Stores are loud enough without this

blah, blah, blah

I was walking through the Giant grocery store the other day, and I realized that in addition to the background music coming over the main speakers, there was something else playing, too. I looked around and finally figured out it was a little screen advertising Nice 'n Easy hair products.

Gad.

In an age where everyone is supposedly asking "How can we save electricity?" the idea that we are putting energy into manufacturing and powering tiny advertising screens like this is frightening. And combined with the noise of the other shoppers and carts and kids and music, it was just annoying.

If marketing folks want to be able to put more information in front of shoppers, I think that the way of the future is the smart-phone-scannable Quick Response (QR) code. Everyone is switching to smart phones. (And even if you don't want to, you're going to need to because your old phone will wear out and you won't be able to get a new battery for it.) Using a QR scan, you can find out more info, get instructions for using the product, get special offers, etc. This is a much better technology to invest in, retail folks. Please don't start investing in your own little in-store TVs.

I like to park far away

Opposite of those people of questionable character who borrow grandma's handicap permit so that they can park in the reserved spot closest to the grocery store, I like to park very far away.

More space around my car, and fewer vehicles zooming around me, makes it easier to get in and out of the parking lot, get my son in and out of the car seat, and get packages in and out of the back. It also reduces the chances of my car being damaged by someone else, and gives me a little more exercise. All in all, it's great. Why doesn't everyone try to park as far away as possible?

But I often get frustrated by returning the cart. Many stores only have cart returns right up near the store. COSTCO and Whole Foods fall into this category. I end up needing to backtrack a pretty significant distance to return the cart. Clearly, a lot of folks don't even bother as a lot of abandoned carts are handing out near back near the far end of the lot. When it's just me, I don't mind. But if I've got my toddler with me, he has a low attention span for this activity, which makes it much harder to accomplish.

See that Cart return WAY far away?

Here's where I need to give Giant some credit; they put cart returns very far back. I can park very far away, and still have a cart return in easy distance.

Thanks, Giant!

Actually Reusing the Reusable Bags

Very interesting article here about re-usable bags from the grocery store, and how the large stores are starting to invest money in helping the customer to remember to bring them into the store. I actually like this idea. If you forget your bags in the car, and it is raining or cold or you have the baby, you just are NOT going to go back.

Thoughts, anyone? Or is the 5-cent discount more valuable to folks?

Chronicles of the New Giant: New Giant = New Stop and Shop

As I pointed out in my first post about 'New Giant,' both Giant and Stop & Shop are owned by Royal Ahold, and both were rebranded with the funky fruit basket logo. Interestingly enough, they have continued to print the names "Giant" or "Stop & Shop" on the various items like bags, receipts, etc. However, it is pretty obvious that at some point they are going to merge into one name as the clearly share the same system.

Case in point: I got several point-of-sale coupons for baby food while I was in Connecticut, visiting a Stop & Shop. When I returned to DC, I redeemed them at Giant. No muss or fuss. The computer read them properly with no complaints. (Whoo-hoo!)

I wonder what they will call the new combined store? "Stop Giant" doesn't sound so great. I'm sure they'll come up with something.

What the hell is wrong with Christmas Lights?

I'm going to file all modern Christmas Lights under the category of "they don't make 'em like they used to."

My parents used the same strands of lights year after year after year. The old ones with the big bulbs that heated up to a zillion degrees and melted the snow for mile in every direction. Ah, the good ol' days.

Those good ol' days are GONE. Here is the saga of our lights ...

When we put our lights away last year, neatly packed in a labeled box, all 4 strands worked. When we took them out of the box last week, they were ALL BROKEN. Not one strand would light. What the hell happened to them? Did the evil Christmas light gremlins get them?

So, I went to Giant (gad) to get more. I bought 4 strands of clear lights. Of these 4 strands, one was broken out of the box, two were actually colored (even though the box said they were clear) and ONE actually worked. So, I went BACK to Giant and exchanged three of them for three more. Of these 3 new ones, only 2 worked. But we had enough to do the front steps. More or less.

Then, we decided to try some of the new LED lights on our big, outside tree. They all worked out of the box. Groovy. So we spent the time to put them on our big pine tree. They all lit up, and it looked great. For 5 minutes. Then the middle strand died. We have no time or energy to pull them all off, so I confess that our tree looks quite odd.

As I'm sure that these will all be dead by next year, I am starting to think ahead. Our ARC (Architectural Review Creatures) have decreed that all decorations must be "colonial in tone and nature" so I am thinking that next year we'll just decorate with candles and be done with it ... at least until the house burns down.

Chronicles of the New Giant: Scan It!

The Giant Food Store near me unveiled self-scanning this week ... a concept they are calling Scan It! When I say 'self-scanning', I don't mean self check-out. I mean you have a hand-held scanner and you scan items as you add them to your cart.

I've had a lot of people ask me about my experience with this new technology, including my peeps over at the Food Marketing Institute, so here is the full, objective scoop on how it works as well as my highly subjective opinion of it.

How it Works

1. Walk into Giant and right up to a huge wall of self-scanners, manufactured by Motorola. They are all locked into place in slots on this wall.
2. Scan your Giant Bonus Card, which unlocks one of the scanners. It flashes to let you know which one is yours.
3. Pick up your scanner and also some bags if you want to bag your groceries (or you can of course bring your own bags
4. Scan packaged goods by simply holding down on the scan button and scanning the UPC code. Place in bag in your cart.
   
5. Scan produce by inputting the PLU code into an electronic scale, weighing the item, printing a bar code, and then scanning the code. Place in bag in your cart.
6. If you make a mistake, click the Remove button and rescan the item to remove it and then place it back on the shelf.
7. When done, go to any aisle to check out
8. Scan a final UPC code to 'close' the electronic cart.
   
9. Scan your bonus card again, choose a payment method, pay and go.
   

My 2-Cents on this whole process

• Produce is a challenge. It takes a decent amount of concentration to work those scales, get the bar code, stick it to something, and scan it.
  
• Bagging as you go sounds easy, but it isn't. The stores aren't laid out from heaviest items to lightest items, so it is hard. If I was going to do this a lot, I might just bring boxes with me, as they won't flop over in the carts.
  
• It is very hard to juggle holding the scanner in one hand and pushing the cart with the other hand. If you happen to have a 10-month old baby in the cart who keeps dropping his pacifier, it all triples in difficulty. They need to add some type of 'holster' to the side of the carts to hold the scanner.
  
• Self-scanning ads more time in the store, so it is absolutely critical that there be a pay-off at checkout. i.e. All of us trying the scanners thought there would be a dedicated check-out aisle where we just would pay and go. NO, THERE WAS NOT. After spending all that extra time to scan and bag in the aisles, we had to wait in line behind people slowly scanning their own groceries and bagging at checkout.
  

This last bullet is the key for me. Without dedicated checkout lanes, there is absolutely no motivation for me to self-scan. None. It will always be faster to toss a few things in a basket and go to a self-checkout line than go through the process of unlocking a scanner, scanning each item, then waiting in line, again. I asked one of the cashiers when they'd be creating dedicated Scan-It lanes for those using the hand-held scanners and the answer was NEVER. So when will I 'Scan-It' again? NEVER.

Chronicles of the New Giant: Grand Re-opening

So, for several weeks, I've been following the rebranding of Giant. This weekend, Rolling Giant in Springfield held a 'grand reopening' as their store refurbishment is now complete.

The new logo is everywhere, including on the outside facade of the store. The carts are new, the floors are new, the fixtures are new. It's all new. Well, except for the staff. But they in fact do seem a little different, too.

Back in September, when Giant first unveiled their new logo, I had commented that Giant needed to change more than their branding. And now, 2 months later, I think that they have.

As I walked through the store yesterday, I was able to find the following items which have always been problematic for me:

• Kitchen Basics cooking stock: Beef, Chicken AND Vegetable all on the shelf. This has never happened. Normally they have 50 of one or the other, or none at all.
• Leeks AND Scallions AND Kale in produce. Amazing. Unheard of in the past.
  

So, maybe they have done something to try to get their inventory management under control. Hurrah!

Also, starting in a week or so, this store is going to make the self-scanners available. I am very curious to try this. It's a neat idea.

Chronicles of the New Giant: My Kingdom for a Bag

My friend Sue had me rolling on the floor with the tale of her quest for one of the new lime-green Giant reusable bags...

• Three weeks ago, she went to her local Giant, in Maryland, and wanted to buy some of the new bags. She really likes the new lime green. But they didn't have any in stock. They only had the old blue ones, for .99-cents each.
• She went back a week later -- 2 weeks ago -- and they still didn't have any of the new bags. But they had twice as many blue bags, and now they were only .79-cents. She asked one of the managers about the new bags, and he said that the bags should be in, soon
• She went back last week and STILL no green bags. And there were triple the number of the old blue bags, now for only .49-cents each. She talked to a manager, again, who this time told her that they had to sell all the old bags before they were allowed to have any new ones.
• She then drove a few miles down the road to a different Giant. This Giant had both the old blue and the new green bags. All for .99-cents each. She bought some of the green bags.
• She is now planning to visit her local Giant each week. Her theory is that if they keep dropping the old blue bags by .20-.30 cents each week, they'll be free in approx 2-3 weeks.

This story got me all fired up; I just couldn't wait to go to a Giant in Virginia to check out their bags. So I went to the Alexandria, VA, Giant at my lunch hour.

Bags EVERYWHERE. Endcaps, registers, anywhere they could fit them. Old blue bags, new green bags, AND the cool April 2008 'earth day' bags that I hadn't seen anywhere else since Earth day. I immediately grabbed one of the earth day bags (one of my favorites) as I took note that they were all still .99-cents.

I don't know what is going on in that store up in Maryland. It's like that manager drew the short, blue straw at a regional meeting, or something.

Chronicles of the New Giant: G.A.B.

What's this? Que es Esto?
In the Customer Service section of the new website: Something called the Grocery Advisory Board (G.A.B.) Panel.

From the site ...
As a G.A.B. member, you will periodically receive short, easy-to-complete surveys that will allow you to share your ideas and comments about your shopping experiences. You will also be able to give feedback on various programs and ideas and influence whether these ideas should be implemented in the Giant stores where you shop.

Sign me up.

In fact, I am already signed up. I signed up the instant I read this, a few weeks ago. It was a pretty damned long survey to sign up, but I made it through.

Now, let's see what happens. [So far, weeks later, nothing]

Chronicles of the New Giant: Produce and Bags

So, I have visited Rolling Giant in Springfield about 3 times in the past week.

They rearranged the whole store; I guess they wanted to wait till the proverbial smoke cleared from the logo rollout. When I went two days ago, all the signs were down. So no one had any idea at all where anything was. The store wasn't too busy, so it was easy enough to just wander down the aisles. Speaking of the aisles, they are shorter, both in height and length. Although they are tighter at the front of the store. None of this makes sense to me. It seems like there is less product because of this, and horrible jams are being caused up at the checkout lines when it is 'rush hour.' But they are still working on it, so let's see what happens.

The produce section has also been totally rearranged, with new fixtures and new lighting. Most of the produce is in baskets. The floor is half done; they are putting in wood-colored linoleum. It does soften the appearance of the store; less harsh. There are new lights, too. It makes for a better experience, but they don't look like fluorescents, so I think that all this new brightness is coming at an energy cost. Of course, if Giant is planning to jump on the solar bandwagon and put panels on their roof, they'd help to offset that. (I have no idea if they are planning to do this; I just know that companies are out there, like Recurrent Energy, that broker deals to do such things with large retailers)

Most important ... the produce looked good, which is a change. I sat there and thought for a good 5 minutes about whether or not the produce was actually better or just looked better due to the lights/fixtures, and I decided it WAS better. There were fewer rotten spots on the onions, the peaches weren't hard as frozen bricks, and they had some produce they rarely carry (like red cabbage). Some things seem odd to me, like limes being at the totally opposite end from lemons, but in general the change seems good.

I talked to my favorite cashier, whom I call "Mr. Smiley," and not surprisingly he loves the new uniforms. I talked to two others, and they weren't as enthusiastic.

I also want to mention that every time I've gone to Giant since the change, I haven't gotten any of the push-back or bad-attitude I used to get at bringing my own bags. So clearly, there was some training on the re-use of bags being a priority for them.

So, things are looking pretty good at that Giant. I haven't been to the other Springfield Giant (International Giant, as I call it) for over a week and I haven't been to the Alexandria Giant at all since the change. I'll need to do that soon, and report.

Chronicles of the New Giant: The uniforms are IN and the curved aisles are OUT

Update on the NEW Giant ...

The new uniforms are now in and being worn. They started to appear about a week ago, but I didn't write anything as I wanted time to be able to talk to multiple employees in multiple stores about them. The shirts are gold, and most everyone is wearing black aprons over them.

Here are some of the employee reactions I got when I commented that the new uniforms looked nice.

• One gal meandering down the aisle at International Giant in Springfield sort of smiled at me, but clearly thought I was crazy.
• One of the produce guys at International Giant in Springfield gave me a genuine smile back; he seemed pretty happy with them.
• One of the cashiers Rolling Springfield just sort of shrugged. As she was my captive audience until she finished ringing me up, I pressed her. I think that part of the issue was that English was probably a second language for her, but eventually it became clear to me that the black apron is the issue. At least for her, I think it was extremely uncomfortable, although she did admit it helped to keep her shirt nice and clean.
• Another cashier at Rolling Springfield 'liked the green better'

I have also noticed that the curved aisles leading into the registers are slowly becoming uncurved. I'm thinking that this was not a popular change.

Chronicles of the New Giant: Yellow!

There are 2 Giants in Springfield, VA, within 10 minutes of each other. I go to both; it just depends on where I am coming from and where I am going. I went to the one at Keene Mill and Rolling Road, tonight. (I call this one "Rolling Giant" as opposed to the other one closer to the Springfield Interchange, that I call "International Giant" as they stock a lot more spanish foods.)

Rolling Giant is much further along in their remodeling than the other one. They clearly had just taken everything down off the walls and repainted the whole top half of the store Blazing Yellow.

I love the color yellow, just LOVE it.
BUT
Even I have to admit ... that is a LOT of yellow in one place. I suspect that once the signs are back up it will be fine.

Right now: it is very yellow.

Another note: They didn't move as much inventory around as the other Giant did. The moves actually make no sense. At first, I thought that the stores were settling on one unified layout. But no, Baby items and coffee are still in radically different places between the 2 stores. I have no idea what the plan is. I guess we'll find out.

The NEW Giant: "You talk. We listen."

As all of my friends know, I have a love/hate relationship with Giant Foods. I want to love them. They are the closest grocery store to both work and home. But every time I go shopping there, I end up frustrated, with new reasons to hate them. I could fill up pages of rants, but I have generally held myself back as it seemed like it might be monotonous for non-Giant shoppers to read.

But with their parent company's -- Royal Ahold's -- rollout last week of new branding for Giant and Stop&Shop, and the new tagline, "You talk. We listen." prominently displayed on the front of their websites, the game is on.



I started by chatting informally with some of my friends at the Food Marketing Institute (FMI). They of course want all food-related retailers/wholesales to thrive, but like me have a vested interest in local chains like Giant that they themselves shop.

Apparently, Ahold is rebranding all US holdings the same way, to get some economies of scale. I see no issues with that. The more they save on marketing, the more they can invest in other more pressing needs. The new Giant logo is generating some decent buzz in Washington DC, and the rollout itself has been decently coordinated given the scale.

We all raced out the first day and first weekend of the announcement, to see the new stores. Here's the recap of what we found.

Let's start with the Good ...

• The new logo offers a lot of possibilities and the TV ads the ran the last week of the Beijing Olympics get a big thumbs up.
  
• The new logo was immediately on the registers and receipts. That was well coordinated.
  
• Apparently one store -- the main Landover one -- had the new signage on the outside. None of us expected that would be done at the same time. That is very hard to coordinate. [Heck, decades have passed in this area since American Telephone & Telegraph become C&P, which became Bell Atlantic, which become Verizon and some building STILL say American Telephone & Telegraph on them.]

Now let's move to the changes that can't totally be categorized as "good" at this point ...

• It appears that part of the long-term plan may be to get new carts. Great. But apparently some of the stores seem to have gotten rid of a bunch of their old cards BEFORE the new ones arrived. My friend Sue went to her local store the weekend of the change, early in the AM, when hardly anyone was in the store and could not get a cart. She said they just were gone; only a handful remained. A huge crowd was gathering, trying to get carts to go shopping. She asked a store employee what was going on, but this person just 'muttered incoherently' and so she left after 20 minutes and went to their competitor, Safeway.
  
• The point of sale area has changed. There is less 'crap' piled up around them, offering a better line of sight (Good). But the lines to the registers are also now curved. This is great if you are coming from the 'correct' direction, but really not so great if you're coming from the other way as those carts aren't known for their ability to 'turn on a dime,' so to speak.
  
• The aisles seem to have lower shelves. This is great if you are short, but this is definitely bad for breadth and quantity of inventory (see more on this topic, below).
  
• Some of the stores have been rearranged. They did change the signs in the aisles, and the changes are very obvious because the new parts of the sign don't quite match the old parts. (I doubt this was intentional, but it is helpful.) However, here is the problem, their big, new, useless 'Markety' signs block the vital 'What the heck is in this Aisle' signs. Perhaps this is on purpose, so you have to walk down every aisle, but let's hope not.
  
• The new low price tags on the shelves (I believe they are branding them as 'Real Deals'), give the impression that the item is on sale. But it is not. My friend Sue already witnessed one argument at checkout between a woman who felt that the item should be on sale and the poor clerk.
  
  
• Their new reusable bags are much more prominently placed and they seem to have renewed their commitment to this concept. However, the bags weren't in all stores on that first weekend, and that was poor planning. It is too bad that they don't seem to be made from recycled plastic (which is the newest trend), or if they are it is not advertised on the bag (which is a mistake). But I will give them credit for creating something quite unmistakably vivid.
  
• The new website is really attractive, although there were some technical load issues those first few days. One oversight; they are missing the coding to stop the 'old logo to new logo' movie from playing every single time you go to the home page. They need to add that.
  
• New uniforms are coming, but they weren't in stock the first day, at least at most of the stores. That's too bad; that would have made a big impact. We'll be waiting for those to appear.
  

In general, given the size of the task, we felt that the rollout went as well as to be expected. Here are the major gaps I'm worried about ...

The new opening message on the website is relatively surface:
With delicious prepared foods, savings on the things you need, and a fresh new look in our stores, we're working to make a difference in your lives every day. And we're just getting started.

The customer pledge shows more promise:
We pledge to make a difference in our customers' lives every day with great food, low prices, and friendly helpful service.

But neither one really makes me feel that Giant is aware of it two core issues*** and is taking action to correct them.

Core Issue #1: Category/Inventory Management and Quality of Merchandise

They must improve in this area. I could fill up pages with the issues I've had in these areas. Their garlic is ALWAYS rotten. Some weeks, they have 3 shelves of chicken stock, some weeks they have none. You have to get there before Noon on delivery day to get a Perdue Oven Roaster Chicken. Roll a die to find out if they have Kalamata olives on the day you are shopping.

Core Issue #2: Employee training, customer service and morale

I would estimate that at least 90% of the Giant employees with whom I have had any interaction with have a huge morale issue. They seemed resigned to their fate of sitting somewhere on the scale between hating the customer and just not caring. I could fill up pages with my rants on this, as well, but that is water under the bridge, right? This is NEW Giant. They are turning a new page. There will now be "friendly helpful service," right?

It's up to YOU, Giant!

Like I said earlier in my post, I want them to succeed. And I'll be following their progress. I've added a 'Giant' tag to my blog, and I'll be reporting on what happens in the coming weeks/months as the rollout continues. I'll be basing most of my observations on the stores in Alexandria and Springfield, Virginia, so stay tuned!

***Footnote: I want to put one big caveat on the two core issues. These might only be the core issues in the metro DC area. I visited the Giant near my parents, near Walkersville, Maryland, three months ago. That store was amazing. The staff were friendly and helpful. The store was big and well-stocked. The produce was amazing. I had to walk outside to confirm I was really in Giant.