The Bounce Rate Podcast

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Music.

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The listeners to know what’s in store for them in this episode you know i would

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really like to introduce you to sherry because she really grows on you grow

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sherry i’ll do you one better and,

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shopping shopping what’s going on here we we tried to start this with some puns

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didn’t work because we’re too excited.

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This is a episode where we’re going to talk about grocery stores.

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So at Indoor Media, we are a marketing company that loves grocery stores.

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They are a critical part of communities.

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So it just occurred to me as we were talking about that grocery stores,

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grocery markets are from antiquity.

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Explain. Like go to Rome. what are some of the sites you’re going to see?

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You’re going to see the Coliseum.

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You’re going to see the Basilicas and so forth. You’re also going to see marketplaces

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that have been there for centuries or millennium.

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Because when you talk about community, having a market where you trade goods,

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where you trade food, and goods really back then were bringing my goats to market,

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bringing bread, cheese, whatever, and exchanging it, that’s what a grocery store

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is. It’s why it’s the heart of the community. Absolutely.

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On that note, don’t take your goats to Kroger or to Tom Thumb.

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You can get much better prices at Albertsons.

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I don’t know. I don’t know who you know. But Eric raises an excellent point,

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and that is grocery stores, back then they were cutting edge and they’re just as cutting edge today.

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It’s where a lot of the most innovative

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retail technology the most it’s a robust market yeah and it’s complex right

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i think behind the scenes a lot of it and it’s taken for granted yes that’s

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true and we can fill out this whole podcast with adjectives and funds no we

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can only do adjectives that’s right.

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So I think we take it for granted. You guys have seen How It’s Made. Of course.

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Awesome series. I still think they should come to us. So if you’re How It’s

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Made, our podcast is available.

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We will do a podcast in our print shop, and you can record how it’s made.

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Oh, I thought you were going to say How the Podcast is Made.

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Yeah, both. First Roger sets up his laptop. That’s right. Then Roger sets up the microphones.

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Then Roger types up. Asks us to say test. Asks us to say test.

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So, but how it’s made is always fascinating to me because you go through and

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they’re like, hey, let’s learn how ball bearings are made.

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And you’re sitting there, okay, whatever. It’s just little pieces of metal,

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whatever. And then you’re like, oh, my God, look, they have a specialized.

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Oh, my God, this thing goes, oh, they have 16 layers of whatever that goes, holy cow.

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And they make how many billions of these in an hour?

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I will say that was my reaction when I did my first tour of our print shop.

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I had no idea. I was just blown. I mean, I was like, yeah, you just print some

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stuff on the back of paper.

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What’s the big deal? I mean, it was mind blown.

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Yeah. Well, it’s kind of like I always like to think about the,

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I use this a lot about the Panama Canal and people talk about tools and processes.

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The Panama Canal was basically built the same way you would create a little

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pond in your backyard with shovels.

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Literally. I mean, they had very few mechanical equipment. They had a few cranes.

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They used a lot of dynamite too.

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But it was basically lots and lots of people with shovels.

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And they got through from one body of water all the way across the continent.

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I know. It’s crazy. It’s crazy. But that’s at scale. Kind of like the pyramids.

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Yeah, right. Right. Absolutely. So grocery stores are the new pyramids.

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I’ll just… Some of my memories…

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Like growing up having to do with grocery stores. Number one,

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I am still of the generation where that was where you rented tapes.

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And we would go into our local, it was Randall’s at the time.

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And there was, I would beg my mom to let me go just look at tapes. What do you mean tapes?

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Yeah. Oh. Like blockbuster type tapes? Yeah, video rentals. Gotcha.

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Like that was the place that we would get video, we would rent videos.

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I’m just glad that you’re reinforcing the idea that grocery stores origins are

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in antiquity, like when VHS was around.

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Well, that’s what I’m saying. Like back then. Back then. That was it.

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Way back then. Like when the pyramids were being made and they needed a VHS tape at the same time.

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Yeah, it was kind of pre-blockbuster, pre-Hollywood video.

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And if we need it, we’re going to rent a tape. We do it at Randall’s.

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I also have a memory of, now this Randall’s, I don’t think they had that front.

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Do you all know what the front area that has all the objects there that are

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right next to the door is called?

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Is that called something? Do you know what I’m talking about? I’m sure it is.

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The shoplifting area where it’s like, why is this right next to the door?

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I just put this in there. Right.

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But the one that our local Randalls had, there was a lizard there.

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And I picked it up to put it outside and it bit me. And I was upset because

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I was like, hey, dude, you’re. Did you give him a one star review? I gave, yeah.

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All that. I remember things like my parents putting me in front of the store

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and saying, find us. What?

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I like these parents. And then I remember going up to a police officer and saying, oh, hey, Mr.

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Police Officer, I’ve lost my parents. He says, I don’t know,

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kid. There’s so many places to hide.

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Okay, these are Roddy Dayjewild jokes.

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This is not actual trauma from Eric’s. Well, while we’re sharing our experiences,

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I remember saving all my pennies and collecting the change and taking it up

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to dumping all that change and the vending machine type thing.

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Coinstar. Yeah, Coinstar and getting dollars.

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How long has Coinstar been around? They’ve been around for a long time.

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I don’t see them there anymore. Are they there anymore? Yeah.

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Sometimes it’s Coinstar.

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So we bring up all these different experiences at the grocery store.

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Not one of them was purchasing groceries, food, right?

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Yeah, good point. I mean, they are a vast market, right?

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So, you know, they’re a retail… What about the retail media network that they are?

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Yeah. So a retail media… So the official definition of retail media network

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is when you have a lot of retail locations, which grocery stores clearly do,

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especially, you know, Kroger, Albertsons, even H-E-B.

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And instead of, because it is a marketplace, they’re not really stores.

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What’s the difference between a store and a market?

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When you go to the mall, there’s a bunch of stores at the mall.

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So you got whatever store you go in. Do you think, who bought that shirt?

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Who’s the owner of that shirt right now when you first go into J.Crew?

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Who owns it? J.Crew. J.Crew owns it, right? Because they’re a store.

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When you go to a market, I might go to, let’s say, a flea market or something,

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and I’m looking for whatever it is I’m looking for at a flea market, who owns that?

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Does the flea market own it? Nope. No, it’s the individual vendor.

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It’s each individual tiny vendor.

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So marketplaces are places where you bring vendors and customers together.

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So you can kind of think, oh, that’s a mall too.

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But the difference is that all the stuff on display is in the building that

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is owned by the grocery store, but the contents itself may not be.

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So that hostess cupcake, that delicious.

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This unbelievably chocolate velvety Hostess cupcake may be actually not owned

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by Kroger at all. It may be there on consignment.

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For sure, yeah. And they only get paid, Hostess only gets paid when it actually sells.

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It’s a crazy kind of advanced system.

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I mean, and imagine how big these grocery stores are, how to keep up with all

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that. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.

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So that’s when the retail media network comes involved.

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They want to get those vendors more opportunity to sell to the customers that

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are coming into the grocery store.

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So they give them things like, hey, we’ll put a decal at the bottom of the aisle.

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We will put a shelf talker, which is a little thing that says, buy me.

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Like little coupons sometimes that pop out and pull them out. Yeah, absolutely.

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It’s even things like product placement.

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The end caps are like primo spots in grocery stores. You have to pay for the

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privilege to be there if you want your product there.

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In that regard, there are also massive data centers in terms of what people

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are buying, how much of it they’re buying, when they’re buying.

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This is information that vendors and retailers, you know, use to design their

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products. It’s like big grocery. Yeah.

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But it is like big grocery. But what’s great about it is that a grocery store

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is only as successful as the community around it.

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So you’ll have the advantage of a large-scale national brand,

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but a store is still going to reflect who’s in the area, what your neighborhood

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is like. And I’ve always liked that about them.

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Yeah, and so I think that’s really interesting because one of the things we

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talk about is omni-channel advertising and marketing. And there’s also omni-channel,

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meaning like your whole customer experience.

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So what, James, does that look like?

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How do grocery stores omni… I don’t know. Explain all that.

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I don’t know what we’re even talking about. Yeah. So omni-channel, they…

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Carry over the experience through different channels, right?

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So you can go into the store, you have one experience.

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But now as I do, I pull up the app and I order online, right?

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So it has a very similar experience, right? The same products are there,

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same pricing pretty much. Not quite.

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Not quite, but you get an email with some information. So it’s all connected,

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right? It’s all one big experience.

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Does that make sense? I mean, just think of all the marketing channels.

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There’s email, there’s SMS, There’s physical signs.

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There is audio. There’s like an advertisement that you might hear at the beginning of the bounce rate.

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That’s right. There’s signs being pulled behind airplanes.

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At the beach. That one’s not as popular. Oh, yeah.

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But I will have an experience where, let’s say I’m on a wait list at my local

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HEB for the next time they have a certain cake that I need.

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Well, I’ll get that. Is that a thing? Yeah, I was like, is that a thing?

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Like getting SMS updates?

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For a cake? Well, I don’t know if it’s for a cake. Oh, okay.

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Okay. I was just curious. I was like, oh, that’s crazy.

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I mean. Like I’m getting my phone out. The way you framed it was like,

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they’re going to text me when they have some cake.

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Yeah. That’s, I just being like, if I have ordered something and it’s ready for pickup.

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Okay. Okay. Maybe I’ll get a text message from that. That makes more sense.

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That text message that gets issued, you know, maybe that gets issued at the

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same time as an email and so on and so forth. And what I love,

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what HEB is doing, number one, I love that in their app, they have started labeling where stuff is.

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Because I, look, I’m pretty good.

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I’m a pretty good shopper. I can tell where things are. But sometimes I’m just

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like, I can’t find water chestnuts. I have no idea.

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It’s not with this, not with this. On their app, they actually will tell you,

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like, this is where this is, which I think is awesome.

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But then also. Hold on. One more awesome thing. They recently added it where

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you can look at their recipes and.

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Click that and it’ll put all the items you need for it in your

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shopping cart that is that you are such a i

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don’t know man you’re you’re like getting taken yeah why

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because you’re not buying the cheap recipes like you know like my parents used

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to make like we know we know how to substitute tuna fish for something else

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you know and like hamburger helper you don’t need to help anything just hamburger

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just hamburger hey i don’t know about all that and i can go in and change things

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out but it sure does save some time, man.

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Yeah. I mean, come on. My favorite is the Kroger Randalls.

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So they’ve got their regular loyalty program discount, but they also have these

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$5, these mixer match five things where you get that QR code.

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If I was going to buy five Ben and Jerry’s ice creams anyway,

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that’ll, it’ll save me, you know, four to four bucks. I got, I got to say it.

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I have a love hate with the five by five, of get $5 off or whatever,

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because man, I, I, it, nothing would, nothing would like weigh me down.

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I’m trying to avoid the term stick in my craw cause I use that a lot,

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but I am trying it just like either to have four or six of them in your basket

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when you check out. I’m like, what?

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Oh my God. Well, what do you mean? Well, because if you get four,

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you don’t get the discount cause you have to have five and And then you’re like,

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oh, I got to go back and get another one of whatever.

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Oh, right. And if you have six, you don’t get it. You don’t get the same discount

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on the sixth item. You have to buy another five.

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I just ignore those. So I don’t have this problem at all. See,

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that’s because- Stress off- I know. That’s because you make more money than all the rest of us.

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Here’s the deal. And that’s why this next point- You’re not paying off your

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gambling loans like Roger and I are.

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It’s really bad. This next point is probably more in line with his demographic.

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And that is ghost kitchens and micro factories. So this is something that I

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saw at a, I think it was a Kroger that was a little bit farther away from me,

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but I had looked up on my phone, my favorite Italian restaurant.

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And it had closed down and I was like, all right, where’s the nearest one?

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Was it Buca di Beppo? I don’t want to give them a shout out if it wasn’t that

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because I, oh no, I’ve never eaten at Buca di Beppo, but I was curious and I

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don’t know if it was then.

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Anyway, I was looking on my phone and I saw that I could get this restaurant

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delivered in a matter of like five minutes.

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I’m like, how can this be? I looked up the address and it was in the Kroger.

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So I’ve seen several grocery store locations actually use their deli,

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use their food prep area to be ghost kitchens for brands, which is super cool.

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Just the idea that, you know, I don’t necessarily need a brick and mortar to,

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if I’m not in the mood to sit down and have to be waited on,

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I can still get this from a professional kitchen.

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And how smart, because, you know, obviously a lot of grocery stores,

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they make their own food, certain items.

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But then you might do that in the morning hours and then maybe that rest of the time it it sits.

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Empty right like where you don’t have people because you

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don’t have that much product you need to produce so they

00:15:15.636 –> 00:15:18.736
go out and they find a use for that equipment for

00:15:18.736 –> 00:15:22.236
those employees to make money i mean i think that’s super smart

00:15:22.236 –> 00:15:25.936
you know yeah especially if you’re casper burgers because

00:15:25.936 –> 00:15:29.336
it’s a ghost kitchen it is a kitchen that now that is a kitchen for ghosts

00:15:29.336 –> 00:15:32.196
the ghosts actually work in the kitchen that’s right

00:15:32.196 –> 00:15:36.656
that’s right they’re not very productive all right sorry

00:15:36.656 –> 00:15:39.436
so i think that that’s cool that

00:15:39.436 –> 00:15:42.696
they you know i’ve seen that a couple of places also i

00:15:42.696 –> 00:15:46.036
you know just to i love to see the efficiency of

00:15:46.036 –> 00:15:49.136
grocery store prepared food areas where you

00:15:49.136 –> 00:15:52.416
can actually see that today’s rotisserie

00:15:52.416 –> 00:15:55.816
chicken is tomorrow’s chicken chicken salad so

00:15:55.816 –> 00:15:58.636
they had so my wife went to university of texas

00:15:58.636 –> 00:16:01.336
and when she was in school that they she had a

00:16:01.336 –> 00:16:04.196
meal plan and would go to that on the cafeteria and at the end of

00:16:04.196 –> 00:16:09.616
the week every week they would have more casserole and it was just more of whatever

00:16:09.616 –> 00:16:13.956
they had left over stuffed into a casserole so if they had tacos one night and

00:16:13.956 –> 00:16:17.756
hamburgers it all just ended up in the casserole at the end love it no problem

00:16:17.756 –> 00:16:21.836
with that and i think that’s an area where depending on again on your grocery store grocery store.

00:16:22.336 –> 00:16:23.956
That’s really grown.

00:16:24.016 –> 00:16:26.416
It’s taken up more and more space within a store.

00:16:26.576 –> 00:16:29.236
And I use it quite often. I love getting sushi from the store,

00:16:29.456 –> 00:16:33.216
all sorts of meal prep meals where it’s cooked. You just have to go home.

00:16:33.316 –> 00:16:35.756
I mean, it’s prepared. You have to go home and just pop it in the oven. Like,

00:16:36.356 –> 00:16:42.156
Amazing. HEB’s selection of their meal simple selection is pretty robust.

00:16:42.656 –> 00:16:46.376
Sorry, have you guys compared sushi from different grocery stores?

00:16:46.836 –> 00:16:51.236
I haven’t because I’m kind of scared. Like Kroger versus HEB, say?

00:16:51.816 –> 00:16:55.716
No, I mean, I just, I get mine from one grocery store and I’m just used to it.

00:16:55.796 –> 00:16:58.136
And like, I don’t have a reason to do it from anywhere else.

00:16:58.356 –> 00:17:04.916
Here’s the deal. I would be so ready to record an episode where we compare grocery

00:17:04.916 –> 00:17:07.356
store sushi. Well, have you done it?

00:17:08.156 –> 00:17:13.176
Can we do that one day? I’ve never done it side by side. I’ve gotten sushi from

00:17:13.176 –> 00:17:14.616
Kroger and I get it from H-E-B.

00:17:15.116 –> 00:17:21.856
And I got to say, it all, I don’t want to diss it because it’s tasty.

00:17:22.476 –> 00:17:24.876
I do feel like it all kind of tastes the same.

00:17:25.616 –> 00:17:28.076
Well, I mean, there’s only so many ingredients. So it’s like,

00:17:28.256 –> 00:17:30.696
it really should taste so much. Well, there’s only so many. When you’re looking

00:17:30.696 –> 00:17:34.296
at like an ahi tuna roll, right? Or a California roll.

00:17:34.356 –> 00:17:37.936
Yeah, I guess. I mean, how much difference and variance should there be in flavor?

00:17:38.096 –> 00:17:41.076
I don’t know enough about fish to know what the different grades are.

00:17:41.256 –> 00:17:46.036
I would expect that if a grocery store is preparing it, they probably have a similar distributor.

00:17:46.296 –> 00:17:50.176
It’s probably a similar grade of fish. It’s all Cisco fish, probably.

00:17:50.476 –> 00:17:55.376
Yeah. I think the top fish is going to go to fancy places.

00:17:55.756 –> 00:17:59.456
Then grocery store, good, tasty, tastes like fish. Yeah. And then after that,

00:17:59.616 –> 00:18:00.856
probably like- Gas stations. Gas stations.

00:18:01.216 –> 00:18:06.956
And I’m not expecting my HB or my Kroger or wherever that sushi to be the five-star

00:18:06.956 –> 00:18:08.536
sushi restaurant down the road.

00:18:08.736 –> 00:18:11.056
You know what I mean? I’m expecting it to be good, right? Yeah.

00:18:11.316 –> 00:18:14.156
I don’t know what everybody else’s expectations are. Yeah, I know.

00:18:14.236 –> 00:18:16.456
This is just a total non sequitur whatsoever.

00:18:17.056 –> 00:18:21.616
It’s not a non sequitur because let’s say you eat a lot of gas station sushi.

00:18:22.036 –> 00:18:25.636
No, no. We just said gas station. We said grocery markets.

00:18:26.016 –> 00:18:29.216
Yeah, but I’m saying let’s say you have the gas station sushi and your stomach

00:18:29.216 –> 00:18:32.796
becomes a gas station. I don’t do that. And things are not feeling good down there.

00:18:33.511 –> 00:18:39.931
Can you get into the doctor? Maybe, but grocery stores have wildly expanded

00:18:39.931 –> 00:18:45.171
their bioscreenings and health services as well that we saw post-COVID.

00:18:45.351 –> 00:18:49.751
But also just, you know, when I was a kid, I remember going and my grandma would

00:18:49.751 –> 00:18:52.611
get her blood pressure taken. And of course, I want to get my blood pressure taken.

00:18:52.791 –> 00:18:58.411
I don’t like doing that anymore. But the point is, at my local Kroger,

00:18:58.651 –> 00:19:03.811
they’ve got like four different machines set up for lots of different types of bioscreenings.

00:19:03.951 –> 00:19:11.551
So I realized that there are two age-related vaccinations that I need to have.

00:19:11.551 –> 00:19:15.451
And I’ve gotten one of them, and I need to get the other. Let me guess one of them.

00:19:15.991 –> 00:19:19.251
It goes on top of a house. It’s on top of the roof.

00:19:19.931 –> 00:19:21.611
The individual little things.

00:19:22.311 –> 00:19:25.431
It turns. It’s the roof. The one shingles. A shingles.

00:19:26.391 –> 00:19:30.111
That’s what I was even listening to. So I am of the age that I need to get a

00:19:30.111 –> 00:19:32.451
shingles vaccination. So I’ve done that.

00:19:32.671 –> 00:19:38.151
I was a real man about it. I got a flu, a COVID, and a shingles vaccination all in the same place.

00:19:39.309 –> 00:19:44.749
And I did it at the grocery store. Did you get a little sucker and a Band-Aid on your boo-boo?

00:19:44.809 –> 00:19:48.089
You know, I really should have. No, I got like 10% off my groceries, though. That was good.

00:19:48.769 –> 00:19:55.129
That’s the adult equivalent. So that’s an age-related in that I have reached that age in my life.

00:19:55.429 –> 00:20:01.309
I am also living in an age now where it turns out I need to go get a measles

00:20:01.309 –> 00:20:07.889
vaccine again because Gen X did not get two measles vaccines.

00:20:08.469 –> 00:20:13.329
They only got one. And so my generation, actually, we have to get a booster

00:20:13.329 –> 00:20:15.629
for the current nonsense that’s going on.

00:20:16.009 –> 00:20:16.909
Well, you know what? Your wife

00:20:16.909 –> 00:20:21.349
can fill up the car with gas while you’re running in to get your booster.

00:20:21.949 –> 00:20:24.629
It is. It’s interesting. You know, Kroger, when you mentioned,

00:20:24.809 –> 00:20:30.369
so what James is alluding to is the complete diversity of products and service

00:20:30.369 –> 00:20:33.289
offerings that groceries have. Yep. Yes, I am.

00:20:34.329 –> 00:20:37.209
Fuel. So we’re in Houston, Texas. is obviously everyone

00:20:37.209 –> 00:20:40.669
here is covered in crude oil and black

00:20:40.669 –> 00:20:43.449
gold texas tea yeah it’s it’s always a topic of

00:20:43.449 –> 00:20:46.229
conversation and i really i have to say

00:20:46.229 –> 00:20:52.129
roman empire yeah exactly i really have to say that kroger’s fuel system has

00:20:52.129 –> 00:20:58.089
really been convenient for me in terms of location and in terms of pricing and

00:20:58.089 –> 00:21:03.729
in terms of the way that they do their tiered structure i’ve not used hdb but I’m sure HGV is good too.

00:21:03.989 –> 00:21:06.849
Roger really loves Kroger. I mean, it’s Kroger this, Kroger that.

00:21:07.909 –> 00:21:11.049
I want you to think about my name. Roger.

00:21:12.089 –> 00:21:15.049
I see. I’m Kroger without the K, baby.

00:21:15.429 –> 00:21:18.909
We’re trying to get Kroger is what he really wants to pronounce it as.

00:21:19.069 –> 00:21:23.749
Yeah, let’s get a meeting set up with Randalls. Yeah, Mr. Kroger.

00:21:24.029 –> 00:21:27.129
Well, it’s the same company, right? Randalls, Kroger, Tom Thumb.

00:21:27.909 –> 00:21:30.249
Yeah, I mean, there’s a lot more other brands under there too.

00:21:30.249 –> 00:21:36.809
And I am ashamed to say that I am not as up to date on my grocery store hierarchies

00:21:36.809 –> 00:21:39.329
as I should be. For another episode.

00:21:40.254 –> 00:21:44.194
Yeah. So, I mean, you know, going into fuel has been a big one.

00:21:44.274 –> 00:21:46.954
That wasn’t around when I was younger. I don’t think so.

00:21:47.294 –> 00:21:54.614
That’s a newer. Well, and my understanding is that Kroger, I think I told you

00:21:54.614 –> 00:21:57.174
guys earlier that it was double. I think it’s closer.

00:21:57.334 –> 00:22:04.854
They added like 60% total revenue to their, they’re at like $125 billion and

00:22:04.854 –> 00:22:07.114
like 60% of that is fuel. That’s crazy.

00:22:07.254 –> 00:22:09.454
I do get Kroger fuel a lot because there’s one near my house.

00:22:09.614 –> 00:22:12.934
I don’t shop there as much. I do go in sometimes, but I get fuel from there

00:22:12.934 –> 00:22:13.894
a lot. It’s so convenient.

00:22:14.154 –> 00:22:17.274
Well, and the Kroger that’s near me does not have a gas station,

00:22:17.394 –> 00:22:20.354
but I get 10 cents off at Shell. Oh, wow.

00:22:20.754 –> 00:22:25.594
Yeah, because I’m a Kroger member. The takeaway from talking about fuel at grocery

00:22:25.594 –> 00:22:28.834
stores is go watch the series Landman. Really good. All right.

00:22:30.114 –> 00:22:35.174
I think the takeaway is that even though we take them for granted and we think

00:22:35.174 –> 00:22:41.394
about grocery stores as being kind of just an everyday thing in life.

00:22:41.694 –> 00:22:45.214
A staple. Yeah, a staple and not a very fascinating one at all.

00:22:45.374 –> 00:22:51.474
The amount of effort, time, energy, workings going on, the connection that it

00:22:51.474 –> 00:22:53.714
has to us all is really pretty incredible.

00:22:53.714 –> 00:22:59.014
I mean, I think that’s something to really step back and think about how much

00:22:59.014 –> 00:23:03.974
is actually going on and how much could you learn about all of society if you

00:23:03.974 –> 00:23:06.934
really just studied how grocery stores work. That’s so true.

00:23:07.194 –> 00:23:10.574
And, like, I mean, sometimes it’s hard to tell. I mean, some of them do a better

00:23:10.574 –> 00:23:15.174
job of building an exciting impression when you walk in the store.

00:23:15.254 –> 00:23:19.994
Some of them haven’t changed in a while, but they still have an incredible amount

00:23:19.994 –> 00:23:22.154
of technology and advancement going on.

00:23:22.354 –> 00:23:26.114
Yeah. next time you’re at the store take a look around look at all the innovation

00:23:26.114 –> 00:23:30.094
that’s going on think about all the commerce that’s happening it’s a it’s a

00:23:30.094 –> 00:23:36.834
really genuinely cool interesting place to be and it’s probably where everybody else got their ideas.

00:23:36.880 –> 00:23:44.607
Music.