Kids first – who would mind that?

By placing kids first in the supermarket, shopping trips may become easier and more productive—and moms might be happier.

Supermarkets that implement a ‘kids first’ approach to key areas of the store could instantly find themselves in sync with the mindsets of moms and the time stresses they face, we believe at The Lempert Report. 

Chief household shoppers could feel instantly connected because this premise very simply centers on making life better for the loud, little people who hold sway at home. Make filling their needs easier, and peace could reign—on their shopping trips, in cars and where they live. Shopper moms will remember!

A recent visit of ours to the Community Markets regional operator in Ohio inspired this idea. At the pharmacy, we saw a sign that read, “Kids’ Prescriptions Come First.” How cool—and how in tune with a parent’s emotions when a child is sick and needs a medication fast. Anyone who has paced ivc 4n a pharmacy line with a son or daughter, niece or nephew or young family friend in distress can appreciate the wisdom behind this thought.  Anyone within earshot of an ailing child likes it too.

As the academic school year draws to a close, and parents are pressed to prepared kids for camp or figure out how to feed and occupy them during the summer, it is time to find ways to be more ‘kids first’ in supermarkets. A few starter thoughts we suggest include:

•    Fun in the Sun kits, with sunscreen, water bottles, sunglasses, plastic toys for the beach or lakeside, and a cooler to hold fruit and snacks.
•    Kid-size portions of family favorites.
•    Movie Night promotions – Bundle DVD rentals from the kiosk with frozen pizzas and treats.
•    A kids’ section on the chain website, with games, contests, ideas on ways to make food at home more fun, even a way for kids to get a preferred item or two onto mom’s shopping list.
•    Displays at kid height, perhaps as part of a couple of endcaps, of products that could be cool to them—popular books, magazines or CDs; caps of local professional sports teams; jazzy flip-flops; foods that were just on a TV cooking show, and more.

Many of these ideas include full-price, high-margin categories that benefit the store when sold—and also pleasantly surprise young, growing families with their visibility.