As grocery market shifts to "fresh", Publix goes urban

[spuwho]

Publix is ready to test market their new "urban" market design.

Per the Tampa BJ:

5 reasons Publix will continue to dominate in the 'shifting grocery landscape

Publix Super Markets Inc. seems well poised to adapt to the future of the grocery industry.

A new report from JLL highlights the changing dynamics of grocery stores through 2018 — what it calls the "shifting grocery landscape." Customers who are driven by health, value and experience will drive customers to what JLL categorizes as "fresh format stores" — think Whole Foods Market, The Fresh Market — that prioritize fresh produce and offer organic, natural and specialty foods.

Those stores, JLL projects, will see an increase in store count by 63 percent by 2018, and sales are projected to grow more than 90 percent.

The outlook isn't quite as rosy for traditional supermarkets like Publix: JLL projects that traditional supermarkets will see a 2.2 percent decline in stores and almost a 4 percent increase in sales.

Lakeand-based Publix is rightly categorized as a traditional supermarket in JLL's report, but here are five reasons why it's positioned to go head-to-head with its specialty competitors:

   - Publix already excels in the "experience" category. One reason consumers gravitate toward Fresh Market or Whole Foods is the experience — things like the wine selection, the specialty cheese case, and an overall beautiful space that's pleasing to the eye. The grocer is known for clean, well-lit stores and a cult following that truly believes in its "where shopping is a pleasure" tagline.
    -It offers organic and natural products. Publix launched its GreenWise Market, a line of healthy, natural foods, some of which are organic, more than a decade ago, and most stores have a dedicated GreenWise section within them.
   - Online grocery sales aren't much of a threat in cities where Publix dominates. Online grocery shopping is popular in densely populated cities where many people don't own a car, and grocery shopping is inconvenient. In the car-dependent southeastern U.S., that's not the case.
    -But that's not to say the grocer isn't tech savvy. In recent years, it's rolled out a mobile app for and offers online ordering for its deli items. In 2013, it started offering digital coupons, which customers select online and redeem by entering their phone number at checkout.
   - Publix is working on the coming demand for smaller, urban grocery stores, following a national urbanization trend. Greg Maloney, JLL's retail chief, told the Washington Post that " the real growth for the grocery sector is coming in the urban space." Earlier this year, sources told sister news organization the Orlando Business Journal that the grocer was working on a prototype of a 20,000-square-foot store. Traditional stores are around 50,000 square feet.

[thelakelander]

Weird article. Publix has been building urban stores in Central and South Florida for well over a decade now. I used to develop conceptual site plans for them early in my career. The prototype they've used in the past was around 28k square feet. Many in South Florida are multiple levels as well.

[spuwho]

Weird article. Publix has been building urban stores in Central and South Florida for well over a decade now. I used to develop conceptual site plans for them early in my career. The prototype they've used in the past was around 28k square feet. Many in South Florida are multiple levels as well.

Yeah, I reached out to 2 Publix managers about the article and they said that whoever JLL is, they are a few years out of date on Publix plans.

They said the planned and delayed San Marco store was going to use parts of the "urban" template.

[thelakelander]

Publix in downtown Fort Lauderdale:




Publix Greenwise Market in Tampa's SoHo:


Publix in West Palm Beach's Cityplace:



Publix in downtown Orlando:

[deathstar]

Ahem, JLL... I present to you Elements of Urbanism: Columbia, SC, by Metro Jacksonville, and....



http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2008-sep-elements-of-urbanism-columbia-sc

From 2008, nonetheless.

[thelakelander]

^I forgot about that one. It's pretty cool.