I took about 10,000 photos this year, not counting my kids, cats and dinner, from about 250 retailers. You could call me a bit of a store check junkie. So what really stands out and makes a Top 10 list?
I picked stores that I talk about weeks and even months later. I'm leaving out my trip to Switzerland, Austria and Italy from this list because I'm sticking to just the U.S., stores you can easily see for yourself.
And now, the moment you've all been waiting for, my Store Check Junkie Top 3 Store Checks of 2016:
3. Aldi, La Quinta, Calif.
I spent a lot of time out west this year, and it's because there's tons of innovation. Aldi entered California in 2016, so I stopped by one of the first stores to open in Southern California while I was in Palm Springs for The Packer's West Coast Produce Expo. Let's just say if this is the future of discount retail in the U.S., sign me up. The produce department was large, had a lot of variety, and was probably the best stocked I've ever seen from Aldi, which is quietly approaching 1,600 stores in the U.S. Watch out for Aldi, and its European competitor, Lidl, in 2017.
This store led with organic produce. I remember shopping Aldi when I was a kid in Missouri in the 1980s. The only things that got refrigerated were tubes of ground beef and gallons of milk. This store had two different reefer sections for produce, including premium juice. Aldi is the ultimate in low labor, and sometimes that means shelves are a wreck. Look what they're doing with the cases of salad here? They're figuring out ways to minimize labor and fixture costs while still making a neat and appealing display. See those gorgeous mini potatoes? Remember we're looking at Aldi, here.
2. 365 by Whole Foods Market, Los Angeles.
365 solves a lot of problems I have with Whole Foods, like expensive center store products and swanky pet food. It's drilled down to the basics – exceptional produce at an affordable price and Whole Foods' Greatest Hits in prepared foods. I can't wait for the next one to open in Cedar Park, Texas, which will be the closest grocery to my house.
This looks like an ordinary wet rack, but it's actually the Veg Valley, a separate chilled room for wet veg and other items that fare better with refrigeration. Genius. Surely, this is helping Whole Foods with shrink and enabling them to save a few dollars in labor, too. Produce made up close to 1/3 of the store's footprint. There were no displays of hand harvested organic cotton sweat bands and Himalayan Sea Salt lamps. This was all about food. This was the fourth (I think?) case of prepared foods, and the largest. It was right up by the checkout corral. And let's talk about that checkout. I waited 20 minutes in line and no one was mad. No one abandoned their orders. They were OK with waiting! Let's talk about pricing. See this? $5. At a "normal" Whole Foods, that's at least $10. Ok, this is a bonus photo, but when I saw the scene I chuckled out loud. Whole Foods is going for "Millennial" shoppers with this concept. It cannot get any more hipster/millennial than this: a dude in skinny jeans and a waist high stack of PBR.
1. bfresh, Allson, Mass.
You may have heard of this project, an Ahold Delhaize banner whose fresh operations are headed up by Paul Kneeland, the 2016 Produce Retailer of the Year. A lot of thought goes into solving the “Millennial Equation,” for retailers and Paul seems to have nailed down the right formula. Bountiful fresh produce displays, lots of variety, prepared foods, and kitsch without the gimmicks makes this store “the future of retail,” as Paul so eloquently put it in our Retailer of the Year article.
Paul took me through bfresh's newest store, which opened in Brighton, Mass., in late August. Even though it had been open only a week when I visited, he was in there the night before rearranging the produce department's layout. Quirky, but not too over-the-top quirky, signage entices shoppers, like the "Say What?!" sale sign over these berries. Millennials were the focus initially, but it's really a neighborhood store. Everything at this store was just so...shoppable. The bubble lids on these smoothies weren't necessary, but they added just the right touch of fun. Anyone who knows Paul Kneeland knows he puts together a heck of a salad bar. The bfresh prepared foods were exceptional, and look at the fun presentation here.
So, there you have it. These were my Top 10 Store Checks of 2016. Where will I go in 2017? Will YOU make the list?
