HERSHEY, Pa. — A new retail concept from The Hershey Co. made its debut at food and drug retailer Winn-Dixie.
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Hershey’s "Candy Experience" concept brings the candy aisle into the front of Winn-Dixie’s Baton Rouge store. |
Hershey said Wednesday that the store-within-a-store concept, dubbed the "Candy Experience," replaced the traditional candy aisle at Winn-Dixie’s newly renovated store in Baton Rouge, La., and has shown in testing that it can boost confection category sales for retailers by strong double digits.
The candy section at Winn-Dixie’s Baton Rouge store, located at 13002 Coursey Blvd., is now a circular set of displays in the highly trafficked front of the store next to customer service and the checkout lanes, which Hershey noted marks a departure from the location of the typical candy aisle within the center store area.
Hershey said it took a full category approach in designing the section, which displays the nation’s most well-known confections, including competitors’ top brands. The company pointed out that shoppers will be enticed to shop by feature displays with Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Hershey’s Kisses Chocolates shaped toppers, graphics of unwrapped candy, bright colors and convenient organization by usage occasion, such as candy dish, premium, movie and snack, and grab and go.
"We are excited about this new candy experience because it puts the consumer and shopper first," stated Rick Price, senior manager of center store evolution at Hershey. "A majority of shoppers find the candy category the hardest to shop and the least inspiring in the store, resulting in many shoppers walking away without any confection in their basket. Our reimagined candy aisle addresses these challenges and makes candy shopping more convenient and memorable."
Winn-Dixie’s Baton Rouge store has committed to using the new candy aisle design for one year, Hershey reported. Throughout the year, Hershey plans to invest in in-store shopper research as well as category merchandising plans.
Hershey added that the new candy merchandising concept stems from its insights-driven performance model, a proprietary retail collaboration model to grow the category based on consumer and shopper insights.
"We have put comprehensive success metrics in place, and we are excited to see how the Hershey’s Candy Experience performs," commented Frank Jimenez, senior director of retail evolution at Hershey. "We anticipate it will be a game-changer, and we look forward to working with Winn-Dixie to roll it out at other stores and beginning to ignite a change in how candy is displayed and sold across the grocery channel."
Winn-Dixie, part of Bi-Lo Holdings, has 546 supermarkets and 415 in-store pharmacies in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi.
