Sometimes bigger isn’t better, as more companies are looking at smaller store formats to grow its business. Three grocery operators, Sendik’s Food Markets, WinCo and Raley’s, recently revealed plans to open smaller format stores, while Dollar General Corp. is moving forward with a new convenience concept store.
Sendik’s Food Markets is expanding by planning to open six new stores in the Milwaukee metro area during the next 12 months, including two of its smaller format Fresh2Go stores in Greendale and Hales Corners.
“We need to be growing either physically or through services and products constantly,” co-owner Ted Balistreri said. “If you’re not growing and pushing the business forward, you’re going backwards.”
While the new store format is in a local setting for Sendik’s, Boise, ID-based WinCo is launching its smaller-scale pilot store in Oregon as it looks to expand into new markets.
The company is working on a smaller-scale store in Keizer, OR, that will open under the “Waremart by WinCo” banner, a call back to WinCo’s early years when it was founded in Boise in 1967 as Waremart.
The Waremart by WinCo store will be about 40,000-sq. ft., roughly half the size of a typical WinCo store, offering the same selection and prices but reducing deli and bakery offerings, the company said.
Launching as a pilot for Raley’s, the company’s Market 5-ONE-5 is schedule to open in Sacramento, CA. Raley’s will introduce the new specialty banner focused on fresh product delivered daily, embracing the notion that food affects health. The banner will not be part of the Raley’s family.
The inaugural store, slated to open in spring 2017, will include 11,000-sq. ft. of curated product that will encourage wholesome eating, according to the company. It will source products that are minimally processed, organic, sustainably sourced and free of elements not found in nature.
Meanwhile, Dollar General is moving ahead with the firsts of its new, smaller store concepts in Nashville, TN and Raleigh, NC.
The concept, branded DGX, will follow a convenience store model, intended for metropolitan shoppers with offering including soda fountains, coffee stations and grab-and-go sandwiches. Both locations are slated to open in early 2017.