Winn Dixie’s New-Concept Store Emphasizes Excellent Customer Service

Via grocerants.blogspot.com
All photos (c)Steven Johnson via grocerants.blogspot.com and linkedin.com

To keep up with the times and changes in customers’ tastes and expectations, businesses must periodically reinvent themselves. This is what Winn Dixie tries to do by opening its first new-concept store in Baymeadows (Jacksonville, Florida), with 50 more stores to follow with a similar remodel all across the country.

Winn Dixie has been known for its accessible prices, but the times require more than that. The public has become more and more sophisticated, so customer service, quality and variety of products (and, if possible, something extra to vow them) is a necessary combination.

Of course, Winn Dixie’s new concept started with reevaluating its offer. While organic food, for instance, was not necessarily part of its main product core before, the new store comes with an abundance of organic products. Local foods and artisan cheese (including grass-fed varieties) are another step towards better quality products.

But as important as its offer, Winn Dixie revisited its customer service concept, morphing it into an enticing one. The idea seems to follow three principles: create a familiar atmosphere, make grocery shopping exciting and customize the offer. To do this, Winn Dixie used the store-within-store concept, increasing the interaction between clients and employees, but also giving the customers the feeling that “something happens.”

And indeed, many things happen at Winn Dixie. Meat is aged, pizza is made in house, sushi rolls take shape and donuts are fried in plain sight. All these are customized to each client’s taste. (Want to bake your fresh pizza at home, but you’re not into putting it together? No problem! Do you want a restaurant-quality meal, but not crazy for the price? In two minutes, you are handed a customized meal made of all-natural or organic products that have never seen the inside of a freezer.) Customers can even taste freshly prepared meals on the spot.

To make the experience complete, Winn Dixie offers fresh coffee, made to order. Customers can peruse the store while sipping their coffee and enjoying a no-spill experience thanks to the shopping cart cup holders. This is a store where customers will most likely feel like taking their time. And customers’ time is indeed a valuable commodity for any grocery store that intends to become or remain a success.

Please take a look at our Before and After images of selected projects from 2015 HERE.

If you are thinking to open up a new business or in a process of rebranding and remodeling your existing business, contact us to get a free consultation from Mindful Design Consulting. Click HERE to price your project design.

Also, take a look at “Branding By Interior” e-book, the only book written on this subject at this time. It brings insight on how you can turn your business into a market-dominating competitor by using human cognitive responses.