BOSTON—It's loud—no, lively—in here.
That was my first thought as I walked in to the newest bfresh in Brighton. The store had been open less than a week and was busy with shoppers, new employees and upbeat music.
I found Paul Kneeland—the guy in charge of everything fresh—right in the heart of the store, where produce intersects with prepared foods, meat and bulk. He was surrounded, answering about six people's questions at once.
Paul's cool, confident demeanor was apparent. He was energized instead of exhausted or frazzled, as many would be in this situation: running a new, untried concept for one of the world's largest retailers, next to a major university campus during move-in, less than a week after opening. Oh, and the board of directors were coming to town for a tour the next day.
Taking this job was a risk, Kneeland says, but definitely worth it.
“My wife asks me all the time ‘why do you make it so hard on yourself?',” he says. “I'm looking for what's next. I'm looking to be part of the future. That's what drives me.”
There, he led the company through a complete, fresh-focused rebranding and overhaul that earned him widespread praise in the industry. When he heard of the opportunity to be the fresh merchandising lead for a secretive new project called “Fresh Formats LLC” for Zandaam, Netherlands-based Ahold Delhaize, Kneeland was intrigued.
“Yes, I could have still made a mark at Kings, I could have chosen an easier path, but I believe in this,” Kneeland says. “This is the future of retailing.”
“It's always been in the back of my mind through my involvement with PMA and looking at the future. Feeding kids and influencing their routines early on—that's what appeals to me—to figure out what's next.
But seriously
So, what is Fresh Formats? It has four locations to date: two bfresh stores in the Boston area, Eastside Marketplace in Providence, R.I., an acquisition, and Everything Fresh in Philadelphia.
The stores are geared toward a younger crowd, but Kneeland is quick to defend his primary shoppers against the typical “clueless millennial” stereotypes.
“Despite what people think, millennials really cook and they like unique things,” he says. “It's all kind of a learning curve. The customer is telling us what to do.”
The banner employs a robust marketing team, including in-store “culture ninjas” who interact with shoppers to find out what they like, and don't, about the new banner.
So far, in the year since the first Fresh Formats opened, the bfresh “learning laboratory” in the Allston store has been remodeled four times.
“We went into it with completely open eyes,” he says. “We said ‘ok, this is what we think will appeal to the city, millennials, to the neighborhood' and we said to ourselves ‘we have to be open to change.'”
Be nimble
And even the “permanent” fixtures in the stores leave things flexible. There aren't any fixed refrigeration cases. Everything is self-contained and can be moved around to suit the current mindset.
Assortments have changed. Bfresh added more bagged product, more specialties and meal solutions, Kneeland says.
Pricing has changed, as well.
“We spent months working through pricing strategy,” Kneeland says. “We wanted to be surprisingly low in produce, and we are.”
Bfresh benchmarks some items, like 99-cent avocados, but changed others, like apples, from unit price to by weight.
“We started off selling apples by the each,” he says. “My thing was that we wanted them to know what it cost when they got to the register, but it was confusing for some customers.”
Layouts have changed. The store I visited had only been open a week and Kneeland says he came in the night before and moved everything around already.
A store also failed. After about six months, the Fairfield, Conn., bfresh location was closed.
“We were in the wrong neighborhood,” Kneeland says. “It was too downtown, too commercial. We were smart and bailed quickly.”
It turns out, millennials like their paper ads, too, so bfresh launched one.
“We initially wanted to market through social media 90% of the time,” Kneeland says.
The failures – which seems like a strong word to me, but I don't think Paul would flinch – have helped hone the format into something Kneeland believes the company can work with.
“I'm happy that we're smart enough to listen, and nimble enough to act on it,” he says. “I feel good about the direction we're headed and I feel like we've got the momentum to put these in all the cities in America."
That's quite a jump forward, but Kneeland is confident in what he's helped create. And that's what makes him our Produce Retailer of the Year.