QFC PROTOTYPE GROUPS NATURAL FOOD AND HBC

MINA WILLIAMS

RENTON, Wash. (FNS) -- As part of its strategy to offer consumers more convenience, Quality Food Centers' new prototype unit here has grouped natural food and health and beauty care in one section.

Following five years of offering natural food within the chain's merchandising mix, QFC made the decision to present dry grocery, frozen, dairy and HBC in a 1,200-square-foot area.

"We really cater to our customer," said Daryl Taylor, store manager. "Placing all the natural items in one location helps customers manage their time. They know where to go to get what they are looking for. That's the convenience that QFC wants to bring to its customers."

Within the natural-food presentation, 8 feet of vertical frozen cases with doors stock soy products and tofu-based dessert items, vegetables, breakfast entrees and other prepared foods ranging from pizzas to wraps and pot pies. The adjacent 5 feet of refrigerated cases offer natural and organic yogurt, butter, orange juice, more soy products, eggs and fortified beverages.

Dry groceries are presented within the section on six racks, 30 feet long. Included within the dry-grocery section is a bulk area -- offering spices, dried fruits, nuts and pastas. Six endcaps are used to boast new offerings and items on sale.

In addition, the natural-food section also stocks books and magazines and body care products, vitamins and supplements and herbal remedies.

On the day SN toured the newly opened Renton location, a custom-designed four-page natural-food flier offered specials on dry grocery, frozen food and dairy products.

Adjacent to the natural-food department are organic produce selections, located along a wall rack in the produce department. This presentation includes a 12-foot, three-deck merchandiser containing a variety of offerings.

A service desk is positioned near one of the endcaps in the natural-food department, where a store associate is available to assist customers and answer questions. Educational materials on products and resource materials are housed within the service desk for easy referral.

A number of strategies have been used to set off the natural-food department, which does not have any overarching signage to identify it. First, the department has a drop ceiling, which helps set it off from the rest of the store. Header signage is also dropped lower down to create the feeling of enclosure. The shelving on gondolas is green, and the vinyl floor is made to look like a wood grain. Finally, the aisles in the natural-food set are not in line with adjacent produce and snack sections, which creates an additional merchandising point of differentiation.

Meanwhile, the overall design of the new prototype has provided wider aisles throughout the store. The prototype also uses earth tones, rather than brighter colors. "We have made it easy for our customers to get around the store," said Taylor. "Trends change, colors change and this new format will be put to work as we build and remodel units chainwide."

The use of vertical sets, both by product and vendor, so that, for example, one manufacturer of soup is stocked from the top shelf to the bottom shelf, has helped create a clean look as well as greater shoppability in the new store.

This same shelf-set strategy is carried over into the frozen-food section, where product is set exclusively in doors, except for a few coffin cases used as endcaps. In addition, fluorescent lighting on either side of each vertical door makes it easy for customers to identify what they are looking for.

To further showcase frozens, QFC uses two hexagon-shaped endcaps, 7 feet wide and 3 feet high, on either side of one frozen food aisle.

Overhanging signs, fixed to the top of frozen-food doors at appropriate junctures, identify juice, breakfast, potatoes, ice cream, light ice cream and so forth. These identifiers have been designed so that they can be changed as consumer trends shift.

"The wider aisles help, particularly in the frozen-food area," said Taylor. "We have built a reputation in the Northwest, and despite our [new] ownership we will continue to be QFC, with standards our customers have come to expect."

The Renton store, opened in November 1998, will serve as a model for the chain as it expands its regional Northwest operations, according to Dean Olsen, director of marketing for QFC. A second 40,364-square-foot prototype store opened in Vancouver, Wash., in December. Further expansion into the Olympia, Wash., area will occur in 1999.

The 87-unit Bellevue, Wash.-based QFC chain was acquired by Fred Meyer Inc., Portland, Ore., last March. A subsequent alliance is pending, since Cincinnati-based Kroger is in the process of acquiring Fred Meyer.