THERE'S A WHOLE LOTTA HEALTH GOIN' ON AT UKROP'S

Robert Vosburgh

Included with this week's regular issue of SN is the latest edition of SN Whole Health, our quarterly publication devoted to traditional retailers and the strategies they're using to build sales and volume in the burgeoning health and wellness categories. Now a year old, WH has enjoyed a tremendous amount of feedback from our trade readership, an indication of just how passionate the mainstream industry feels about whole health-related products and services.

The cover story profiles the winner of the first SN Whole Health Enterprise Award. The honor is an offshoot of SN's three-year-old Retail Excellence Award, except here, the focus was narrowed to traditional supermarkets who are leaders in the health and wellness categories. Nominations for "supernaturals" like Whole Foods and Wild Oats were rejected, since they did not fit SN's definition of "mainstream retailer."

We found that, like any other aspect of this business, some operators are further along than others. In this case the leaders tend to be smaller chains, who by the very nature of their size are better suited to foster the close relationships required to make their health and wellness offerings a destination. It's a high-touch environment -- big on customer service, strong on education and long on trust. Not every retailer is capable of reaching a level of intimacy where all these demands are met. This is particularly true for general supermarket formats, where success is better measured with price and value.

The challenge with health and wellness is that those two parts of the sales equation are not really at play here. In whole health, consumers don't always focus on the cost, or whether they're getting so many ounces for such-and-such a price. It's much more personal; about nurturing well-being, coping with medical conditions and exercising self-empowerment.

It's no surprise, then, that the first SN Whole Health Enterprise Award went to a regional retailer. After considering a number of nominations, SN editors chose Ukrop's Super Markets. Even though it has only 30 stores in and around Richmond, Va., Ukrop's has always been well-regarded by the national supermarket industry. Its fresh meals program, formally introduced in 1989, is pointed to as a model of quality and efficiency. Now the same could be said for its approach to health and wellness.

Listing the reasons for choosing Ukrop's here would make the WH cover story redundant. Suffice it to say shoppers know they can go to Ukrop's and trust what is offered, be it a food item, advice from the pharmacist or an information sheet from the in-store Wellness Center.

Indeed, Ukrop's shows how health and wellness goes way beyond food. Social responsibility and environmental concerns go hand-in-hand with whole health shoppers. Programs featuring low-impact energy sources, recycling and resource conservation are all part of the larger healthy person/healthy planet movement, of which whole health is a part. If there was one defining qualification shared by all the finalists, it was commitment -- to the category, to the cause, to the consumer.

As far as the other nominees? Well, it wouldn't be fair to mention runners-up. After all, there is next year to think about.