PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE

ROSEANNE HARPER

KINGSTON, Mass. -- Victory Super Markets is serving up a new fresh format in this town south of Boston that's designed to secure a place for itself in a changing market.

As it finds itself increasingly competing against big New England chains like Stop & Shop Cos., Quincy, Mass.; Shaw's Supermarkets, East Bridgewater, Mass.; and Hannaford Bros., Scarborough, Maine, the small, family-owned Victory, is arming itself with a sophisticated fresh-food and meal presentation.

The feature that differentiates this 60,000-square-foot flagship store from the competition, as well as from other Victory units, is its Market Square fresh-food power aisle. The aisle combines the ambiance of an Old World, European-style marketplace with up-to-the-minute meal solutions that include chilled, prepared-food and ready-to-eat fare.

"We knew we had to come in here with something different in order to compete with the big guys," said Arthur P. (Jay) DiGeronimo Jr., president of the 16-unit, Leominster, Mass.-based Victory.

After less than five months in operation, the new format has proved itself worthy of being the prototype for future stores, DiGeronimo told SN in an interview at the store earlier this month.

Until it acquired and remodeled this store -- a former Purity Supreme store owned by Stop & Shop -- Victory had operated only traditional-format units, most of which are under 40,000 square feet. Most also are situated north of Boston. This one is south, about midway between Boston and Cape Cod.

"When this site became available, we saw it as our opportunity to try something different," DiGeronimo said.

Since opening day last October, customer traffic and total store sales have far exceeded projections, DiGeronimo said.

"We're pleased. It's not going to take years to turn this around. We're amazed that it's turned cash-flow positive so quickly."

He gives credit for such success to the Market Square aisle, which occupies nearly a third of the store. As he gestured at the line-up of food stations, DiGeronimo said, "This is where the future is."

And he expects prepared food's performance to buoy more sales success.

"A food court is supposed to add three to five points to your deli gross. We're not there yet, but it has already added two to three, " DiGeronimo said.

The Market Square concept is a powerful magnet, with a cappuccino bar as its anchor and high-piled produce tables that provide a blaze of color right inside the entrance. [For more details about the produce department, see related story on Page 25.]

Chalkboard signs are everywhere, hanging from a lowered ceiling. As they proclaim "homemade soups and chowders" and "pizza ready to go," the hand-crafted signs also add a feel of warmth.

The ambiance created here is a very important ingredient, DiGeronimo said. "You won't see a market look like this, with the lighting and all the chalkboard, anywhere else in New England," he said.

He chose to call that ambience comfortable, although not necessarily upscale.

"What's upscale here? Everybody eats pizza and bagels and soup and sandwiches. This is not demographics dependent," DiGeronimo said. Market Square, he said, has been designed to have universal appeal. The fresh-food aisle has also had a halo effect that has pushed sales higher in other parts of the store, he said.

"In focus groups after we opened, one customer said she only comes here when she has plenty of time because she ends up buying a lot of things she didn't plan to -- and we thought, that's good, that's the idea," DiGeronimo said.

People particularly appreciate the coffee bar, DiGeronimo added, where a high level of service is immediately apparent. For instance, SN observed an associate suggesting a cappuccino or a latte to a customer who was purchasing a handful of gourmet chocolates at the coffee bar.

That associate is a product of thorough training, said Terry Roberts, a partner in the Design Associates: Riesenburger, Leenhouts & Roberts, a Rochester, N.Y.-based design and consulting firm that helped the company launch the Market Square.

Roberts' firm helped train Victory's associates. "We told them their purpose in being here is to give customers outrageously superior service and to provide them with a superior quality product. Most important is that they're knowledgeable about their departments," she said.

The coffee bar sits just a few steps ahead and to the right of the store's entrance. Straight ahead, customers see a preponderance of slant tables of fruits and vegetables, most set broadside in the wide fresh-food aisle. The tables stretch to the back of the store.

"The whole point is when you walk in, you're supposed to see color. And those box lights [directly over the produce tables] shine right on the product," DiGeronimo said.

All along the produce department's right flank are other fresh departments, with prepared food dominating the right wall toward the front.

The coffee bar and a small seating area set the stage for the lineup of ready-to-eat foods.

Next in line along the wall is a pizza station featuring hot slices and whole pies. Pepperoni pizza is prominently displayed and so are gourmet varieties that include barbecue chicken, Hawaiian and cheeseburger pizza. Some varieties were dreamt up by employees, evidence of Victory's commitment to flexibility by letting department associates have some creative input, DiGeronimo said.

"They come in with some great pizza ideas. A breakfast pizza and a yogurt pizza are examples.

Next to the pizza counter in line is a sandwich station that stars subs and panini sandwiches. A 3-foot service case displays a variety of panini and the "gourmet sandwich of the day."

After that comes a traditional deli-service case that holds deli meats and a limited variety of salads displayed in relatively small rectangular containers. A fresh-seafood department follows the deli.

The in-store bakery has a prominent spot at the end of the aisle. It occupies the whole back corner of the store and a long stretch of the back wall as well.

"Because of its location, everybody has to walk through the bakery here and it's doing great," DiGeronimo said, adding that the department is posting 5% of total store sales, a company high.

Behind the salad bar is a small, island self-service case displaying hot rotisserie chickens in three flavors, placed at eye-level. On a lower tier, dome packages containing half chickens are displayed. And Italian bread is merchandised at the case.

Next, at least 36 feet of island case offers up a variety of chilled entrees and side dishes, most of which are sourced from outside.

He said he foresees continuing to feature a combination of products made in-store and a variety of items sourced from the outside. He also emphasized that the food court will be in a constant state of evolution based on how successful programs are.

While DiGeronimo described a strategy by which Victory will move deliberately, by stages, into greater meals-oriented marketing, the store's plan actually took shape more quickly.

Less than a year ago, Victory didn't know exactly what direction it was going to take at the new location, he said -- but the company did realize it needed to be heading somewhere.

"All we knew was that we had to be different," DiGeronimo said. In the early days, Victory's strategy was to go into small, emerging communities and establish itself before the competition got there. That worked for years, he said; by the time the big chains came in, Victory already had secured a loyal customer base.

But growth in the future will have to take place in areas where "the big guys" are entrenched -- in fact, Stop & Shop has a conventional store less than a quarter mile away from the flagship's site. So the old strategy had to be replaced.

"Some family members and department heads began traveling around, looking at other stores. We went to stores in New York and Virginia and out to Colorado," DiGeronimo said. It was after such field trips that Victory decided to go the meal-solutions route.

And just about that time, the company also received a flier from the Design Associates.

Victory took possession of the former Purity Supreme store here last July, and it closed the facility down while it remodeled -- a bold and unusual step in itself for a retailer to take, said Roberts at the Design Associates.

Roberts explained that most retailers don't do that, because they don't want to lose months of customer traffic while construction is under way. "But by closing down, Victory cut the length of construction by months and got more traffic in the end."

Roberts said that what made the quick change possible is that Victory's management gave the Design Associates free rein, once they agreed on the concept.

"Typically, a retailer will want do only a little bit [of what we propose]; for example, they'll say they want the coffee bar, but not something else we suggest," Roberts said. The difference between the fresh concepts that make it and those that don't is whether or not he retailer accepts the synergy between the programs, she said.

Victory has a vision and philosophy that's important to the concept's success, too. "This is a giant leap for Victory from what they have in their other stores, and it's sophisticated, but simple enough to operate," Riesenburger said.