Source: Facebook | Publix GreenWise Market
Did Publix Take GreenWise Market As Far As It Could Go?
GreenWise has a future at Publix, just not as a standalone store concept.
The employee-owned grocery chain has decided to transition the eight stores operating under the GreenWise Market banner to the Publix name, reports the Tampa Bay Times.
Publix’s shoppers have told the chain that they prefer its traditional stores with GreenWise elements within rather than GreenWise Market without the parts of Publix they love so much.
Publix has been experimenting with the organic food and essentials specialty concept since opening its first Publix Greenwise Market in 2008, according to the Tampa Bay Business Journal. The format evolved into GreenWise Market, which began opening stores in 2018.
The GreenWise Market locations, at 26,000 square feet, are about half the size of the typical Publix. The stores focused on fresh and prepared foods and less on the everyday center store staples found in a Publix.
The smaller footprint of GreenWise may have contributed to customer traffic gains at its stores even as Publix has seen a drop-off, according to JLL.
A Placer.ai report last year saw visits to Publix declining from June through September while traffic at GreenWise was up double digits. Customers also spent about four minutes longer shopping in GreenWise stores than at Publix.
GreenWise has also likely suffered from Publix’s inexorable push north from its Florida home. JLL reports that Publix added about 1.2 million square feet of space in 2022 and entered the Kentucky market for the first time with the opening of three locations. It plans to open a fourth store in the Bluegrass state in 2024.
Hannah Herring, media relations manager at Publix, told the Jacksonville Daily Record that some of what the grocer has learned from GreenWise would be applied to its new 55.3 prototype stores, space permitting.
“It’s a larger format that offers departments for grocery, dairy, frozen food, seafood, meat and fresh produce as well as a full-service bakery, deli and pharmacy,” Ms. Herring said. “The new format allows for additional offerings that may include a Pours (kombucha, craft beer, wine and coffee) area, and burrito, pizza and pasta bars as well as upstairs and outside seating.”
GreenWise brand private label items will continue to be sold at Publix once the transition is complete.
Discussion Questions
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: What do you think Publix will take away from its GreenWise experience? Is Publix on the right track with its new 55.3 store prototype and its strategic plan to move into new markets?
Poll
Loading …BrainTrust
Mark Self
President and CEO, Vector Textiles
Neil Saunders
Managing Director, GlobalData
It was a good market test for GreenWise Market that created some learning experiences for Publix. A couple things that challenged the success of GreenWise Market were lack of brand awareness and limited breadth of product assortment. Publix has strong brand awareness and developing a new brand takes a lot of time and money. While shoppers appreciate the healthy choices at GreenWise Market, they still have a need for staple items. Offering the GreenWise Market products in Publix stores is a perfect approach that offers shoppers a one-stop shop.
Through the Greenwise experience Publix learned was that their core brand can flex into more premium offerings and experiences without alienating core or traditional shoppers, in fact it bringing elements of the Greenwise experience into a traditional Publix adds excitement. There’s simply no need for them to operate a separate brand or format.
Failed just down the street from me here in the Atlanta suburbs. Great service but high prices in a location not nearly as upscale as they may have thought. And prices on staples higher than in the Publix across the street or the Kroger across from that. Yes, organic is interesting to a small group of shoppers, but doesn’t warrant it’s own store.
Embedding existing stores with Greenwise elements is the right move. It lowers costs while leveraging this new brand that they have built. There are ALWAYS lessons learned, even in failure. Leadership at Publix should be applauded for making a (most likely) difficult choice while keeping the good elements of the Greenwise “experiment”.
GreenWise never had the strong brand name or image of Publix. Organics is also not really that much of a differentiator in grocery these days, simply because every retailer has organic selections so it is harder to make a stand-alone store focused on organics work. All that said, there are some very nice aspects and features of GreenWise stores, including the focus on fresh and prepared foods. These can now be integrated into Publix stores so, overall, this was a good learning experience that has future utility for the chain.
GreenWise was begun when “organic” and natural stores/developments were all the rage.
I think Publix learned a lot from it, and they are ready to take the bits and pieces of it that worked and incorporate them into their mainstream stores. Crawl, walk, run.
Good for them.
A business always has more data available than the public; so unless it’s serially incompetent – I’m sure we can all name a few names! – I’m reluctant to question its decisions. Particularly when it enjoys a near-mythical status, like Publix. Enough said ?
Good for them for listening to shoppers and taking the best elements and incorporating them into Publix units! Capitalize on the Publix brand recognition while leveraging the learnings from GreenWise.
It is always a good policy to follow the will and desires of shoppers. Have they been consulted in focus groups about this change? What if they don’t like it?
Publix is exceptional at listening to its customers, which is exactly what they’ve done. Integrate the best of GreenWise into the full Publix experience and its a win-win!
Publix executives adequately analyzed and acted on the results of their eight-store GreenWise experiment. Fixed cost and marketing efficiencies aside, Publix chose correctly by simplifying for consumers and the company in integrating GreenWise into a new format. More often than we care to admit, less is more!
Smaller footprint grocery stores in cities like Tampa, where I live, that typically require getting into a car are going to struggle. Might work better in more dense & walkable cities. I do like the idea of testing the green wise concepts & embedding them in traditional footprint grocery stores that allow a shopper to complete a full shop & pick up a few higher quality greenwise products as well.