ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Tops Friendly Markets here has stepped up marketing efforts for natural products by offering customers Delicious! magazine and Mambo Sprouts coupon books in the grocery aisle.
During visits to two large units here -- one an International Super Center -- SN found Delicious! magazine merchandised on a rack that also held the coupon books for natural grocery items. Delicious!, whose tag line is "Your Magazine of Natural Living," had the Tops address on the cover, along with the store's phone number and the name of its natural foods department, "More Good Choices Naturally." The monthly magazine costs $24 per year for a subscription; a recent issue at Tops was only 25 cents.
Delicious!, published by New Hope Media, Boulder Colo., became partners with Tops at the end of last year. "Tops wanted to educate its customers about the products it had started to carry, and we are that component," explained Kristina Dahlberg, key accounts manager.
"They have stepped up efforts in terms of getting their stores reset [to include natural products], and we are working along with them as they move from store to store," she continued. "We've done some education directly with store managers and specialty food managers in charge of natural products."
Dahlberg said she has given two overviews of the natural products industry to Tops employees -- one in January and one in March.
Mambo Sprouts, a consumer direct-mail program that is being expanded to include retailers, also came on board. According to Jayson Tonkin, retail programs manager for the company, based in Palmyra, N.J., the coupons are in 20 Tops units and will be added to more stores as more sections are put in or expanded. The Rochester stores received the coupon books in March.
Mambo Sprouts books are also distributed in Whole Foods Market, Star Markets' Wild Harvest stores, and most recently, Kings Super Markets in New Jersey.
"It's one more thing for mass market retailers to offer consumers, and it's very effective," Tonkin said. "They are trying to get the crossover consumer, who is used to using coupons. Our goal is to get them to try the product at least once."
At the Tops unit that SN visited on Penfield Road here, signs that read "More Good Choices Naturally" appeared throughout the store. In the frozen aisle, four doors were devoted to natural and organic selections.
All along the grocery aisles, green metro shelving with the ubiquitous "More Good Choices" signage called attention to natural and organic selections, merchandised together, but alongside their mainstream counterparts.
In addition, there were signs that advised customers: The green means no artificial colors or flavors; no preservatives; organic whenever possible; environmentally friendly. According to a store-level source, the green signs had been up more than a year.
Natural and organic items were available in most major categories, including dog and cat food, paper products and cleaners, juices, tea, coffee, baby food, soda, cereal, pasta and sauce, soups, dinner mixes, oils, canned vegetables and fruits, bread and baking mixes and flours.
The store also had an extensive bulk section, which included a good variety of natural foods. Some of the items that could be bought in bulk were coffee; beans, pulses and grains; pasta and rice; nuts and dried fruit, and herbs and spices.
In the International store in Greece, a suburb of Rochester, Tops had a similar selection of natural foods, but signs and metro shelving were used to focus on the unit's wide selection of ethnic foods.
Store-level sources told SN that Tops planned to add "More Good Choices Naturally" signs to this unit.
SN also visited two Wegmans Food Markets in the same area that had extensive natural foods sections. But Wegmans chose to create a store-within-a-store instead of merchandising products in-aisle.
"Nature's Marketplace" was placed near the periphery of the store, where fresh and prepared foods could be found. A full array of products, including health and beauty care and frozen foods, was merchandised here.
A large sign at the front of the section advised customers that the marketplace offered high-quality foods, free of artificial colors, flavors, preservatives and sweeteners, and certified organic items whenever possible.
Wegmans advertised that its personnel were knowledgeable about the products being carried. To drive home this point, an information counter was set up near the health and beauty care section. Near the counter were spin racks with flyers and other informational brochures. A sales associate was readily available for consultation.
Tops is a subsidiary of Ahold USA, Atlanta, with headquarters in Buffalo. Wegmans is based in Rochester.
