What’s better than sliced bread? HOT sliced bread.
My wife and I have never shopped at our local Albertsons. We’ve been loyal QFC customers from day one… but the other day I was driving home from work and had to grab a last minute ingredient. Albertsons was on the way home, and so I popped in. At the checkout was a display of “Fresh-baked Bread”. I felt it… it was steamy hot and smelled delicious. I nabbed one and brought it home to my wife’s delight. On the bag was a note that said, “Baked fresh at 4PM every day”.
How perfect! When you’re coming home from work at 5PM, and you need to grab dinner for your family, Albertsons has hot, fresh bread waiting for you. So, you can choose QFC and the bread that’s been sitting around since it was delivered the previous night; or, choose Albertsons where it was just baked. Now, the rest of the shopping experience matters a whole lot… but two nights later my wife asked me to, “grab some carrots… and oh, can you get some more of that warm bread while you are at it?”
Albertsons, by science or by fluke, has figured out that people generally consume bread with dinner… so if it’s fresh when people are returning home from work, you score some points. How could other retailers offer a similarly “hot” experience? Is there a sweetspot time for clothing retailers on 5th Avenue in New York? If Saturday afternoon is the critical time, could you run a mini fashion show in that time frame every week? Could you invite a local designer to come in and showcase their latest wares? Nordstroms does a bit of this, but Albertsons regularity offers a more dependable experience. How do other retailers mirror customer shopping times, needs and habits?
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