INGLES RAISES SIZE, SALES, SELF-SERVICE

ROSEANNE HARPER

BLACK MOUNTAIN, N.C. -- Ingles Markets here is significantly boosting the size of its in-store bakery inside a new prototype superstore, and is putting new emphasis on self-service in that department as well.

The new layout of the in-store bakery is at least 20% larger in square feet, and accommodates a product mix that's been increased in variety by 25%, said Ed Kolodzieski, vice president of strategic planning at the 188-unit chain.

As reported in the Sept. 2 issue of SN, the 188-unit chain is rolling out a new fresh foods merchandising look. It opened the latest of its new MegaStore units Sept. 1 in Boiling Springs, S.C. The total number of new-format stores, all built from the ground up, is expected to hit 10 by the end of this year, and at least six more will open in 1997, Kolodzieski said.

The format was first introduced at a 59,000-square-foot unit that opened June 30 in Dacula, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta. While the bakery has been converted to self-service to maximize display opportunities, open production has also been designed into the department, as it has been in the MegaStore's other fresh foods departments.

"With preparation in the open, it makes it easy for customers to communicate with associates. It adds warmth to the department, even though all the bakery cases are self-service," said Kolodzieski. He added that the emphasis on self-service is a departure from the chain's traditional stores, where there is a service counter.

Self-service displays had proved a boon to bakery sales in the chain's traditional stores, he added.

"Each time we've increased self-service in the bakery, sales have gone up," Kolodzieski said, but he declined to offer percentages of increase or additional details about sales volume.

"It stands to reason that you can sell more if you can display a large variety of product. For example, nobody would think to ask [at the service counter] for an Oreo cake, but they're apt to pick one up if they see it displayed. They may see it and remember that Uncle Joe or somebody else in the family loves Oreos," Kolodzieski said.

"Just last week, we featured a 'sun cake.' It has bright yellow icing and a little pair of sunglasses on it. It attracted a lot of attention. That's an example of variety we've added. Customers wouldn't come in for one of those cakes, but if they see one they're apt to buy it. Kids love them," he said.

The "sun cake," decorated in-store, is an 8-inch, single-layer round, with a retail of $3.99.

"In the MegaStores, customers can get anything they want from a huge selection of breads to cakes and cookies from self-service cases. But associates are there to custom decorate a cake or to answer customers' questions," Kolodzieski said.

Ingles' MegaStore prototype has brought together a number of elements that have evolved into successes at other stores, Kolodzieski pointed out.

One of the reasons for building the new MegaStores is to house present programs that have been tried out successfully at other stores, he said.

In the MegaStores, for the first time, the fresh foods departments are bunched together in a wide power aisle that begins the traffic pattern. The bakery and the deli head the aisle. In traditional Ingles stores, both those departments are in the fourth corner of the store, the last in the traffic pattern.