SpartanNash’s Family Fare chain is getting a makeover designed to give the decades-old banner a modern look and feel.
The first refreshed Family Fare store, located at 993 Butternut Drive in Holland, Michigan, opened earlier this month and will serve as a model for future Family Fare remodels, SpartanNash said in its announcement about the location’s reopening.
The store stays true to the chain’s original pillars — fresh, value and convenience — while making strides to elevate the in-store shopping experience and expand offerings, Bennett Morgan, SpartanNash’s chief merchandising officer, said in an interview.
Family Fare’s Holland storefront, which spans nearly 34,000 square feet, includes a wide array of foodservice options that cater to consumers’ growing demand for grab-and-go meals. Beyond flashy meal offerings, the store has also lowered prices on more than 6,000 fresh and center store products as well as goods from SpartanNash’s Own Brands line, Morgan said.
Fresh & foodservice-focused
Offerings in the newly revamped Family Fare location pull inspiration from the local Michigan community as well as bring in staples from other SpartanNash banners, Morgan said.
The bakery features 10 SKUs of freshly baked artisan breads and will serve tres leches cake and scratch-made bolillos, staples from SpartanNash’s Supermercado chain, Morgan said.
The nostalgic vintage candy section gives a nod to Family Fare’s 1960s history, he added. And the grocer tapped for the Ludington Meat Company, a local Michigan business, to supply and co-develop the store’s beef jerky bar.
“The Ludington folks are quite well known for their jerky, and we partner with them,” Morgan said. “And they basically experiment with us to put this jerky bar in and brought in their product.”
The Holland Family Fare is also providing offerings for shoppers who are looking for hot-and-ready meals.
One meal option is grain bowls, Morgan said. Family Fare is currently piloting eight different grain bowl meals in numerous flavors with proteins like salmon, flank steak and chicken.
Shoppers can also opt to indulge in the grocer’s three fried sandwich options: a crispy chicken sandwich with hot honey, a pork loin sandwich and a wild-caught fried cod sandwich, Morgan said. The sandwich offering, in particular, is performing well and fueling Family Fare’s convenience image for busy customers, he added.
While customer perceptions of “fresh” and “value” were the areas Family Fare primarily saw the need to revamp, “convenience” was an area the chain already felt it catered well to as it readied to reopen the Holland store, Morgan said.
SpartanNash struggled in the past with enticing customers with its meal kit offerings, according to Morgan. In the remodeled store, messaging highlights that meal solutions cost $20 and take just 20 minutes to cook. The kits are displayed in coolers at the store’s entrance to increase visibility.
Fresh cut fruit is another offering highlighting convenience at the Holland store. The seasonal fruit, cut fresh in-store comes in various container sizes and is ready for shoppers to eat, Morgan noted.
Getting the message out
Family Fare is leveraging in-store retail media to drive its core values of fresh, value and convenience home to shoppers, Morgan said, adding that the upgraded Holland store features additional in-store TVs and is testing digital end-caps.
“One of the things we’re trying to do with the TVs is try to put some of the preparation of the items on the TVs, so the customer really understand that that tres leches cake that you’re buying, it’s actually made there, the artisan breads are baked fresh, the cut fruit was cut fresh,” Morgan said. “Those things are really important to customers to understand in terms of the quality of the product that they’re getting and the craft of what we’re doing in the stores.”
SpartanNash works with different retail media providers and is not currently able to disclose specific partners, a spokesperson for the company said.
SpartanNash plans to debut a second revamped Family Fare location in the Sparta neighborhood of Grand Rapids, Michigan, in early October, Morgan said.
