Kroger Eludes Recession in Texas Marketplace Launch
On Thursday, Kroger will open its first marketplace store in Texas as part of it strategy to use stores types and data to more precisely target consumers, while simultaneously capitalizing on an opportunity that the recession hasn't withered.
The marketplace format store, which combines a full supermarket with an expanded general merchandise selection that focuses on home and seasonal goods, opens in the Houston suburb of Richmond and will be followed by another just a few miles away and a third in the Dallas suburb of Frisco.
The marketplace store launch comes on the heels of Kroger's opening a hybrid store in Houston, one that combines attributes of the company's signature format stores â€" essentially expanded supermarkets â€" with one of its fresh fare outlets, which add significant gourmet perishables and grocery operations.
That store was designed to suit an affluent Houston neighborhood and counter a new H.E.B. outlet opening nearby, itself a hybrid of a supermarket and that company's upscale Central Market stores.
Kroger selected the new marketplace unit to suit the needs of a growing suburb where new homeowners require the kinds of products â€" including Ashley Furniture and domestics items â€" that outfit new living quarters.
The company also is applying consumer data it has picked up on the Houston-area community from existing stores â€" much of it through its loyalty card program â€" to further tailor the operation, which features an expanded wine operations offering well over 1,600 bottles, for example.
The opportunity the recession left unsullied is contained in the suburbs Kroger has targeted. One of the reasons the time was right to launch marketplace units in the particular Houston and Dallas suburbs where they are located is because they continue to grow. Once, supermarkets and discount stores pursued growth based largely on figuring out where the houses ended in a metropolitan area, building stores and letting suburbs grow out around them. Most metropolitan areas aren't growing that way anymore and even those that have been, as is the case with Las Vegas, have seen their expansion crimped by recession.
Kroger spokesperson Rebecca King noted that Texas hasn't taken the same kind of hit from the recession as have other states. With Houston and Dallas suburbs still on a growth run, the supermarket chain determined that it had an opportunity to use its expertise in matching store and selection with community as a method of staking out territory that looks to become more dynamic and profitable.
Kroger starts to act on its determination on Thursday.