5 Tips To Deal With Fresh Food In Micro Markets

Consumer demand for healthy, fresh food has been and still is, on the rise. Life is extremely fast-paced and the need for convenient access to food is imperative to people’s livelihood. MicroMarkets are the solution that consumers need since they conveniently provide fresh and healthy food, snacks and beverages to consumers, 24-7. Additionally, fresh food options provide a significant amount of revenue, making it more important than ever for MicroMarket operators to develop and execute a diverse fresh food program.

There is so much growth potential in offering fresh food so make sure you get to know each one of your locations and what the purchase power is of each item!

When curating your fresh food options, keep in mind these 5 fresh food tips that will help you with your MicroMarket success:

1. Stay conscious of flexible work place schedules

According to Ryan Jenkins, author of The Millennial Manual: The Complete How-To Guide to Manage, Develop and Engage Millennials at Work, “Every generation today seeks a healthy work-life balance, but its millennials who demand it from their employers. In today’s employee market, creating work-life balance for Millennials is a compelling competitive advantage.” (INC)

Gone are the days of working in the office from 9-5 day after day. Today, a workplace has become an environment that allows employees to work where and when best suits their personal needs. And as we approach the holiday season, some workplaces will be seeing less of their employees, by providing flexible perks.

By being aware of your locations flexible schedules will help maintain inventory and lead to better profits. Here are 4 Tips for Managing Inventory for Flexible Workplaces.

2. Offer promotions

Stocking your MicroMarket with the right food and beverages is one task, but the other is making sure they are being purchased. Promoting products increase sales and decrease spoilage. It’s simple.

If you want to increase engagement, drive customer loyalty, or avoid overstocking products, implementing promotions will help. Offer promotions via digital signage, host a re-grand opening, print flyers and more.

We’re connected to promotions and information all day long—thanks to the Internet and mobile devices. Connecting your customers to products where they spend most of their time can save them money and bring you benefits.

3. Stay current with food trends

In addition to being aware of flexible schedules and providing promotions, staying current with food trends is also an important task.

Ever-changing technology and customer demands are challenges that everyone faces, but staying up to date with industry trends will bring you bigger opportunities. It’s tempting to ignore it all and keep plugging along with your day-to-day tasks, but if you ignore current needs, you might lose out on growth opportunities.

Subscribing to industry publications, attending the NAMA Show, and partnering with a strategic leader are three great ways to stay current with food and industry trends.

4. Layout/Design an efficient MicroMarket

It’s also important to stay conscious of your locations MicroMarket layout and design, as it plays a huge part of market flow and sales. The right layout/design will help your customers have easy access to fresh foods and the ability to quickly purchase what they need when they need it.

MicroMarkets are the perfect companion for grab-and-go lifestyles and workforces. The variety of products that are available, easy checkout and 24/7 store hours, make for a convenient breakroom, but without an efficient layout/design, your MicroMarket wont be a positive experience for all.

Be sure to watch Creating MicroMarket Experiences. This video will help you with your questions about digital signage, checkout design and overall layout and market flow.

5. Routine Rotating and Reporting

Lastly, being conscious of rotating your fresh food and understanding buyer’s behavior plays a big part in your overall MicroMarket success.

Think about it, if you order the same product options and not review how those products are doing in your markets, it’s likely you are wasting money. Rotating your products and introducing new options will keep your market stay new, exciting and more.

Be sure to take time to truly understand your customers by evaluating buying habits and taking weekly inventory. Utilize your inventory management system, such as 365 ADM, to review and analyze reports to determine the products that just aren’t selling.

The Takeaway

The important thing is to make sure that your MicroMarkets are stocked with fresh food and beverage options. Staying conscious of flexible schedules, offering promotions, staying current with food trends, having an efficient MicroMarket layout/design, rotating products and analyzing reports, will result in return happy customers and increase your revenue and Market traffic.

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Product Guide

365 Retail Markets

July 16, 2012
365 Retail Markets is the global leader of self-service convenience technologies and strategic partnerships with foodservice operators worldwide. 365's combination of micro market...