Grocery retailers unite!! Store perimeters have gotten, well, just pretty dang awesome. Diva is all for expanded bakery sections (she's a sweet tooth) and adding banks and health services to the store perimeter (Eyeglass fittings at Walmart? Check.), but she's leaning on her design brethren to keep the center store a bit more, well, less monotonous.

While perimeter sales are booming, center-store sales have actually declined on a same-store basis. Let's face it. Center store is kinda boring. How are the canned veggies supposed to compete with beautifully illuminated, artfully displayed heads of broccoli and craftily merchandised bunches of carrots? Today's fickle shoppers get in, get out and get on with their lives (thank you Chili's for the appropriate tagline), and the poor center store is simply not growing at the rate of the ever-exciting perimeter. Whatever is a grocery retailer to do?

HELPFUL TIP ALERT!! Nielsen (who just so happens to be Diva's parent company….thanks Dad) has just unveiled a webinar that shares strategies and views on how best to leverage in-store innovation to generate more desirable shopper behavior – such as more frequent store visits, larger basket rings or greater customer loyalty. Pretty cool stuff. Take a listen and let Diva know what you think. What's in store for your center store?

–Diva

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