Good morning everyone,
I hope you are enjoying the warmer weather now that we have skipped spring and jumped into summer. Our trees are just starting to bud for leaves which is funny to have warm weather and no shade. I am not complaining because I am so ready for water skiing!
Last weekend I was nominated to head to the grocery store at after I posted the last blog. On went the base ball hat and jeans to do the hunt for food. I can only imagine what the cave men would say to us guys shopping at a grocery store. Would they be pointing and laughing as they watched us push the shopping cart?
On to the point of this blog post.
With the advent of Amazon trying to get into the grocery scene the other chains are investing in different options on how to compete. Some have ordering online so you do not have to get out of your car with three screaming kids in the rain after not sleeping more than two hours. That is not me, but I imagine those people are truly grateful for that option.
When I walked into the Kroger I noticed a sign that stated I would get $5 off of my grocery bill for trying a new scanning device. Being I am a Dave Ramsey disciple and use cash envelopes when I go shopping. I even use the white envelopes for mailing for my envelopes. My wife has decorative ones that I pull the cash out of so I don’t look extra dorky. After a quick tutorial on how to scan and get started I was off to the running.
The individual that was helping people get started showed me how to get the Kroger ID entered to start and gave me some bags for bagging the groceries as I scanned. A time saver I’m sure when it comes time for check out.
As usual I didn’t listen long enough so when it came time to scan the vegetables I was wondering around looking for the scales. Guess I may have burned my savings by how long I was walking around holding this scanner. Either way I found the scales and was fine. I also used the scanner to get the rest of my groceries and bag them as I walked through the store.
One thing that was nice was that I could see the running total as I shopped. Being I only had so much cash to spend it was a nice thing to know so I wasn’t trying to count as I walked around the store. Typically when someone goes to the store they are just grabbing everything and then swiping a credit card at check out which the stores know that you typically spend 25% more with a credit card because it actually registers less pain than when you use cash and uncle Ben leaves your hand, so have a plan when you shop is the message here.
Back to the fact that Kroger is looking at options for making shopping easier. I was finally finished and walked up to the self-check out and simply scanned the bar code on the touch pad and only had to click pay with cash, slide in cash, and walk out.
I have always said that the easier you make it for people to do business with you the more they will do business with you. Giving them options is also a nice touch. The incentive of $5 off to use the tool will be hopefully enough to get them testing it out. Now Only time will tell if the running total causes Kroger to lose some sales because people can figure out how much they are spending in real time. I know I passed up on some items that probably would have made me have to work out harder to burn off had I not seen the running total.
Amazon has really forced the old-style shopping business plan to be flipped on its head and those that have cash can invest in options. Sorry Toys R Them… Those that have the ability to make experiences easier for their customers will stay alive in this new buying world. Amazon does a great job, but there are just some things that I can not get on board with buying online. There will always be items that need brick and mortar locations that the customer can physically touch the item before they make the decision to buy.
Please keep in mind that the easier you can make your customers’ lives the more they will buy from you. Whether you are offering online shopping, delivery, seminars, blogs, one on one coaching, etc. Make sure you are taking care of them and thinking about how you can make their life easier. Check out the latest technology, ask them to give you ideas, but don’t stop finding ways to differentiate yourself from the competition and make the customer experience better.
Attached is a picture of the scanning tool on the top of this blog. Yes, I bought waffles for the kids and no I don’t care that they were not a certain brand. The retailers have the same waffles come off the same line as the more expensive brand these days.
Final thought I do make the kids run around and I exercise extremely hard so we can eat waffles if we choose to so stop judging 😊
Have a good weekend everyone!
As always if you have questions, want to dig deeper, or if you would like to ask about other topics feel free to reach out to me at info@kevinsidebottom.com. Also, you can comment to the blog to keep the conversation going with other readers. I have recently noticed that I had comments turned off and have since fixed…I hope :)
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
Sales and Leadership Enterprises