What Happened To My Grocery Store?

I’ll confess, I love going to the grocery store.

The sights, the sounds, the samples. Most of all, I love the battle on the shelves. You can see what brands are doing with price and promotion to fight for your attention at the critical point of purchase.

I’m a picky shopper, too. I usually shop at one of the better-known brand stores instead of somewhere like Wal-Mart because I like the experience better and that gives me a perception of higher quality. Let’s be honest, experience costs money and you pay for it at the register.

What if “experience” was taken off the table?

I recently shopped on-line at both Wal-Mart and a more expensive store. The online experience between the two was almost identical and pretty uninspiring. It was all a bit early 2000s, to be honest.

For the most part, the two stores offered most of the same brands at similar prices; some things were a little more, others a little less. The pick up process was painless and pleasant. In both cases there were positive interactions with humans, but nothing special. If you covered the logos, you wouldn’t be able to tell the two apart.

Therein lies the rub. If the online experience is the same from store to store, why choose a brand? Retailers moving into the online space must a find a way to bring some of their specialness to the online experience.

On Amazon you can choose to donate to charity while you shop or earn a credit toward other Amazon services if you choose a slower shipping option. On the Sephora website you get samples with your purchase so the unboxing has a Christmas morning quality to it.

I’m all for the convenience of online grocery shopping, but if grocery brands are to survive, they’d better start bringing the special.