Dive Brief:
- Shopko has expanded the grocery departments of 127 of its stores, 17 of which now have cooler and freezer sections, according to Progressive Grocer.
- The expansion has introduced 1,500 new offerings in stores, working toward the company's goal of becoming a one-stop shop for customers. Coffee, snacks, cookies, cereal and breakfast foods, baking products, canned goods, condiments and meal solutions can now be found on Shopko's shelves.
- Shopko Stores Operating Co. is an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners Inc. and has more than 380 stores in 26 states throughout the Central, Western and Pacific Northwest regions.
Dive Insight:
With 1,500 new products being offered to its customers, Shopko may be hoping that popular food trends will bolster its bottom line.
Now that the retail chain has added freezers to many of its stores, it can sell frozen foods, snacks and ready-to-eat meals alongside dry goods. This is a savvy decision — a recent Nielsen study revealed that increasingly busy schedules are pushing parents to buy healthy and convenient meal options for their families, and much of what they are buying can be found in the frozen aisle.
Nestle recently conducted a Harris Survey that found more than 80% of dinners consumed at home are prepared, and nearly 20% of those consist of frozen meals, an average of four meals per week.
A U.S. Department of Agriculture report also revealed that ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat meals and snack products made up more 26% of the average American household food budget between 1999 and 2010, and analysts say that number has risen even more sharply over the last six years.
This trend shows no sign of slowing down, and Shopko is likely to see good returns on its freezer investments as a result. It will be interesting to see if the retailer will expand the frozen section of its grocery departments to more of its stores in the near future.