer, Mass.

The center covers more than 1,500 square feet and is located near the front of the store in view of one of the store's main entrances.

It contains a complete assortment of traditional pet foods plus Big Y's new Paws Professional upscale premium private label, which is sourced from Topco Associates, Skokie, Ill. The department also includes 1,300 stockkeeping units of pet supply general merchandise.

"Basically, the reason we are doing this is that we saw the category killers coming in. We realized through our category management plan that we needed to combat the pet superstores, mass merchants, including Wal-Mart, and we just better get it done before they steal it from us," Phil Schneider, Big Y's director of grocery sales, told SN.

Schneider said customer reaction to the center has been excellent. "It is truly a destination category in all the right senses of the word."

Big Y developed its pet center concept more than a year ago and enlisted the help of Kal Kan Foods and Hartz Mountain.

"Through our data, we saw that the Northeast will see the super pet food stores coming in, as they have in the rest of the country. The pet food stores are category killers. We are also seeing more and more Wal-Marts coming in the market. So in order to take the next step to survive against these stores, you really have to go out and do it right. We decided to make it a destination category in those stores that can

handle it," Schneider explained.

Actual development of what to include in the department began in March.

"We had team meetings with eight or nine people from marketing, construction, data-base management and category managers because you have to tie in general merchandise. Then we said we have to get outside of the supermarket box, so I attended a few pet food and supplies shows.

"We did our homework, put it down on paper and designed it back and forth. We had lots and lots of people involved. It was a real good team effort," Schneider said.

Although pets aren't allowed in the supermarket because of health concerns, Schneider said Big Y offers some services usually found in a pet food supercenter, such as a pet photo gallery where shoppers can bring in a photo of their favorite Fido and have a portrait made.

Schneider said Big Y is looking at a few of its existing and future stores for other potential pet center sites.

"Our expansion of this concept not only depends on how big the store is and if there is room to expand, but how and if the customers want to shop this department. There is some terrific pet census material available that will tell you if your store is correct for this. We get our information from Kal Kan," he said.