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store profile
Floral
excitement at Reasor's |
15-store
Oklahoma chain showcases a flair for innovation at its newest
location.
by
Cynthia
L. McGowan
When people both
inside and outside of Reasor’s talk about the 15-store
grocery chain’s newest location and its floral department, they
use the words “fresh,” “new” and “exciting” a lot. That’s
because the department is 2,300 square feet of floral
innovations, with colorful products, enticing merchandising and
excellent service, all carefully designed to get customers
enthused about its flowers.
Reasor’s, an employee-owned company located in northeastern
Oklahoma, opened the new store in the Tulsa suburb of Jenks in
June. The 82,000-square-foot, 320-employee store, the company’s
largest, replaced a nearby location that was 30,000 square feet
smaller and had 160 fewer employees.
The store’s director, Eric Neel, told the Tulsa
World newspaper, “We really think this is the nicest grocery
store in the state. We did a lot of research, and we’ve got
everything here.”
By “everything,” Mr. Neel is referring to the upscale
store’s huge food-service area, which offers a meat-carving
station, a sushi bar, a burrito bar, brick-oven pizza, a salad
bar, an in-store dining area, an expanded bakery that creates
gourmet treats in-house, and more. A seafood expert from
Seattle, Wash., makes sure the fish selection is fresh. The
large produce department brims with an inviting selection of
fresh fruits and vegetables.
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reasor's inc. |
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HEADQUARTERS
Tahlequah, Okla.
OWNERSHIP
Employee-owned
PRESIDENT
Jeff
Reasor
STORES
15, all in northeastern Oklahoma, under the Reasor’s and
Reasor’s Food Warehouse banners
SALES
$330.1 million in fiscal year 2008, according to Hoovers,
Inc.
YEAR FOUNDED
1963
AVERAGE STORE SIZE
72,000 to 80,000 square feet
EMPLOYEES
3,000
FLORAL DEPARTMENT SIZE
Varies; the newest store’s floral department, in Jenks,
Okla., is 2,300 square feet
FLORAL EMPLOYEES
On average, 21⁄2 per store
FLORAL SERVICES
Full-service floral departments offering custom design,
wedding, sympathy and FTD flowers-by-wire services
BIGGEST
FLORAL HOLIDAY
Valentine’s Dayan>
VICE PRESIDENT, PRODUCE AND FLORAL OPERATIONS
Mark Faust
DIRECTOR OF FLORAL
Ken Tirpak
WEB SITE
www.reasors.com
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floral sets
the tone
The full-service
floral department is at the front, near the center, of the new
store. Mark Faust, Reasor’s vice president of produce and
floral operations, says that’s where most of Reasor’s floral
departments are located. “We view floral as a very important
part of creating the atmosphere as well as the quality image and
the freshness image” for the company, he describes.
In Jenks, the beautiful floral department helps set the
freshness and quality image with a huge assortment of colorful
florals that grab customers’ attention. Nesting tables and
wooden crates hold a large array of pretty potted
Phalaenopsis orchids and bold bromeliads. Clear glass
cylinders full of single stems entice customers to choose
flowers to mix and match, and signage encourages them to take
their selections to the nearby “wrap station” for their own
personalized, hand-tied bouquets, created at no extra cost.
Track lighting enhances a wall of bouquets inside a cooler
that has 125 self-watering buckets and shelves full of upscale
floral arrangements featuring such flowers as Proteas,
ornamental kale and Celosia. The cooler itself is an
innovation—its curves mirror an overhang in the department and
have inspired the company to call it “The Wave.”
One of the focuses of the new department and of Reasor’s
floral operation in general is to get customers to buy flowers
for every day, not just for special occasions. “You do that by
developing new products and new merchandising techniques and
skills,” offers Mr. Faust.
Toward that end, the floral operation is showcasing mass
displays of products, often grouped by color, with the aim of
giving customers an immediate impression of freshness. “It just
jumps at you,” describes Ken Tirpak, director of floral.
And customers are responding as hoped to the new department.
One shopper at the opening enthused, “You can close your eyes
and smell the freshness of the flowers and the plants.” Confirms
Mr. Tirpak: “They’re totally amazed at what we’ve done here.”
exciting
products
In choosing the
product selection, Mr. Faust says, Reasor’s focuses on “exciting
customers about something they haven’t necessarily seen before.”
For example, the floral operation has added hand-tied bouquets
to its selection and expanded both the single-stem and
consumer-bunch programs to include novelty flowers such as
70-centimeter roses, Hydrangeas, callas, Gerberas,
kangaroo paws, larkspurs and Delphiniums. All the flowers
in the three-for-$12 bunch program come from Florverde®-certified
farms in Colombia.
The hand-tied bouquets and single stems are among the new
department’s biggest draws, Mr. Tirpak confides, especially
among women. “People really get excited when they see something
different,” he remarks.
Favorites in bouquets, which sell for as high as $29.99 for
30-stem selections, include a signature combination of roses and
Alstroemerias; dozen roses; and a blend of callas and
roses. “We also do a lot with Hydrangeas,” Mr. Tirpak
says.
Blooming plants are also high-performers, especially
orchids. Customers are discovering their longevity and
affordability, turning them into a growth area for Reasor’s. The
floral operation displays them along with its orchid bouquets
for a beautiful and eye-catching presentation.
Other favorite blooming plants include azaleas,
Hydrangeas, roses and callas. Foliage plants also have a
presence, with the department merchandising select varieties in
mass displays.
Much of the company’s floral products are supplied by
retailer-owned cooperative Associated Wholesale Grocers, Inc.
(AWG) - Oklahoma City Division, with the rest coming direct
from suppliers and wholesalers. AWG delivers flowers and plants
three times a week to the 15 floral departments, whose managers
order from a guide prepared by Mr. Tirpak. Programs are planned
a year in advance.
Vonnie Jones,
floral coordinator and buyer at AWG’s Oklahoma City Division,
applauds Reasor’s for its willingness to try new programs in its
floral departments. “If it’s new, it’s going to be there,” she
describes. “They are so outside the box. It’s not so much about
the price point with them as it is about quality and unique
[products].”
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keys to success |
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MERCHANDISING
Reasor’s newest store, in Jenks, Okla., showcases its
florals in mass, colorful displays that capture customers’
attention and draw them into the department.
SERVICE
All but one of the 15 Reasor’s locations offer full-service
florals featuring custom design, sympathy and wedding
services. The Jenks location has a “wrap station,” where
shoppers can have bouquets created from their selections on
the spot. Customers also can have arrangements made while
they shop.
PRODUCTS
The emphasis at Reasor’s is on “fresh,” and products are
date-coded for maximum longevity. Customers can find a wide
range of florals from single stems to bouquets to
arrangements.
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ensuring
freshness
In addition to
offering high-quality products, the company takes steps to
ensure customers’ selections have maximum life. “If it looks
good going out, that’s great,” Mr. Faust explains, “but it has
to look good a few days later as well.”
That’s why, Mr. Tirpak says, “We’re on a strict code-dating
policy. We follow that to the ‘T’.” All cut flowers are
processed under water, and most of the stores’ bouquet cases are
self-watering. In addition, floral managers are responsible for
walking their departments every day and culling any products
past their prime.
Confirms Ms. Jones, “I think the success of their program is
that they keep it fresh,” adding that it is a big factor in
keeping customers coming back. “Their repeat business is
awesome.”
support for
floral
Corporate support and
training are an important part of making sure that Reasor’s
freshness and customer service standards are met. In addition to
Mr. Faust and Mr. Tirpak, two merchandisers help carry out the
corporate floral strategies at the store level. The
merchandisers “interface with the floral managers and store
managers and give us feedback on what they see,” Mr. Faust
describes.
All new floral employees go through FTD University training,
and after that, they are paired with stronger managers for
on-the-job training. Part of that education is learning the
Reasor’s culture. “Our company mission is to be the best place
to work and the best place to shop,” Mr. Faust explains. “So our
culture goal is just that.”
Happy employees will reward the company with good
performance, Reasor’s believes, and will offer shoppers
excellent customer service. Ms. Jones says Reasor’s culture
inspires its employees to higher levels. “They go the extra
mile, and they want to go the extra mile,” she exclaims.
“There’s something about the philosophy that the Reasor’s stores
have that inspires their people to work hard and really go after
it.”
getting the
word out
Shoppers reward the
company’s service and high-quality products with their return
business and positive word-of-mouth advertising, which is how
most people learn about the floral operation. The new store
apparently has people talking, Mr. Faust reports. “They’re
telling their friends about it, and we’re seeing them come back
in,” he says.
Weekly newspaper advertising as well as radio and television
spots during the holidays also help get the word out about
Reasor’s flowers. “We invest some time and effort into media as
well as rely on customers to tell our story,” Mr. Faust
comments.
Although Mr. Faust declined to share floral’s contribution
toward company sales, he did say that Reasor’s is above the
national average. That success, and Reasor’s floral expansion
during a recession, is a testament to the power of corporate
support, innovative merchandising, fresh products and
well-trained employees. As Ms. Jones says, “Reasor’s doesn’t
want to follow the pack; they want to lead it.”
Reach Editor in Chief Cynthia L. McGowan at
cmcgowan@superfloralretailing.com or (800) 355-8086.
Special thanks to Vonnie Jones, floral coordinator and buyer at
Associated Wholesale Grocers - Oklahoma City Division, for
providing some of the information for this article.
Photos courtesy of Bill Dungan, photo director; Reasor’s |
