Well Fed On the Town

I’ve been to markets in places all around the United States. I even do consulting work at one of the country’s largest grocers. I’ve been to high-end stores, regular neighborhood grocers and farmers’ markets. Atlanta has Harry’s Farmers’ Market (owned now by Whole Foods, I think), which is similar to other markets around the country.

The Dayton, Ohio, area has a unique very small chain (three stores currently) that does one of the best jobs of providing one of the best grocery shopping experiences I’ve come across anywhere. The chain is called Dorothy Lane Market (DLM). They have a bit of a different philosophy than most grocers, including their loyalty program, which has been written up in national business magazines. The CEO basically decided to treat DLM’s loyalty customers very well while at the same time essentially “firing” their non-loyalty customers. Money that would have been spent on weekly flyers to entice non-loyalty customers is instead used for incentives for loyalty customers to make them want to be return customers.

In my opinion, this works very well. Time and again, trips to DLM result in more enjoyable shopping. The total bill may sometimes end up being higher than at a competitor’s store, but that’s often not so much due to pricing on like products. The market carries or produces goods that just aren’t found at other markets in the area.

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to deconstruct the store. I’ll go through the store in the same way I’d go through it with my cart, to highlight the different departments and what makes it different from other stores. My next entry will concentrate on the bakery, which produces artisan style breads to rival most bakeries just about anywhere.