Retail Watchers

Many of you know that Kroger owns the Fred Meyer supercenter chain in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. You may also know that Smith's Marketplace is the only Kroger banner other than Fred Meyer to be the closest to Fred Meyer in the merchandise mix that it offers, as they used to be Fred Meyers. But now Kroger is now testing a Kroger Marketplace outlet with what seems to be as close to the full Fred Meyer treatment thus far. Here is the article about that effort!

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories ... -test.html

The one thing that seems kind of odd in that article is that they talk about an existing furniture department in the Kroger store. Is this a common thing?

Fry's Marketplace, Kroger Marketplace, etc. are the stores that feature a supermarket with other non-supermarket merchandise. In 2011, Kroger started selling Bombay Company furniture and decor items in some of the Marketplace stores. Bombay created a collection of mirrors, vases, novelty accents, coffee tables and upholstered chairs. The items are priced from $6.99 to $399.99. Only 180 of the Marketplace stores carry furniture. Furniture is not sold in Kroger grocery-only stores.

Apparently, the furniture does not need its own section and can be spread throughout the store. If there is free space in the store you might as well put it to good use. Clothing doesn't expire like food, and the profits could be quite good. It works for Target and Walmart. Why not combine food with other merchandise?

The article below shows furniture right in front of the dairy case. I can see that jeans could be an impulse buy if you catch eye of customers. Remember, that many supermarket shoppers are women, and clothing shopping is something that appeals to this demographic.
http://www.dallasnews.com/business/reta ... ar-you.ece

I guess it's not that unusual to see furniture in the stores (around here, even QFC stocks a few outdoor furniture items in the stores during the summer) but I guess I'm not familiar with the Kroger Marketplace format. I would assume it's more of a grocery store with expanded non-food selection (kind of like a Walmart Neighborhood market) than it would be a Fred Meyer hypermart type store?

Brian Lutz wrote:I guess it's not that unusual to see furniture in the stores (around here, even QFC stocks a few outdoor furniture items in the stores during the summer) but I guess I'm not familiar with the Kroger Marketplace format. I would assume it's more of a grocery store with expanded non-food selection (kind of like a Walmart Neighborhood market) than it would be a Fred Meyer hypermart type store?

From what I know of this format, I believe that to be true. But looking at the Kroger website, they group the Smith's Marketplace stores in with the rest of the Marketplace stores. But in reality, the Smith's Marketplace stores are really just a Fred Meyer with the Smith's name instead. But the Smith's Marketplace stores were all, except for one, former Fred Meyer stores. There has been one new build Smith's Marketplace with the full Fred Meyer treatment.

But since you mentioned QFC, (sorry for the Pacific Northwest rabbit trail) the Broadway Market QFC in Seattle is unofficially designated as a QFC Marketplace since it is a former small format Fred Meyer.

As far as I know, the Broadway Market QFC seems to be a relatively average size QFC store and doesn't seem to stray far from the regular merchandise mix. The unusual part about it is the fact that the upper level of the store (which I presume to have been used by the Fred Meyer originally) has been turned into a number of other stores. There's a few pictures here:

http://www.shopbroadwaymarket.com/info/gallery

Brian,

Let's take this discussion over to Groceteria and I will explain the Broadway Market QFC

Many of these Marketplace Stores have a pretty large furniture/rug/lamp/home decor area in the back corner of the store. It it my understanding these areas are being earmarked for conversion to clothing, but there is just one test store now. They do this in addition to having furniture spread around the stores in random locations.

Smiths Marketplace is a Fred Meyer for non food, and a Smiths for food. Well, the nutrition category is on the Fred Meyer program. Seasonal is most interesting: seasonal candy is Smiths program and all of the other seasonal is a Fred Meyer program. Basically a combination store similar to Jewel/Osco. Shared profit and loss across the two divisions, I believe, as well.

From what I hear, every clothing department in a Kroger, even down in Texas, is Fred Meyer's department. I think that would leave a bit of a merchandising problem for things like warm winter clothing in more milder climates, but I don't know...