inStorebuyer - March 2011 - 34

The Swiss Farms foodservice menu differentiates itself from convenient store offerings because it boasts familysized staples—gallons of milk, loaves of bread, a dozen eggs—rather than immediate consumables. And it’s much faster and more convenient than traditional supermarket express lanes. “We were really looking at what families at 4:00 in the afternoon who don’t know what they’re having for dinner are looking for,” Friel says. “At our drive thrus, they can grab a bag salad, a fresh baguette, and a rotisserie chicken with a side of mashed potatoes and take it home for a full meal.” The busiest time at Swiss Farms is the 4-7 p.m. day part, but they serve their customers at breakfast and lunch, too. Breakfast staples such as bacon, eggs and orange juice are available, in addition to egg sandwiches, fresh baked donuts and muffins, and coffee available for their customers to swing by and grab on their way to work. The lunch business, according to Friel, is mostly a fill-in shopping occasion for customers—people running to the store to get staples during their breaks, rather than grabbing a lunch meal. There are currently 13 corporate Swiss Farms Drive ve Thrus in Pennsylvania and Delaware, and the first franchise store—store 14—just recently opened in New Jersey. The new store design features floor to ceiling glass walls on three sides, so customers can easily see every single product category from their cars. It also has four transaction

counters—two on each side—instead of the original two, in order to serve a greater volume of cars more quickly, as each store averages 620 cars per day. And to prevent bottlenecking at the new store, there is a bypass lane that allows cars at the second window to pull around cars at the first. Because the new store is still in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, it is still part of the existing distribution network and it has a lot of the same demographic qualities that have proven successful. Therefore, it was an easy way for the store to transition into a new state. Friel says Swiss Farms will not always remain regional, though. “We’re looking now all along the East coast, from Boston to Atlanta to Charlotte,” he says. “We’re trying to find the markets that look the most attractive to us, which typically means high population density and a lot of traffic.” And when they move out of the Northeast, they’re planning to expand expan in clusters. They will put up three or four stores at once, instead of one as they have i been doing, in order to gain b more market penetration. m They will also dial the product T mix to meet the demand of the local market, rather than keeping a fixed menu everywhere. “We can really go anywhere and provide drive thru shoppers with staples and meal solutions, solving the problems of the family on the go,” Friel says. “The most appealing product we have is the drive thru, and that will never change.”

Schnucks dine-in patrons have a front row seat as their food is professionally prepared.

Dine In
In contrast to Swiss Farms’ goal of serving hurried customers, Schnucks dine-in concept aims to give people a place to relax and enjoy their food. Patrons are given all of the luxuries of a restaurant in a supermarket setting. Schnucks snack bars were first introduced back in 1958, but they fizzled out by 2005. “With innovation being encouraged in our company, shortly thereafter we started investigating some new options for instore dining,” says Melissa Bunch, Schnucks director of prepared food, deli and cheese. “We started with the idea of bringing diners into the cooking experience and continued to develop the menu.” The new concept debuted in 2008 at Schnucks’ remodeled Woods Mill store in Town and Country, MO. It then expanded into a larger format at the Schnucks in Des Peres, MO, which opened in September 2009. At the original Woods Mill

| 34 | inStorebuyer | March 2011 |

inStorebuyer - March 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of inStorebuyer - March 2011