-By Stephen Dowdell

It's what's inside that counts. This axiom is borne out at the Winn-Dixie supermarket in Coral Way Plaza, smack dab in the middle of a heavily Hispanic section of Miami. While from the outside the store could look like any other conventional Winn-Dixie unit -- albeit a recently remodeled one -- inside, the store makes a strong argument for taking a matter-of-fact approach to Hispanic food retailing that's light on "authentic" ethnic trappings, but spot-on when it comes to assortments, merchandising, and staffing.

In other words, with this highly successful store, one of about 100 that applies the retailer's Hispanic Neighborhood Marketing Program, Winn-Dixie has proved you don't have to have a special name in Spanish or over-the-top merchandising to make Hispanics feel wanted and very much at home when they shop for food.

"You see some Hispanic formats that might look great, but from an operational standpoint you have to ask how they can pull that off and still be profitable," suggests Tony Jorge, district manager for Winn-Dixie, who oversees the South Florida market. "I think our approach is more practical and scalable, as long as the customer feels like this is her store and we have got the right items."

The 55,944-square-foot store, upgraded to the Hispanic marketing program in the course of a remodel last fall, is the product of the chain's broader philosophy of neighborhood marketing.
Whether this approach can transform a chain of about 520 stores, many of them considered behind the curve of food retailing innovation by industry observers, only time will tell. But the chain will soon celebrate its 100th remodel since the ascendancy of the Neighborhood Marketing strategy, and if this store is any indication, Winn-Dixie may yet prove to be one of the industry's most intriguing sleepers.

At the Coral Way Plaza Winn-Dixie, the crucial human element in this strategy includes Carlos Ortega, the store director, as well as Jorge. These two execs work closely with Andrea Rodriguez and Adonis Paseiro, the corporate-level marketing and procurement minds, respectively, behind the Hispanic program.

But what's most important, and most evident, at the Coral Way Plaza store is the commitment not just to serve "the Hispanic community," but also to cater to the specific community that surrounds this supermarket -- one where well more than of 80 percent of households are Hispanic, mostly of Cuban descent, but with Nicaraguan, Colombian, Caribbean island, Argentinean, and other Hispanic subgroups figuring in the mix.

It's also a market where a third of households earn less than $30,000 per year, but 15 percent have household incomes above $100,000, and nearly half have some college education. It short, yes, it's a solidly Hispanic marketplace, but also a remarkably diverse consumer base.

The store was always geared to Hispanics, as the neighborhood has been heavily Hispanic for decades. But as Jorge puts it, the Hispanic merchandising here is now at a new level. "We added more of the specialty products, the authentic brands, more of the specialty produce. We also brightened up the store quite a bit."

As part of the remodel, the store received a new floor plan that substantially expanded many of the perishables departments, and added aesthetically pleasing shelving and flooring, lighting enhancements, and a Latin-influenced color scheme. The decor also relies heavily on bilingual signage.

Winn-Dixie reworked the product mix in every corner of the store, adding programs and expanding others, including a café, a new wing bar, a specialty dessert case, a full-service seafood department, and a fresh muffin cart. While many of these changes are part of the overall remodeling program, it's in the assortment details that the unit's Neighborhood Marketing approach shines.

"The cafeteria is one of the ways we accomplish this," says Jorge. "Every morning we have Cuban coffee and other unique items that cater to the cultures of the customers in this highly Hispanic-dominant area."

Part of the culture, apparently, is the store as a social gathering spot. For example, at a bench right next to the café, literally just feet from the entrance, sits a group of older men chatting and watching the traffic in and out of the store.

"These guys are here just about every day, from 9 a.m. to about 1 in the afternoon," says Ortega. "They drink coffee. They read the paper. They talk. Sometimes their wives are doing the shopping while they're sitting here together. It's like a social group."

Ortega has been the store director for about three and a half years, and presided over the remodel, which was quite an event at the store, since it had been remodeled just once since opening in 1993, and that wasn't a deep remodel. As such, he was charged with keeping the store running -- and customers coming -- throughout the disruptive process.

"The store was open all the time," explains Ortega. "It was a time for us to help the customers through it, to understand the improvements they were going to enjoy at the end of the process."

"And that was a challenge, since there was some pain to get through during the remodel, sure," concurs Jorge. "But we had a good story to tell, about how this was going to be more than ever, their Winn-Dixie, a lot better place to shop. 'Just wait, wait till you see!'"

Post-remodel kudos

Almost a year later, the store is still getting compliments, according to Ortega.

One feature regularly drawing kudos is a Hispanic wall of values, right up against a wall near the entrance, stacked with dry grocery items, primarily beverages, and featuring authentic Hispanic items that the store director selects each week, with certain products featured in the weekly flier.

"It’s also a place to showcase all the different Hispanic suppliers we have," comments Jorge. "For example, this Colombian soda is, of course, hugely popular with Colombians," he says, pointing to a large facing of 32-ounce sodas. "But other Hispanics have picked up on it as well."

Much of the positive feedback has been about produce. It's an especially strong department in this store, "stronger than in a conventional Winn-Dixie," notes Jorge.

"We now have all the items that are popular with these consumers, including some special items that non-Hispanics might not recognize," he says. "For example, there's mamey, a fruit  Cubans like, and so do some Caribbean islanders [such as] Jamaicans."

In other cases the ethnic orientation shows not in the products per se, but in how they're merchandised. "At Winn-Dixie we always carry limes," explains Jorge, "but here you'll see huge displays that we always sell down. They're a staple in a lot of recipes."

The same goes for lemons, garlic, onions, and red potatoes.

The store is able to devote all of this merchandising space to important produce commodities because produce, just beyond the café, to the right of the entrance at the start of the traffic pattern, grew significantly as part of the remodel. Along one wall, for example, a multideck fixture extends 84 feet, compared with about 56 feet pre-remodel.

"With this deeper rack, this presentation is a lot better," remarks Jorge. "All in all, the space allows us to make produce a much better showcase, which is good because the department is very important to this market. This remodel allowed us to put a lot more product out here."

Hispanic specialty staples are prominent throughout the department as well: sour oranges; plantains; guava; malanga; manzanos, which are a variety of mini banana; and avocados in an overflowing display. The last fruits are smooth-skinned, as opposed to the nubbly-skinned avocado, which is used to make guacamole. "Guacamole is not a big deal down here," says Jorge. "This avocado people eat out of hand."

More Hispanic specialties are merchandised in great variety but more modest amounts in a tropicals section.

The department also includes organics in a relatively small section further back along the main wall. It might not be what you'd typically expect in a Hispanic store, but as Jorge explains: "It’s important for us to remember that while the great majority of our customers here are Hispanics, they are Hispanics of many different income levels. We know that some people in the higher income brackets want organic items, and other folks also look for some organic items."

Floral up front

Floral, meanwhile, is prominently displayed in the front. There's a bulk display of buds, so that people can build their own bouquets, which apparently is popular. "Cubans like flowers," says Jorge. "Floral used to be buried in the back, and you would have to search for it. This position has made a big difference."

After produce, the next department in the pattern is wine and beer, but just before that is a buffer where the store showcases two contrasting merchandising approaches. First, an open space sports several bulk displays of featured items, in this case including such products as big stacks of cases of malta, rice in 20-pound bags, and rice cookers. The obvious message here is: "You want rice? Well, we’ve got as much as you want."

"Carlos has really done a good job of rotating strong promotional and sales items each week," says Jorge. "I've heard that south Florida is the biggest market in the country for rice, and the way we sell it here, I wouldn't be surprised."

At the same time, just a few steps away in the refrigerated multideck case against the wall, is a carefully considered cross-merchandising display of various chorizo, or sausage, varieties, along with a selection of cheeses and wines.

"We saw that a lot of times consumers would be searching around for the chorizos and finding it at different places in the store," says Jorge, "so for convenience we put it all here right along with items you might want to consume with the chorizo. In fact, we no longer have the chorizo in the meat department."

For beer, however, the cross-merchandising winner is pork rinds. Beer and wine together comprise another strong department made stronger by the remodel. South Florida is a good market for imported beer of all kinds, "from Heineken to Corona, or anything in a dark-green bottle," says Jorge. "We also sell a lot of wine, mostly Chilean, Argentinean, and some Spanish wines (the exchange rate limits that). We don't do really well with higher-priced wines here."

In the same area is the brand-new hot wing bar, featuring four varieties of wings on a self-service island. This isn't just a program in Hispanic stores, but can also be found in other remodels.

"But it's doing real well in this store," boasts Ortega. "Many customers hadn't seen a wing bar before. It's something we demo frequently."

Right next to the wings is another hot self-service case with fried chickens, rotisserie chickens, meat loaf, and turkey breasts there for the taking. "We try to offer a full variety in this case," notes Jorge. As popular as both these programs are, the hot service case is even hotter, a noteworthy development in a market where the main customer base is culturally inclined toward home cooking.

"This is yet another expanded program," says Jorge of the hot service case. "Every day this is a very busy area in this store, and we've probably tripled the amount of product we sell here."

Open in the back

The deli has also benefited from all new cases, along with a substantial remerchandising along the back wall.

Another upgrade is the self-service "cheese shop," with a few hundred deli cheeses arrayed with an emphasis on the many white cheeses that are Hispanic favorites, says Jorge. Gouda is also popular, he adds.

From there, the rear of the store opens into a roomy corridor that runs all the way to the left back corner. In the remodel Winn-Dixie jettisoned a series of end cap merchandisers that had been clogging up the space. Comments Jorge: "It was something we got a lot of positive feedback for. Customers enjoy shopping back here much more."

The expansion affords room for another big rice display here, this time right by the meat and seafood presentation. Cross-merchandising here also encompasses spices, showcasing the Badia brand. "It's a national brand, but we sell a ton of it," notes Ortega.

Seafood’s upgrade is impressive, with a greater volume of product presented more tantalizingly from the point of view of the shopper. "It's a new over-and-under presentation with new cases that is much better," says Jorge. "The seafood manager is very proud of the seafood case. The quality here is the best. We have more meal solutions now in seafood."

Also newly expanded is the service meat counter, a crucial component in any Hispanic merchandising strategy. As Jorge explains: "This is where customers can choose cuts just as they want them, and they'll be very particular about it.

"For example, many prefer thinner cuts," he continues. "In fact, almost all of the precut meat we merchandise is in thin cuts, because that's a big preference of this consumer; also, for the price they feel they can get many more steaks this way. This is different from how some non-Hispanic consumers would look at it, preferring instead big, juicy cuts. It's a distinct perception of value."

Meat got a boost from added gondolas along the back, "which we didn't have room for before," says Jorge. Two bunkers merchandise weekly featured items more prominently. The jump in sales of these items was very noticeable after the remodel. While this was already a big store for pork sales, after the remodel an occasional large section in one of the two bunkers attracts an even bigger lift.

The dairy cheese department also has a large variety of Hispanic-type cheeses, including different ones from those in the deli. Overall, dairy was expanded by approximately 16 feet. The dairy is a fine example of integration among the various assortments, with Hispanic brands and lines alongside non-Hispanic items for a customer base used to the juxtaposition.

"In yogurt you'll see national brands, but with an emphasis on tropical flavors," says Jorge. "La Yogurt's Sabor Latino line is a big seller." Yo Gusto drinkable yogurt is another leader.

Likewise a big display featuring refrigerated Hispanic desserts, such as dulce de leche, flan, and bread pudding, cross-merchandised with popular accompaniments. "The additional space allows for more cross-merchandising. We used to carry all of these items, but now you can't help but notice we have these," says Jorge.

Elsewhere in bakery, another department expanded via the remodel, Cuban sub rolls are a standout. "Any kind of Cuban bread sells really well -- they like that lard taste. Bakery overall is very important to this customer," notes Jorge.

Cuban at the core

"Throughout the store, we've added more space for displaying perishables; it's a very noticeable change from before the remodel," he observes. "The store is a lot more 'fresh' -- same footprint, but expanded fresh."

That called for the elimination of some space in center store, but the store was big enough to begin with, so that the changes weren't detrimental, say Jorge and Ortega.

The grocers made sure not to diminish the existing Hispanic programs in center store; indeed, they bolstered several of the most important ones, including a distinct and huge assortment of Cuban crackers. "This is a program that is unique to the Cuban market," reports Jorge. "It's a very broad display of crackers, with many brands and flavors and different packages.

"There are a lot of facings here of basically the same thing," he admits, "but this really turns, and the consumer really looks for this. You'll probably not see such a big section of Cuban crackers anywhere else."
 
Hispanic snacks dominate the snack aisle in a section that’s ballooned to 16 feet from eight feet, and includes multiple brands of plantain chips, pork rinds, and cassava chips. The same goes for the beverage aisle, which features malta, as well as coconut water, Colombian soda, Venezuelan soda, and "just about any sweet, sugar-added soda you can think of," says Jorge.

The Cuban love of coffee calls for two sections: There's the regular coffee set, but it pales against a much bigger section for Cuban coffee.

The baby set showcases guava, mango, and other tropical flavors, and an expanded section of baby cologne gets prominent display. "Every Hispanic baby in Miami smells like this," says Jorge, picking up a large bottle of cologne, aptly named "Baby." It shows up as a popular laundry detergent and floor cleaner fragrance as well.

A frozen Hispanic specialty section was expanded from eight doors to 16 doors, "to bring in more vendors that we didn't have before," says Jorge.

This pattern repeats in aisle after aisle, with categories edited to emphasize the merchandisers' understanding of what appeals to the South Florida market.

"What we've done is to bring in many more Hispanic-specific brands, but also not eliminate the mainstream brands," remarks Jorge. "It's all blended in so that no matter what you're looking for, you won't have to work hard to find it in this store."


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Marketing as diverse as the market

The credo of Winn-Dixie's Neighborhood Marketing Program, springing from the vision of c.e.o. Peter Lynch, is this: To be a leading neighborhood grocer in every market it serves.

The retailer's Hispanic strategy now encompasses more than 100 stores specifically merchandised and marketed to the Hispanic consumer and spread throughout its marketing areas. The stores blend products and services for Hispanics into their core grocery offerings, with a special emphasis on perishables and authentic Hispanic brands in dry grocery.

While the stores remain under the Winn-Dixie name, they use a special tagline, El sabor de tu pais (which translates in English to "The flavor of your country"), to reinforce their commitment to serving this community.

After the remodel of the Coral Way Plaza store, traffic shot up immediately, and has continued to grow at a more moderate but steady pace, says the exec behind the conversion of the supermarket to Winn-Dixie's full-fledged Hispanic format.

"There's a pattern we've noticed after a remodel, not just with the Hispanic stores, but with all stores," notes Andrea Rodriguez, multicultural marketing specialist for the chain. "At first the customers that are real Winn-Dixie fans keep coming right back, but there are other consumers that perhaps had not been in a Winn-Dixie for a while, and might have thought they'd never step into a Winn-Dixie anymore, but who come to check out the store after word of mouth gets them interested."

The marketing team ran a direct-mail campaign during this remodel to keep interest alive in what was to come. But in that effort, as well as grand-opening campaigns and promotions and marketing ever since, the grocer has to be sure to keep its message diplomatic, in a market where homogeneity is nonexistent.

"With certain campaigns, we'll be careful to be a neutral as possible when it comes to income levels," says Rodriguez. "The grand-reopening campaign was an example of this, when we bought in a Hispanic celebrity chef who would appeal to everybody. Any time we do marketing, we try not to target a specific nationality or income group -- the goal is to leave no one out.

"That's the way it is in Florida," she continues. "We have stores like this in Jacksonville and all over our markets, where we have low-income residents, but also higher-income customers, and we have to find a way to fulfill both needs.

"Let's say we have a grand opening," suggests Rodriguez. "We might do a cookout in the parking lot during the day; then a wine tasting inside the store with jazz in the evening."

"What we find in south Florida is that even where people live tends to be integrated rather than segregated, compared to other places," adds Jorge, the grocer's district manager in charge of the South Florida market.

In a nod to the diverse needs of the south Florida market, the meat department in the Coral Way Plaza Winn-Dixie makes sure to stock Winn-Dixie's own label of natural beef, in addition to many traditionally Hispanic offerings. "The intriguing thing about this market is that in South Florida, even though the market is so heavily Hispanic, you can't make the mistake of assuming that means this is a low-income market, so we have to be careful not to merchandise to that bias," explains Jorge.

Jorge has spread this strategy of product integration across many of the stores in Miami-Dade County. "We still do have a melting-pot society here, and we have a constantly acculturating society here, so we want to make sure that Winn-Dixie continues to be the store we want these customers to be comfortable coming to."

A big part of that comfort level for Hispanics who shop at the Coral Way Plaza store is a staff of about 125 associates, built up by store director Carlos Ortega, that's fully bilingual and, save for one associate, Hispanic in origin.

Intimate knowledge of the shopper is key to creating the right store atmosphere, and Winn-Dixie strives for that via the data it crunches from its Customer Reward Card program. "We use it a lot," explains Rodriguez. "Obviously we could use it more, and we will as more tools become available. It's really a team effort at Winn-Dixie. I rely a lot on the regional folks -- they're here day by day and really know who the customer is. Also, marketing and merchandising work together.”

The chain also relies on crucial on-the-ground intelligence collected by dedicated store directors who take their customers' pulse continually and pass this intimate knowledge of their shoppers' wants and needs up the line.

The merchandising and assortment at the store level reflects well the melting pot that is south Florida. "There are specific items that only certain nationalities will buy," notes Jorge. “But there’s a lot of cross-buying. They see these items integrated in the store, and they try it. Non-Colombians will buy popular Colombian brands, etc. It happens all over the store."

Much of the item selection is store driven, thanks to store directors like Carlos Ortega, who’ll say, "This is what I need," and a corporate Hispanic team smart enough to respond that that feedback.

"That’s one of the things that our c.e.o. has really changed about Winn-Dixie," adds Jorge. "This business is all about the neighborhood."

“That’s why it is called Neighborhood Marketing, and the neighborhood merchandising department,” agrees Rodriguez. “That is the direction we’re headed in.”