Too Many Size Choices At Supermarket May Overwhelm -Supervalu
June 18 2009 - 12:04PM
Dow Jones News
Bigger may be better, but big, bigger and biggest in the grocery
store could be overkill.
Too many sizes of the same product are overwhelming consumers
with too much choice and detracting from their shopping experience,
said Jeff Noddle, executive chairman of grocery store chain
Supervalu Inc. (SVU).
Noddle said one manufacturer, which he did not name, had five
different sizes of the same product in a supermarket, all within a
couple of ounces of each other. While that's giving consumers the
option of different sizes and prices, Noddle said it may also
confuse customers into thinking they may get a bad deal.
"I think we've overwhelmed consumers with choice and it hasn't
simplified their experience," Noddle said Thursday at the CIES
World Food Business Summit in New York.
Noddle told Dow Jones Newswires that Supervalu has asked
suppliers to cut back on the number of sizes, which the retailer
has found to actually improve volume sales of the product. Some
suppliers are already reducing the number of products offered.
Brenda Barnes, chairwoman and chief executive of Sara Lee Corp.
(SLE), said the maker of Ball Park Franks and Jimmy Dean sausages
is "rationalizing" the number of stock keeping units, or SKUs, it
offers and cutting product sizes that don't sell well.
-By Paul Ziobro, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2194;
paul.ziobro@dowjones.com