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When it comes to innovation these days, discounters are leading the way in products, services...even the in-store experience BY NANCY KWON
"Discounters have realized in the last few years that they can't really get their customers only with the price, so they've evolved their concepts, blurring the format with the traditional supermarket channel," says Ekaterina Winkelmann, senior business analyst at IGD, a U.K.-based non-profit organization that works with supermarket retailers and consumer packaged goods manufacturers across the globe. Here are six discounters we should pay attention to.
FreshCo
Sobeys' replacement for the Price Chopper banner has impressed global grocery watchers.The ethnic offer goes beyond grocery and fresh produce, to include extensive frozen and chilled ethnic-items, says Stewart Samuel, IGD senior business analyst. Plus, the layout is innovative, with snaking produce aisles that lead into the bakery. Samuel is also impressed with FreshCo's meat and seafood counters, which are operated by ethnic specialists. "We haven't seen counters to that extent in a discount store in Canada," says Samuel. For an added effect, live fish in fish...