FOCUS ON FRESH

The Mariano's Fresh Market in Arlington Heights is a 68,000-square-foot store that devotes approximately 25% of floor space to fresh merchandise, all of which is located on the left side of the store, with both of the store's entrances feeding into it.

The store's offerings include:

• A produce section featuring 900 items, including 150 organic varieties; plus a separate floral section with double the variety of any other Roundy's-owned store.

• An expansive bakery with a variety of product from locally based vendors and retailers.

• A deli featuring smoked meats geared to local tastes; hot foods and sandwiches for immediate consumption or to-go, including a 12-foot section featuring $6 meals (an entree and two sides) — an idea Roundy's picked up from Wegmans Food Markets, chain officials told SN.

• A service meat counter that offers up to 30 types of sausages made on-site.

• A seafood section featuring a variety of items available within 24 hours of being caught — coming either from Roundy's seafood supplier in Wisconsin or flown in directly from Hawaii.

• A sushi bar whose chefs were trained at Tank Sushi, a highly regarded Lincoln Park restaurant.

• A pizza counter offering Neapolitan and Sicilian pies baked in an imported Italian wood-burning oven — a concept Roundy's tested at its upscale Metro Markets in Brookfield, Wis.

• A gelato and fried-dough counter featuring Vero-brand products made by Ala Mode, Elmwood Park, Ill., that Roundy's tested earlier this year at its Metro store in downtown Milwaukee.

• A pair of soup bars — one exclusively for seafood soups such as lobster bisque and clam chowder, the other for more hearty traditional soups.

• Nearly two full aisles of ethnic foods — triple the amount of ethnic products at any other store — featuring Hispanic, Polish, German, Asian, British and Southern varieties.

• An expanded health and wellness area, including the company's first homeopathic drug section and featuring an in-store nutritionist.

ONE-STOP SHOPPING

The store — built on the former site of a Chevrolet dealership — competes with several Jewel and Dominick's locations, Mariano said, plus a Whole Foods on the perimeter of the area.

Roundy's goal in Chicago is to establish Mariano's Fresh Markets as a one-stop-shopping locale, Mariano told SN.

“One local woman told me she has to make three trips a week for groceries — to Costco to stock up, Whole Foods for perishables and either Jewel or Dominick's for fill-ins. But now she said she can have it all at one store, which is what we intended based on advance customer research.”

With just one store, Roundy's is taking a soft approach to entering the Chicago market, Mariano said — running some TV spots on local cable outlets beginning the week before the first store opened and distributing door hangers.

The store utilizes a work scheme in which tasks are assigned storewide rather than by department.

“People are responsible for either logistics or replenishment across all categories of fresh or packaged goods that are coded, with those who work on logistics responsible for ordering across all departments and those who work on replenishment responsible for stocking across all categories — rather than working as a department manager or a clerk,” said Don Rosanova, executive vice president. “Using that approach, we believe we'll be able to utilize our resources more impactfully.”

Mariano said the company worked with Local 881 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union to get flexibility in the work rules.

“We've charted new ground here, and the people who say unions are the problem are just making excuses. We've found that by talking to the union and explaining what we're trying to do, we've been able to come to a mutually beneficial agreement.”

Don Fitzgerald, the chain's group vice president, procurement and merchandising, said Mariano's utilizes conventional high-low pricing throughout the store, supplemented by everyday low pricing on high-volume items, “with strong values available in all departments.”

The store also offers a Mariano's rewards card — the first of its kind for Roundy's — that gives discounts to shoppers once they hit a certain level of purchases. For example, a customer who spends between $400 and $450 in a specific period gets $8 off one order during that period; $9 off for purchases between $450 to $500; $10 off for purchases of $500 to $550, and $11 off for purchases of $550 to $600.