Publix to open second "Make Ahead Meals"
Looks like Publix is forging ahead with their second location.
On Sept. 4 the company will debut its first stand-alone meal assembly shop in the FishHawk Ranch area in Lithia after testing the concept - called Make Ahead Meals - inside a Jacksonville Publix since November.
And from their website:
A second location is coming: FishHawk Ranch in Lithia, Florida. Sign up for our mailing list and be among the first to know when it opens.
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July 24th, 2008 at 11:27 am
I find this opening interesting and confusing.
Looking at the Jacksonville calendar on their website, they have never appeared to do any real business. Maybe they get some walk-ins that never make it on the calendar, or maybe they think that a stand-alone store will fare better. This will be an interesting one to watch.
July 25th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Very interesting. A couple of years ago my wife and I were very close to purchase a MA franchise and open in the Orlando area. While looking for a location, I found out that Publix was working out deals with the landlords to not allow MA tenants in some of their strip malls, I suspected then they were preparing to fully compete with the franchises.
July 25th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Amorican, are you glad you didn’t open one?
July 25th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
I wonder if grocery stores are placing branded ingredients in their recipes and charging slotting/advertising/promotional fees? They have all of the relationships in place, so it would be a logical move.
From Wikipedia:
A slotting fee is a fee charged to produce companies or manufacturers by supermarket distributors (retailers) in order to have their product placed on their shelves.[1] The fee varies greatly depending on the product, manufacturer, and market conditions. For a new product, the initial slotting fee may be approximately $25,000 per item in a regional cluster of stores, but may be as high as $250,000 in high-demand markets.[2]
In addition to slotting fees, retailers may also charge promotional, advertising and stocking fees. According to an FTC study, the practice is, “widespread,” in the supermarket industry. Many grocers earn more profit from agreeing to carry a manufacturer’s product than they do from actually selling the product to retail consumers. According to retailers, fees serve to efficiently allocate scarce retail shelf space, help balance the risk of new product failure between manufacturers and retailers, help manufacturers signal private information about potential success of new products, and serve to widen retail distribution for manufacturers by mitigating retail competition.[citation needed] Vendors charge that slotting fees are a move by the grocery industry to profit at their suppliers’ expense.[
July 25th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
If someone approached you about putting their product in your MAK store (for sale), it would require a small allocation of space for display…what would you charge? Thinking we’re talking about small start up entrepreneurs looking for a venue to sell their food products…what are the factors you consider when coming up with a reasonable price? price per square foot + utilities?
August 4th, 2008 at 6:36 am
Slotting fees are not unusual for grocery stores. They charge almost everyone a slottting fee. I don’t think that an MA owner is going to get them to pay you a slotting fees. Remember MAnet waves the “slotting fee” by giving you “free product” and “advertising” on their website.
The slotting fee s what generally keeps small businesses out of grocery stores because small independent producers of specialty products can’t afford the slotting fee.
Which is why they would come to you dinnerzen as an outlet of sales for their products.
I carried foodstuffs in my store and didn’t charge a slotting fee for anything, not that I could have gotten it even if I had asked.
Most MA businesses don’t have enough business to warrant a brand name “partnering” with them. They are going to spend their slotting allocations where they get the most bang for their buck-not with small potatoes