full interview in this link<\/a>. Here are some of\u00a0the highlights:<\/p>\n\u201cOver the last number of years, we\u2019ve ramped our efforts on two fronts,” Ramier told the paper. “One is increasing the number of local producers–we made a commitment a couple of years ago to buy another $150 million in local produce. We\u2019ve started to partner a lot more with growers.<\/p>\n
“There is (also) a higher interest in nutrition among Loblaws customers. That plays out in several different ways.\u00a0We\u2019re finding things like meatless proteins are becoming really important. We\u2019re finding fresh vegetables are becoming really important.<\/p>\n
“We\u2019re finding sustainable seafood and local produce are also becoming more important. We understand that our customers care about all that and we want to have a great selection in it.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Innovation, with choice\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n
Ramier also pointed out that while\u00a0Loblaws has innovated considerably\u00a0over the years — for example, by introducing the self-checkout \u2014 some customers are resisting such developments.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us, it\u2019s about choice. We want to be able to provide great full-service checkout experiences for customers who want that or have big baskets. And we want to provide really fast and great checkout experience for people who want to use self-scan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see online being more relevant and more important to customers going forward,” Ramier added. “That\u2019s why we\u2019re focused on it. But that still means that more than nine out of 10 of our customers really care about the experience when they walk into our stores. It comes back\u00a0to\u00a0choice and convenience.”<\/p>\n
One of the things that Loblaw Companies is viewed as having\u00a0managed to do well in recent years is integrate new companies and their cultures and supply chains into its own operating system.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say is that there are always things to be learned from any retailer,” Ramier elaborated. “And we always try to learn as much as we can, whether they\u2019re a different part of our company, or a different company.”<\/p>\n
Loblaws has also\u00a0been introducing programs lately that a marketer would call experimental: nutritionists, cooking classes, singles nights, among others, based on the notion that Loblaws stores have been hubs for their local communities for years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have customers who\u2019ve had generations of shopping with us,” Ramier told The Toronto Star. “We actually have colleagues who have generations of working for us. We find it\u2019s very important to build connections with those stores, with the local communities.”<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to understand those and listen and try new products and services to stay ahead of those needs,” he elaborated. “And making sure every time a customer walks into your store, they get a great experience. That sounds really simple, but it does keep you awake at night.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The\u00a0Toronto Star interviewed\u00a0Greg Ramier from Loblaw Companies, a well-known retail […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22154,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[2328,98,1385,2327,2326,2325,2329],"class_list":["post-22155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-canadian-retail-example","tag-ceo-north-america","tag-ceo-northam","tag-greg-ramier","tag-loblaw","tag-loblaw-companies","tag-the-canadian-retail-example"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22155"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22156,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22155\/revisions\/22156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}