B-T-S panelists stress convenience and selection

Drug Store News, June 24, 1991

B-T-S panelists stress convenience and selection

The following discussion is based on a stationery department seminar that Drug Store News and Discount Store News sponsored during the Back-To-School Show earlier this year. Panelists included Jim Grattelo, director of general merchandise, Hannaford Bros.; Mark Tow, merchandise manager, Hook Drugs; Robert Springer, executive vp-marketing, A.L. Price; Linda Harrison, stationery buyer, Stuarts Dept. Stores; and James Nakamura, executive vp-merchandising, WORK-place.

Jim Grattelo, Hannaford Bros.: We have 42 drug stores [Wellby] located in Maine and New Hampshire, and operate combination stores in Maine, New Hampshire, and operate combination stores in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, upstate New York and Massachusetts.

Demographics vary among the divisions we operate. The convenience shopper and the replacement goods shopper is the shopper we're looking for in our combination store. We feel that customers who are in the supermarkets have a particular item on their list that they are willing to purchase or replenish, and that's the customer we are appealing to.

In our drug store division, however, we are appealing to customers who want home and office supplies, or specialty items that their children need in school, or specialty items that the consumers themselves need, so we have a much broader mix.

The ages we're appealing to is 18 to 45. However, especially in our drug division, we are appealing to the children as a separate segment, and we do a good job through radio advertising and print advertising to get right to the kids age 12 to 18. We feel that's strong segment to hit.

In our area, we have not been able to do well with bulk packs, the club-type merchandise that's available out there. We've tried it in both divisions and feel that the demographics in our area just don't warrant the space at this time.

Bob Springer, A.L. Price: We're in the Detroit metropolitan area, exclusive of the city. Our customer age group is 18 to 55, because our core business is health and beauty aids and cosmetics.

We offer a basic stationery mix and do not get into the fringe items. We are a destination store for HBA, and our leading reason for being in a business to that consumer is the retail price of the merchandise.

Mark Tow, Hook Drugs: We have 300 stores in Indiana and 100 stores in adjacent states, so we're tightly packed. Our major customer is a 27-to-54-year-old female. We have two types of locations: city, and small town or neighborhood.

We emphasize convenience for city stores and selection for small-town and neighborhood stores. This category is both impulse and demand. We've tried to capitalize on this by moving it toward the front of the store and making it a core category, almost a hub.

The only special mixes we offer are in college towns, where we get the local management involved and create a special department of products that fit their needs, rather than the needs of the rest of our chain.

Linda Harrison, Stuarts Department Stores: We have 20 stores in New England. Our customers are primarily middle income and blue collar. They're very conservative, very basic, and are motivated by price/value items. We have some brand awareness with products like Crayola and Mead. We tailor our mix to include depth and variety of product at competitive prices.

We use a lot of what we call hot stuff - price/value items featured on speed tables. We try not to intimidate customers with fancy displays.

Jim Nakamura, WORK-place: WORKplace is a nine-store chain in the Tampa Bay area. Our stores average from 30,000 square feet to 50,000 square feet. We specialize in commercial office stationery, office machines, typewriters, telephone answering machines, computers, FAX machines, and copiers. In addition, we specialize in ready-to-assemble furniture and commercial furniture. We carry fine writing instruments, from Mont Blanc to Parker Duofold pens. We also specialize in school supplies.

The business customer makes up 70 percent of our customer base, and the retail customer represents the balance.

We are not a destination store; we are in malls and strip centers, so we go after retail customers as well as our core customer.

John Failla, Discount Store News: Do you see stationery as a fashion business? How do you see color affecting your business?

Nakamura: Colors add a new, fresh appeal o our stores. Many of our first-time customers do not know what an office product superstore is. They see it as a "cold" store selling bulk goods, file folders, bulk pencils and the like. This is true in most cases. We add colors to add new, fresh appeal to our store. We're definitely going after more fashion merchandise this year.

Springer: Colors - the neons, the brights, even the greens - are significant. Walking the floor yesterday, I thought that probably the most dramatic item on the sales floor was Borden's Glu-Colors.

There are a few other areas that I think are going to help us as a deep-discount chain. We are great believers in preselling the consumer. That, to us, means having the product out four to six weeks earlier than you would find it in a Kmart or a Target store, which are our major competitors, along with F&M Distributors.