Winsight Grocery Business
Store experience is more important than ever in the digital age, said Ted Frumkin, chief development officer of Sprouts Farmers Markets (left, with interviewer Rachel Elias Wein of WeinPlus), while delivery is changing how the chain thinks about real estate. Frumkin spoke about how a new store prototype bringing service deli, meat and seafood departments to prominence is helping to improve customer perception of the brand. Some customers, he said, were unaware the chain even sold fresh fish before making the change in some existing and all new stores.
In the meantime, experience gleaned through a delivery partnership with Instacart is providing new intelligence on real estate decisions, with Sprouts seeing average draw radii expanding obviating the need to place stores as densely as it might once have. This is helpfing the fast-growing chain tackle new markets more rapidly. While Sprouts reached the Mid-Atlantic states only this year, Frumkin confessed the chain is already looking ahead to the Boston area, where he said Sprouts’ price- and health-focused format would find a receptive audience.
