Retailers are increasingly looking for new concepts that can help them find a niche in America’s increasingly crowded retail marketplace. PRODUCE BUSINESS dealt with the issue here.
Supervalu is a leader in this effort, and one of its concepts, Sunflower Market, is expanding by opening three stores in Columbus. Sunflower explains its concept as such:
Sunflower Market offers a refreshing take on the natural and organics market: all of the quality, without the high price tag. Sunflower Market features affordable prices on exceptional products: organic wherever possible, minimally processed, and without artificial colorings, sweeteners, flavors or preservatives.
The stores have a special focus on bakery and produce:
Each store has delicious amenities including fresh fair-trade coffee and an in-store French Meadow Bakery & Café — the longest standing certified organic bakery in the country. The organic fruit and vegetable selection is as fresh as it gets; after being carefully grown, it is expertly delivered by W. Newell & Co., SUPERVALU’s specialty produce company, and then displayed in the store’s shoppable, all-glass cooler.
Though they also have antibiotic-free meat, specialty cheeses and a sushi bar, the focus is on discount prices. The Columbus Dispatch reports one student’s reaction to the news of Sunflower’s opening:
Natalie Hodgman, a University District resident and a junior at Ohio State, said she’s looking forward to Sunflower’s large selection of low-priced organic foods.
“While I love to go to Whole Foods, really all I can do there is look around because I can’t afford to buy too many things there,” Hodgman said, outside Sunflower Market’s N. High Street store.
“This store is going to be great because it’s closer to walk to from campus than Kroger or Giant Eagle, and it’ll sell the foods that I want to eat at a price that I can afford to pay.”
A comment that couldn’t have been written better by Supervalu’s ad department and which just goes to show you that every market can be segmented further.
