JUNGLE JIM COURTS REGULAR SHOPPERS

Lucia Moses

FAIRFIELD, Ohio -- Jungle Jim's International Market here is bringing its everyday grocery items to the front of the store to cater to its most frequent, and most at-risk, shoppers.

The one-of-a-kind, Cincinnati-area retailer is popular with customers who come to stock up, as well as tourists who come to gawk at the store's sheer size (285,000 square feet), vast international food assortment (44,000 products), and carnival-like atmosphere. Jungle Jim's Web site even lists nearby hotels for out-of-towners.

Yet when it comes to serving the remaining 50% who come for their everyday shopping needs, Jungle Jim's is no different from most conventional stores.

"These are the people we need to win back more of," said Sarah Baumann, creative services director. "They have the option to go to other Krogers, other Meijers, other Biggs, rather than go the extra mile and come to us."

In store polls, customers said they would like grocery to be closer to the entrance. It has been located at the rear of the sprawling store, and "people were pretty much worn out by the time they got there," said Ed Carroll, general manager. "Some days, if they want to make a quick in-and-out stop, they would stop in one of the other supermarkets in the area."

Jungle Jim is not alone. Other operators are employing store design to take advantage of competing formats' lack of convenience, particularly supercenters. For example, Food Lion's new Bloom, A Food Lion Market, collected often-bought items in its Table Top Circle area at the front of the store. Marsh's new prototype groups products based on how it believes people think about them.

In general, stores that have moved high-frequency items like milk, bread and rotisserie chicken to the front grew their sales per transactions, according to Mark Adams, retail business consultant with Jungle Jim's supplier Supervalu, which designed the planograms for the new grocery department.

The Jungle Jim's reorganization will move national-brand goods to a 20,000-square-foot area just past the main entrance that will be named "EZ to Shop American Grocery." Shoppers can continue going left to visit the meat, dairy, frozens and produce departments, whose locations will be unchanged. The changeover started at the beginning of February and is slated to be completed March 3.

"It'll be just like walking into a Meijer or Kroger," Carroll said.

Shoppers will find it hard to bypass the section, since it'll be located near the entrance. If they do, they can consult one of the store's roving red-vested employees or maps posted around the store, Baumann said.

Will moving grocery up front cause a drop in impulse sales? "That was my concern," Carroll said. A compromise was struck: Soft drinks will move from their location deep in the store, near the international aisles, to the old grocery area, past the perishables sections. "I sell tons of soft drinks, so we're going to have soft drinks stay in the area, which will pull people over to there," Carroll said.

The Center Store reorganization follows other moves to promote ease of shopping there. Its recent expansion, begun in 2002, has brought a bank, Starbucks, pharmacy and shopper information booth. Recently, the store lowered prices on 14,000 everyday items, or about 13% of its products.

All this comes at a time of toughening competition for the single-store operation, which began as a fruit stand 33 years ago. Wal-Mart Stores and Meijer are planning more supercenters in the area. In turn, Kroger, its home turf under siege, has been getting more price-competitive, market observers said.