Is European food retail strategy gaining momentum in Canada?
With the number of retailers offering European fare expanding in Canada—and the recent hiring of European executives to lead giants like Loblaw Cos. Ltd.—it would seem the country's grocers are taking inspiration from their continental counterparts, industry analysts say.
Smaller format stores, for one, are a sure sign of European influence, says Bruce Winder, a retail analyst based in Ontario with more than 30 years of experience in the retail sector.
“Just like in Europe where everything is smaller, more grocers here are launching smaller locations with smaller SKU counts for city dwellers,” he says, pointing to No Frills, which recently launched its fourth small-format store, a new concept introduced by the Loblaw-owned discount banner this year.
He says another growing trend that’s “a page from Europe,” is the popularity of little stores within stores offering high-quality pastries and breads. For full-line stores in particular, Winder says having dedicated spots where people can grab a freshly baked treat and quality coffee feels very European. “Europe is central in terms of being a foodies’ place and this store within a store offering premium products definitely reminds me of my visits there.”
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Just as Europeans like to sit and stay a while, Winder says Canadian grocers have a great opportunity to get shoppers lingering longer in-store. “Grocery stores are becoming a hub and meeting place again like before the pandemic,” he says.
Slyvain Charlebois, a professor in food distribution policy and senior director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, says adapting European trends in Canadian grocery stores may require consumers to compromise.
In visiting several grocers on a trip to Europe this past summer, he concludes that shoppers there have tempered their expectations when it comes to food choices. “Consumers in Canada are absolutely spoiled because we have access to great produce all day long, but if you go into a store in Berlin or Madrid at 6 p.m., don’t expect to see a beautiful pile of apples sitting there,” he says. “Europeans are hardwired to think differently and it’s about compromise.” If you want to find produce that’s perfect, for example, you simply show up earlier.
But not everything can be replicated, he adds European economies are more regionalized and therefore more “in tune” with what agriculture is available certain times of the year. He says this is less feasible in Canada where consumers are often far from their food sources. “In Europe that proximity with agriculture is much more palpable,” he says.
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Finding alternative ways to address staffing issues in grocery is another area where the European way may prove beneficial. Charlebois says whereas Canadian cashiers stand for five or six hours at a time, European cashiers have the choice to sit or stand.
When Dalhousie University and Caddle surveyed Canadians about how they’d feel if cashiers were sitting at the register instead of standing, he says 46% were neutral and 29% were very positive about it. “There’s unfinished business there on how to manage people and how to respond to expectations,” Charlebois says. Loblaw recently confirmed it had piloted a sit-down program for cashiers across several of its stores.
Ultimately, having European influences in our grocery space can be a good thing, says Charlebois.
“In the food business, it’s about reducing waste and managing resources more efficiently to become sustainable… and Europeans are ahead of us in this respect,” he says.
Unlike North America where there is an abundance of space, he says Europeans can provide a different take on how to manage these spaces and better appreciate how consumers consume.
“You can feel they have a different approach for retailing overall, and that’s not a bad thing,” he says.
