Giant Foods fan mail to Ravens inspires more ways to connect with shoppers

Giant Foods recently hosted a mailbox for Baltimore Ravens’ fans to write to the team. Check out some other ways to use a community mailbox in your store.

As the Baltimore Ravens headed to the playoffs this week, Giant Foods helped its customers send letters to cheer on their favorite players. As a service to the community and a way to promote spirit for sports fans, the supermarket chain placed purple mailboxes in stores where fans could drop of fan mail, which was then delivered to the team’s training facility. 

The Lempert Report applauds Giant Foods for taking this opportunity to connect with their customers by offering a fun, free service that promotes community bonding and excitement! We’ve thought about this great idea by Giant Foods, and we’d like to suggest other opportunities for supermarkets to create their own events modeled after Giant Food’s Raven fan mailbox. Here’s a few ideas to get you started:

1.    Letters to food manufacturers: Foodmakers can always benefit from consumer feedback, and shoppers are the best resource to check in and make sure current needs and tastes are being made. What better place is there to create this forum than the place where we shop for our food?

2.    Letters to Santa Claus: How about a Christmas time mailbox where children can drop off their letters to Santa? A great display could be built around this idea inside the store in the seasonal aisle or front of store. And if your store is feeling really inspired by the holidays, reply letters could be made for children to pick up on another day.

3.    Letters to government officials: Food policy is a hot topic, whether it’s food safety standards, farming practices, science, or nutrition. How about hosting a mailbox drop off for customers to write letters to local or state officials concerning their feelings about food policy and how it affects their families and communities.

4.    Thank you notes to farmers: Our country’s farmers are becoming more and more accessible and vocal. And Americans are learning more about what they do and how important they are to our country. In here lies an opportunity to feature a farmer that shines in areas such as sustainability or ethical treatment of animals, and give customers an opportunity to show their appreciation for their part in protecting our planet and feeding our country.

5.    Letters to a chef: The celebrity chef is one of America’s current “rock stars.” Every other month, your store could act as a liaison between fans and one featured chef. 

If snail mail is too old school for your shoppers, make the most of current technology and offer a computer station to submit messages. Or even better, how about hosting these forums on your supermarket’s website. 

It’s all about connecting with shoppers, enhancing that visit to the supermarket, and providing a sense of community within your store.