FORWARD THINKING 1997

STEPHEN DOWDELL

IRWINDALE, Calif. -- Hughes Family Markets here is bringing produce and floral to the forefront in remodeled stores and is updating its merchandising in both departments, as well.

The physical act of moving the two fresh sections from the back of the store to just inside the entrance symbolizes the chain's strategy to make better use of the sections' potential for attracting impulse sales.

The move, made first in the chain's newly remodeled 36,700-square-foot Malibu, Calif., unit, reflects the influence of Hughes' parent company, Quality Food Centers, Bellevue, Wash., which acquired the California retailer last March. However, it also goes deeper than a reflection of QFC, and represents a response to the hot competitive climate for produce and floral sales in the southern California market, according to Roger Schroeder, vice president of produce for Hughes.

"The departments were in the rear when I got here," Schroeder told SN. "But I think because they are such high impulse items -- especially floral, but produce also -- you want them in the front of the traffic pattern.

"Before, floral was in an alcove, and it was almost buried. Now, although the square footage is about the same, the presentation is so much more open in the front than it was in the back."

At the chain's Malibu remodel, produce and floral are side by side at the entrance on the right of the store, together forming the first impression for customers as they walk through the entrance.

Besides increasing the visibility of the departments, their position at the front opens them up, too, making the product variety in each stand out more forcefully.

Changes to equipment in both produce and floral help reinforce the merchandising power. In the Malibu store's 3,400-square-foot produce department, precut merchandise, organics and fresh juices occupy more than 40 feet of five-deck casing, while the 900-square-foot floral shop added a large quantity of island displays.

"Our linear footage increased, although square footage stayed about the same for the departments" after the store was remodeled, Schroeder explained.

While the equipment update puts the spotlight on the fresh-cut, organics and juice categories, it also benefits the department as a whole.

"Because the five-deck cases give us more linear footage, we were able to expand our variety in the store," Schroeder said. "We probably had somewhere around 400 fresh items in the department before. I think our count is now somewhere around 450."

He said the increase in fresh items has leaned more in the direction of specialties, the gourmet-type items that match well with the demographics of the Malibu unit's clientele.

He added that using five-deck cases to increase linear footage and product variety in produce is a strategy likely to be redeployed in the chain's future remodels.

Malibu was not the first Hughes site to use multitier refrigeration units in produce, but it was the first to use the equipment so extensively.

"We have been using five-tier cases for some time to hold our precuts," said Schroeder. "What we did do in Malibu is we had 24 feet for precut, and added another 20 feet of five-deck case for organics and natural juices -- smoothies and things like that. So, to have a total of 44 feet for five-deck cases is new for us."

The produce executive said that footage mates well with the categories merchandised in it. "For one thing it shows off the organics a little bit better without having to have big displays. Sometimes, organics can get lost, or you can have them over-displayed and the product gets tired. This allows you to have a smaller quantity on display, yet have a good presentation.

"For instance, we have about 30 organic items in the Malibu store, and this allows us to display them in proportion to their turnover at the beginning of our organic program.

"For the juices, it just helps us maintain more temperature control on the case. It is like a deli case and holds the temperature much better," he said.

"We are displaying more items now of each of those categories. Previously in that store, we had about 4 feet of juice, 4 feet wide on five shelves. Now we have 10 feet on five shelves, so it is a substantial increase in the juice category. And that is also true of organics. We had a 4-foot display with four shelves before, and now we have 8 feet on five decks."

In floral, the equipment upgrade is manifested in island displays being used to bolster the shop's merchandising of cut flowers, particularly single-stem items.

"What it really gave us was more island display space. In shelving and refrigerated casing, we are about where we were before. But in island displays, we have probably three times as much space.

"It allows us to take our single-stem flower program and move it from a step rack to an island rack. That change really shows the flowers off a lot better," Schroeder said.

He noted that the single-stem flower category is a growing business in Hughes' stores that serve higher-income neighborhoods in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. "Those demographics seem to like to pick out their own flowers, whether it is several different kinds or all of one kind, and then have somebody wrap them up for them or arrange them into a vase."

The desire to cater to the market also prompted Hughes to add to the level of service it offers on the Malibu floral operation.

"Staffing is the same for the produce department. But in floral, we added hours to cover the department from about 8 a.m. to about 7 p.m. We now have somebody on duty throughout that time to help customers with their floral purchases," Schroeder said.

"In that store, because of the income level, we found out that if you put someone in there who could arrange flowers for people, or who customers could bring in a vase to and have an arrangement made in their own vase, then our sales will increase substantially."

However, Schroeder cautioned that Hughes has also decided staffing the department all day is not right for every store in the chain. "But for those higher-income areas, it can work extremely well."

Still, Hughes is absolutely committed to giving greater emphasis to floral marketing chainwide, the retailer said.

"We think there is a lot more floral business out there to be had, by giving it -- first of all -- the right position, and then by staffing it appropriately. Future remodels will absolutely incorporate at least some of these updates and changes in floral and in produce."

Schroeder also credited QFC with influencing Hughes' new take on floral. "If you looked at produce in this store and other Hughes stores, and then at QFC, you would say this store looks a lot more like our stores than it does a QFC store.

"But the floral program has been influenced. We looked closely at QFC's floral program. And we also looked at other competitors around town and noticed some of the things they are doing right. We kind of pulled all of that information together here."