INDEPENDENT TURNS STORE REMODEL INTO REWARDS

LIZA CASABONA

BETHEL, Conn. -- The Bethel Food Market IGA here has come up with a unique, and constructive, customer retention program designed to keep in-store traffic levels up through a major expansion.

The "Under Construction" promotion is centered around the renovation of the store and takes an unusual approach to rewarding and valuing customers.

"We have a lot of valued customers we're inconveniencing by having this mess going on," said Mark Caraluzzi, vice president, Bethel Food Market. "So we came up with the concept of a sidewalk inspector program to make people feel a part of the whole expansion."

Customers picked up Inspector ID Cards at in-store displays and received a free gift of a yellow plastic hard hat. "Everyone was wearing them. It was a big hit," Caraluzzi said.

The retailer divided the construction into four separate phases, each marked by a milestone that explained what was happening during a particular phase. For example, the first phase completed in September was moving the checkout counters and courtesy booth and routing customers through a temporary entrance that brought them into the store from the opposite end. Customers were invited to "Be part of our groundbreaking, kick-off building phase," by the informational sheets they received.

As each phase is completed, participating customers receive a free gift and the chance to compete in a raffle. When the first phase of construction was completed on Sept. 8, each customer had their Inspector ID card stamped and each received a free Nestle's Wonderball, a chocolate candy item. For the next phase, set to end on Oct. 6, Caraluzzi said they're in talks with their vendor to give customers candied apples.

Raffles conducted at the end of each phase have a variety of prizes unrelated to the grocery store's own products. Prizes include a Sony Playstation, mountain bikes, a Razor Scooter, gift certificates and skateboards. At the end of the promotion, when the construction is complete, a grand prize raffle drawing for an in-store shopping spree will be held in January.

The promotion is being supported by a combination of print and radio advertising. The Bethel Food Market weekly ad has been altered to include a section on the bottom left corner that tracks the weekly progress of the construction, names the raffle winners and promotes the special events built around the construction.

Caraluzzi said that most weekends they are also planning special events in the parking lot of the store to support the construction promotion. Vendors, like Coca-Cola, have conducted events such as a golf putting contest and a soccer shooting contest that ended with a raffling off of the items used.

Caraluzzi estimated the cost of the promotion to be in the neighborhood of $20,000 to $30,000. But the cost comes secondary to the effect that the promotion has on customers.

The ultimate measure of success for the promotion on a quantitative level is the retention of customers through the renovation process, keeping the customer shopping frequency at its normal levels, Caraluzzi said. On a qualitative level, he added, the customer feedback and responses are also a measure of the program's effectiveness.

"The customer reaction is just fantastic." Caraluzzi told SN. He said he has had customers come up to him asking why they're doing this promotion. His explanation is that Bethel is trying to ease the inconvenience to customers created by piles of plywood to step over and pink cones to weave carts through. "They've said, this is just fantastic, nobody else dos this, you're so generous. It's been great," Caraluzzi said.

This program is not a new concept for the store; it is an updated version of a promotion that first ran 12 years ago during the store's last expansion -- an idea Caraluzzi said his father came up with then.

The three-month promotion, which kicked off on Aug. 20, is on target for its time line thus far, and if all continues on schedule the promotion is set to end in mid-November. Due to the holiday season, Caraluzzi said the store's grand opening won't be held until January.