Looking to reinvent itself in a competitive marketplace, St. Cloud, Minn.-based Coborn's Inc. turned to what it does best – service.
“When a guest comes in the store, we want them to have an interactive experience in fresh,” Tom Williams, director of produce and floral, told me during a recent conversation.
I ran into Tom at the Organic Produce Summit in Monterey, Calif., this summer. He was excited about taking the position at Coborn's in February, excited about the opportunity to put down some roots and develop an amazing new shopping experience at the employee-owned grocer just outside the Twin Cities.
With a new ground-up store slated for opening in late summer, Williams says his first order of business was to do a little homework. He and his team visited retailers with innovative programs in other markets, like Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Lowe's Foods, which underwent a reimagining of its brand over the past few years. The fun and exciting atmosphere in all areas of the store made for an exceptional shopping experience, Williams says.
After touring a few more retailers with expanded value-added produce, Williams says Coborn's took a look at its own programs. In-store fresh-cut produce is nothing new, but the concept of custom cuts, a so-called “vegetable butcher,” was intriguing. Williams says he wanted to make the fresh-cut
more of an experience for customers, one they can experience hands-on.
And so, the Coborn's Chop Shoppe was born.
It's a play on an old-fashioned meat counter, where customers watch butchers create custom cuts on demand. The cutting room is bright white with a counter where customers can order and then observe the process.
“We said, let's let them watch us,” he says. “We designed this with the counter and the glass in front where you can see everything. It's at a height where everybody can see, including kids. They can watch us make fresh-squeezed juice or extract vegetable juice and have a nice conversation with the people doing it.”
Employees also are trained to offer samples – often, Williams says.
“When guests come back they can have a sampling of Green Ninja juice, or, if we're cutting up some cantaloupe, we want to share the great flavor,” he says.
Customized
Customers also are encouraged to fill out a ticket and order their own combinations.
“As a guest, you can go and shop the department and bring it back to them and they will cut it for you while you're shopping – any way you want it – slice, dice, cut it up in sticks,” he says. “However you want it, we'll do it while you're in the store and you can come back and pick it up.”
That type of on-demand service isn't common in produce, but Williams sees the value in getting customers involved in their total grocery experience.
“We want our guests to come in our stores and not only find the things they're looking for, but also the things they didn't know they were looking for — expanded organics, expanded specialty items, and finding things that are coming into season that they haven't tried yet,” he says.
While it may seem daunting to staff a custom-cut counter, Williams says the system was integrated into the company's existing fresh-cut program. It's more of adding a little more value to the value-added line.
The first Chop Shoppe opened Aug. 17 at a ground-up new location in Isanti, Minn. Coborn's plans to add it to other locations, along with the extended full service model, as it continues store enhancements across the banner. The whole idea is to get consumers to stop and enjoy their shopping experience, and for those who have shopped the new Isanti store, it's working.
“We're going to continue to expand this concept and look at how we can focus on fresh and make it an experience instead of guests just coming and going,” Williams says.