PUBLIX DELIVERS BABY CLUB TO CUSTOMERS

AMITY K. MOORE / Additional reporting: CAROL ANGRISANI

LAKELAND, Fla. -- Publix Super Markets here has expanded its customer services to include a free baby club. It also has overhauled its private-label diaper line.

Launched in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama stores earlier this year, the Publix Baby Club is open to expectant mothers and mothers with children under 2 years old.

Benefits of the program include a free copy of "Caring for Your Baby and Young Child: Birth to Age 5" for first-time parents, Publix baby care product coupons, special product gifts and up to eight child care focused newsletters, which are available in English or Spanish.

Parents can pick up enrollment applications in store baby aisles. SN also observed forms in the cereal aisle during a visit to a Publix in Hilton Head, S.C., earlier this month.

"This program is a natural extension to our famous customer service and commitment to serving families in our communities," said Jennifer Bush, a company spokeswoman.

In other news, Publix is in the process of revamping its private-label diapers.

Sizes 4 and 5 of its Ultra Thin line now have a clothlike cover. Smaller sizes will also be converted, according to a customer service employee at Paragon Trade Brands, Norcross, Ga., which manufactures the line. SN contacted the worker by dialing an 800 number printed on the diaper package. Officials from Paragon's headquarters and Publix declined to comment.

Along with the Ultra line, the retailer's Supreme diapers, which have always had the clothlike cover, carry a flag in the upper left hand corner that reads "New. Compare Our Softlok Reclosable Tabs to Velcro."