Harris Teeter & Locally Grown Food - Part 1

I generally shop at two grocery stores: Harris Teeter and Whole Foods. I've always appreciated how Harris Teeter serves its local market so well, stocking items that customers request, and regularly testing out new products. I guess all stores do this, but I've always noticed it more at Harris Teeter.

I learned a lot about public perception and the power it has at a recent Green Marketing seminar I co-taught with Maria Kingery through GreenPros, an organization that provides educational opportunities to professionals in the green building industry. One of the group exercises we designed was to rate organizations in a particular industry along a 'green spectrum' based on their marketing materials (green to greenest). We gave the class examples to rate from two different industries. Each group had to come up with a third industry of their own to rate. The only requirement was the group had to be able to think of three companies from that industry to place on the spectrum.

Long story short. Out of six groups, five chose grocery stores (interesting!). And of those five, almost all of them rated Harris Teeter in their spectrum. To put this in perspective, the other examples included some combination of Whole Foods, Fresh Market, Farmer's Markets, and/or Trader Joe's. I thought it was fascinating that they all thought so highly of Harris Teeter that they'd include the company in such a great group of organizations. It was an interesting perspective into public sentiment, albeit anecdotal.

We decided that Harris Teeter had a good reputation for bringing eco-friendly products and foods to the mass market. Many of the comments centered around their efforts to clearly label organic foods, and that their stock of these products was growing quickly. They were also the first non-specialty grocer to offer the bags for purchase to substitute for the plastic bags at the checkout.

Next time you're in your local Harris Teeter, take note of the labeling (0 Transfats, Organic, Locally Grown, etc.) and think about what that is communicating. They certainly don't have to spend the time or money to label everything, but they're sending a message. Is Harris Teeter responding to the market, or are they leading the Lowe's Foods and Krogers of the world?