TORONTO — Shoppers Drug Mart (SDM) is introducing meat and produce in selected stores.
The Canadian drug chain, acquired this year by Loblaw Cos., is piloting sales of food including cuts of meat, fruit and vegetables, as well as such prepared food as sushi and salads. Six Toronto stores are carrying the expanded grocery assortment.
“The biggest hurdle is having customers believe that they can get fresh food at a pharmacy,” Mike Motz, SDM’s chief merchandising officer and incoming president, told the Toronto Star.
The retailer has been broadening its consumables offering for more than a decade. “It took a while to build milk, eggs, butter,” said Motz, who will succeed president Domenic Pilla upon his departure at the year’s end. “It took us a while to get to packaged meat; it took us a while to get to bacon.”
For the concept to succeed, the new offerings must be fresh, he said. Customers are “going to hold us to a higher standard than they would hold a conventional supermarket,” he told the Star. “We are going to learn a lot from the pilot.”
Besides competing with supermarkets, SDM will be challenging the discount grocery offerings of Walmart Canada and Target Canada. SDM will compete on convenience rather than price, Metz said, noting that its core customers are time-pressed mothers.
