The new Edwards Food Giant that opened in Lakewood Village in North Little Rock in early April was described by one observer as “Publix come to Arkansas, to be honest with you.”
That’s high praise, as Publix is widely known for its clean, well-stocked, well-run grocery stores.
Edwards Food Giant took the place of the Stein Mart in the upscale shopping center, and it took a little time for company executives to wrap their minds around how to best turn the space into one of their stores.
“It’s a little different shape box than we traditionally use; most of our stores seem to be a little wider than they are deep, and this store … was designed to be a little deeper and not as wide. So, it presented some challenges from a design standpoint. It just took us a little while to get our head around what we wanted the inside of the store to look like,” said VP Paul Rowton.
The electrical infrastructure was one of the first things to be addressed. While the Stein Mart had lights and HVAC, the exponentially larger electrical capacity needed for the refrigerated and freezer cases required a new transformer.
Next, Edwards wanted to make sure the store still felt like one of its stores for customers even though it would necessarily be somewhat different.
“From a customer’s view when they walk in the front door, what are they going to see in this facility as compared to our other facilities?” Rowton said they asked themselves when making decisions. “It just took us a little while to get that in our head, how we wanted to handle that. But it’s turned out really, really well.
“Although it’s truly in a metropolitan area, it’s really a neighborhood store,” Rowton added, explaining that there are several subdivisions a short distance away.
Ultimately, Edwards modeled the location after another of its stores that’s about 10 miles away, with strong emphasis on perishable departments like bakery, deli, floral, meat and seafood, he said. One thing the company is offering for the first time in the North Little Rock store is dry aged beef.
Rowton acknowledged that there has been a learning curve on the ordering cycle. “But that’s been a big hit,” he said. “It seems to drive home the emphasis we put on meat, from the economy shopper that’s looking for value to put a meal on the table to the high-end customer that may not cook as much as they used to, but when they cook, they want a nicer meal.”
The new store also devotes more space to bakery than other stores. More croissants, more cookie varieties and other fresh-baked items have been added.
“We seem to be doing a lot of lunch business from people who are either working from home but want to run out and grab a quick lunch, or they’re in the area working and don’t necessarily want to go in a restaurant, Rowton said. “We have a salad bar, and so they come in and pick up sushi and salads for lunch, or fresh-made sandwiches.”
Thanks to a new supplier relationship, the store is carrying more specialty products across the store, from the deli to frozen and dairy, he said. Edwards is seeing volume increases as a result.
The store, he said, “has been a tremendous hit so far.”
Growth always on table, but basics are priority
GES Inc. is the parent company of Edwards Food Giant and Edwards Cash Saver, the latter a cost-plus format. There are nine Edwards Food Giants and six Edwards Cash Savers, all located in Arkansas. While the company is always “strategically looking” to grow its store holdings, “it has to make sense for our culture and our family feel. The last thing we want to do is go in and take over a location or build a location that we can’t get our culture embedded in,” Rowton said.
A bigger priority at the moment is cementing that culture.
“We’re going back to the basics and focusing on the stores that we have and investing more time and training with our team members, making sure that we’re giving them all the tools that they need to continue to be successful and make our customers feel welcome,” he said.
On the topic of training, he said one of the things grocers could improve on in many cases is “letting our entry-level people know that this is an option for a career: ‘You may not have joined us to work here four or five years; you may have joined as a summer job. But if you’ve got the work ethic and the customer service skills to take care of people, this can lead to a long and very fulfilling career.’”
Rowton added that he’s “a firm believer that every young person in America should have to work for a restaurant or in a retail outlet as a teenager, because you just learn so much about people and how to handle situations and how being friendly is really what matters most. At the end of the day, our customers may be going through some tough times, and we may be the closest thing some of our customers – or some of our team members – have to family.
“And I’ll speak for us – we’ve got to continue to let them know that, hey, if you’re looking for a summer job, this is great, you’ll get a lot out of it. If you’re looking for a career, this is an excellent career, and there’s a lot of opportunity here.”
Rowton and his wife Ashley have two teenage sons, William and JP, and they do, in fact, work at a store after school and during the summer, putting up stock and carrying out customers’ groceries. While there is opportunity for the business to be passed down to members of that fourth generation, that is to be determined. But discussions are beginning now, to pinpoint the “skill sets that we need as part of our leadership team or will need in the future.
“For myself and my father-in-law [Steve Edwards] and my brother-in-law [Steve Edwards Jr.], it’s just trying to carry on the tradition started in 1959, which is taking care of the customer and everything else will take care of itself … Obviously, in today’s environment, that includes taking care of your team members. That seems to be more of a focus for us right now … taking care of them so they feel like they’re part of what we’re trying to accomplish, the impact we’re making in these communities, and that leads them to ‘we’re really taking care of our customers,’ which I think is really our differentiator.’
“It’s a hands-on job, and it’s not an easy job, but it is very fulfilling,” Rowton continued. “One of my favorite parts of what I do is getting to see them develop from a 16- or 17-year-old student – a lot of them put themselves through college by working at a store – and to see them mature, but to see them also understand that one customer may be upset, but the next customer is going to make my day because they’re going to be so glad to see me. And just for them to see that and recognize that is really, really a lot of fun for me.”
Meeting needs of today’s customers
Another important area of focus is making sure to meet the needs of today’s customers, whatever challenges they’re facing.
“We’ve got to continue to focus on time-saving efforts for our customers,” Rowton said. “Although the economy may be rough and some may be having tough times – there does seem to be less money in the economy right now – I think at the end of the day, they’re looking for a lower cost, healthier alternative so that they can still provide a meal for their families.
“Even though they’ve got soccer practice and dance practice, all the other things that are going on, they still want to provide a healthy meal for their family. And try to do it in an economical way.”
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