Supermarket cum laude

Scores of “Best in Class” offerings merchandised in an attractive and engaging format ensure Byerly’s Edina passes the bar with flying colors.

Shopping at Byerly’s Edina, Minn. store is a berry good experience.

Shortly after entering the store shoppers encounter a massive island display of fresh berries—strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries, mostly Driscoll brand. Smack in the middle of the produce department, one cannot miss it because it is topped with a constantly changing digital screen that shows not only pricing, but also storage tips, fun facts and a QR code linking to recipes.

“We’re really trying to get our customers to not just eat berries, but use them more often for other occasions,” says Phil Lombardo, chief marketing and merchandising officer, at Edina-based Lund Food Holdings, which operates Byerly’s in addition to its namesake Lunds chain. “This kind of helps guide them in that direction. The pictures show more occasions, like using strawberries in a salad with string beans.”

The tactic is paying off in spades. “The berry category in this store is up 35%,” Lombardo notes.

An extra effort has been placed behind berries because they have been deemed a “Best In Class” category, a marketing program debuting in the Edina store encompassing dozens of items and categories, including fresh mushrooms, spices, olive oil, coffee, meats, cheese, artisan breads, nutritional supplements and prepared foods.

“In a Best In Class category we want the customer to think of us, top-of-mind, in trend-forward and innovative categories,” Lombardo says. “We’re not Best In Class in bath tissue for instance; we’re looking at olive oil, spices and other categories throughout the store.”

The “Best In Class” experience actually begins outside where a breezeway running the length of the parking lot helps shelter shoppers from Minnesota’s brutal winters. It leads to the store’s grocery entrance; a second entrance provides direct access to Byerly’s Creations, a new foodservice concept debuting at the Edina store.

The façade of the store itself is clad in attractive red brick and yellow fieldstone. “It has a Frank Lloyd Wright look and a Prairie Style feel, very Minnesota like,” Lombardo says.

The 51,000-square-foot store is a replacement for a 59,000-square-foot circa 1973 unit that stood further back on the same site. “The old store was larger, but the sales floors are the same size—35,000 square feet,” Lombardo says. “It had a lot more back room.”   

Byerly’s is on France Avenue, which runs from Interstate 494 out past Southdale, the first enclosed mall in the U.S. The main drag is lined with upscale shops and centers, including a Whole Foods a half-mile away that opened in 2012.

One downside of the old store was that it was set back from the road and had poor ingress and egress. “It was on this side road. You couldn’t enter the store from France Avenue, now you can get in from the main road,” Lombardo says. 

An economic resurgence has hit the area, with much of the development taking place right outside of Byerly’s doors. A complex of 250 apartment units, scheduled to be completed this summer, is rising where the original Byerly’s stood. It will connect to The Promenade, a trail that will run through Edina and allow easy pedestrian access to the site.   

When those customers walk through the grocery entrance of the store they first encounter a sea of potted plants, topiaries and bouquets. It is an outpost of Bachman’s, a local florist that has been a Twin Cities institution since 1885. “We don’t handle our own floral,” Lombardo says. “We’ve worked with Bachman’s since 1968 when we opened our first store in Golden Valley. They are very highly regarded locally.”

Candy Land

Just beyond Bachman’s is Byerly’s Best In Class candy department. Dubbed “Candy Land,” the moniker is more than fitting since the typical in-aisle candy set has been replaced with a series of easy-to-shop islands, kiosks and tables.

“We worked with Hershey on this. As you walk into the store it is a ‘Wow!’ statement. You just want to buy your candy here,” Lombardo says.

One table is devoted to Lunds & Byerlys private label boxed chocolates.

“Throughout the store we have about 3,600 Lunds & Byerlys private label items, which is a premium product—not a national brand equivalent,” Lombardo says. “Our candy is giftable.”

To the right of Candy Land is the Certified Organic produce department. A large chartreuse Certified Organic sign counts how many are available on a particular day; 173 during a mid-December visit.      

“Because our department is ‘Certified Organic’ the conventional and organic produce cannot touch each other from the moment we receive them,” says Aaron Sorenson, communications manager. “We were the first conventional retailer in the Midwest to have a Certified Organic produce department.”

Key to the department is the Best In Class fresh herbs and mushrooms set, with herbs bearing the Lunds & Byerlys private label and mushrooms merchandised in bulk from Plexiglas bins.

Produce selection has been increased in the new store; among the new offerings is store-squeezed juice. “We actually do our own juicing in our distribution center, but in this store we wanted to add more theater,” Lombardo says. In addition to standard cartons, store-squeezed juices are merchandised in single-serve 12-ounce plastic cups.

Across from produce and seafood, a pair of end caps is devoted to two other Best In Class categories—spices and olive oil. Decorated in rich, dark wood, each end cap contains a wheeled marble-topped table. “Since this display pulls out, our Food E Expert can demo olive oil or spices and tie it in perfectly with produce and seafood,” Lombardo says.

Despite being a flagship store, the olive oil assortment is less than in some other Byerly’s units. “We usually have 75 different brands and we’ve curated that to 20 different brands,” Lombardo says. “We educate the customer on which olive oil to use for finishing, drizzling and frying by the color of the shelf strip.”

The sister spice end cap is an aisle closer to the meat department and touts the extensive Lunds & Byerlys private label spices packaged for the chain by the local Wayzata Bay Spice Co.

Many of those spices will pair well with Byerly’s extensive fresh seafood offerings. The department, like others including the Butcher and Creations Café, is highlighted with an illuminated food-court style sign.

Store officials tout the sustainability of the department. Approximately 60% of the items are responsibly sourced, highlighted by green and blue shelf tags, with the goal to reach 75%.

“We’ve just seen growing demand for sustainable seafood, so we developed this program in partnership with third-party organizations, like Global Aquaculture, Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute,” says Sorenson. “People want to know where their fish is coming from, so we want to call it out and show them which ones are sustainably sourced.”                 

Reserve Aged Choice Beef

At the neighboring meat case, one of the Best In Class hallmarks is the Reserve Aged Choice beef, merchandised complete with a cedar plank. “It is aged 28 days and was developed by our chef,” says Lombardo. “We used to carry Dry Aged Choice, but this blew it away in terms of flavor and tenderness. We had a cutting and every meat manager raved about it—so we got rid of our Dry Aged Choice.”

Other meats carried in Byerly’s include Choice, Grass Fed and Waygu Beef, which is being introduced this spring, as well as Berkshire Pork and all-natural pork from local Minnesota and Iowa farms.

Private label is big in the frozen foods aisle with a wide selection of entrées, side dishes and soups manufactured at a company-owned facility in Iowa. “Our all-natural soup is the top item, especially our Minnesota Wild Rice with Chicken,” Lombardo says. “We sell 106 boxes of it a week just in this one store.”

In the Bakery department it is the bread that is Best In Class. Edina is the first Byerly’s store with a hearth oven. “We have 22 new breads that have been developed over the past few months,” says Lombardo.

Seven of those have made it into the Bread of the Day program. Featuring bread that is baked only one day a week and sold for $5.49 a loaf, it is designed to drive multiple weekly visits to the store. With the mouthwatering assortment it is easy to see why. On Sunday the Bread of the Day is White Chocolate Apricot. Caraway Rye is featured on Monday, and on Thursdays it is the Salted Fougasse.

The Signature Rustic White, bearing a flour “B” brand, is available everyday because it is so popular. If shoppers are lucky, Food E Expert Emily Deutsch will be slicing up a loaf during their shopping trip, like the Signature Rustic White she was sampling with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and the house Tuscan Seasoning during a recent visit.

“I am here five days a week,” she says. “I coordinate the sampling and events at this location as well as help customers with recipe planning, meal solutions and party ideas. I pull recipes for them and answer questions about any products they see in the store.”

After picking up a loaf of bread many shoppers meander over to the adjacent cheese department where they ask Cheese Specialist Ruel Brown for his recommendations. After all, Brown has visited the cheese capitals of Europe on behalf of Byerly’s so he really knows his stuff. Pointing to an 86-pound wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano, that he was going to personally split for the upcoming weekend he proudly tells a visitor, “This cheese was aged 24 months and the amino acid crystals are the first thing you feel in your mouth. Then you start getting a lot more flavors, fruity flavors in this cheese, followed by nutty flavors. You can use it in soups, pastas, dips, etc.”

Brown expected to sell half of the wheel that weekend, at $19.99 a pound. That is a bargain compared to competitor Jerry’s Market where a similar product was going for $29.99, he notes.        

Just as fromage-philes turn to Brown for cheese advice, Byerly’s shoppers with a health-and-wellness bent seek out Christopher Lutz, the chain’s first health, wellness and bodycare manager. Lutz oversees a vastly expanded department encompassing supplements, vitamins, nutritional teas, essential oils, super foods, raw foods, plus a large assortment of conventional and natural medicines.

“One of the key things that we’ve been working at Byerly’s is to differentiate ourselves from other grocery chains by providing best-in-class super foods, supplements and things that you can’t find in the mainstream stores,” he says. “We try to do a demo almost every day in this store to show people how to use the products that we carry because there are so many unique offerings.”

To differentiate from Walmart and Cub Foods, Byerly’s has been increasing its natural HBC alternatives.

“For every conventional offering we try to have a natural counterpart equivalent,” Lutz says. “Even for things like Ensure nutritional drinks we have the certified organic offering on the top shelf. It is the same thing for products like Emergen-C. We have a natural alternative.”

Creations Café

After grabbing their supplements many shoppers pay a visit to Creations Café—Byerly’s new fast-casual dining area featuring a combination of leased vendor and in-house options, including Caribou Coffee, Hissho Sushi, Tucci Pronto Italian foods and Big Bowl Chinese food.

“We work with Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises out of Chicago for both Big Bowl and Tucci,” says Lombardo, noting that Lettuce Entertain You also operates the Tucci Benucch at Mall of America.

Creations Café also features a salad bar, hot bar and sandwich station.

Because seating in the Creations Café is often at a premium many shoppers opt to take their food purchases upstairs to The Mezz—Byerly’s second floor wine and craft beer bar. “We are the only supermarket in the Twin Cities, if not all of Minnesota, with a wine and beer bar,” says Sorenson.

On Friday evenings a guitar player often set ups in front of the gas fireplace and serenades patrons. In addition to indoor booth and table seating, there is a second floor outdoor patio overlooking France Avenue. “We have heat lamps so we can use the patio maybe eight months of the year,” Sorenson says.

“Soon we will have another 250 apartments and those residents can just walk over here,” Lombardo says. “A few customers have already said that this is going to be their new hangout.”   

Roll out the carpet

Many stores have been foregoing linoleum and tile floors in favor of easy-to-care-for polished concrete. At Byerly’s it is the total opposite. In fact, the upscale chain is known for its carpeted aisles.

“It really adds to the shopping experience and we hear that from our customers,” says Aaron Sorenson, communications manager, at parent Lund Food Holdings, based in Edina, Minn. “You don’t hear the clanking of the shopping carts and it is a much more enjoyable experience.”

The carpeting is light on the feet and offers other amenities. “You can actually hear the music being played over our Bose sound system,” says Phil Lombardo, chief marketing and merchandising officer. “We were visiting stores in Toronto and they had these really cool Bose speakers, so we got Bose speakers throughout the store.”

Lombardo concedes that a carpeted floor is harder to maintain than its concrete and linoleum counterparts. “The carpeting is squares, so if something happens we just pull the square out and replace it,” he says.

There is also another unexpected benefit. “We have less broken jars, quite honestly, because they bounce off of it,” Lombardo says.