Safeway Mid-Atlantic

Situation / Challenge  

Safeway initially contracted BWF on a project basis to handle grand openings for multiple brand-new stores, in Washington, DC and suburban Maryland, all of which were highly successful events. The grocery business is fiercely competitive, with multiple new players emerging regularly. Some Safeway stores garnered less than positive community feedback for a variety of reasons, including infrastructure. The company created an ongoing multi-year construction plan, providing major renovations for many stores throughout their Mid-Atlantic Division (DC, Maryland, Virginia and Delaware) for some older stores, as well as adding more new stores.

Strategic Approach 

BWF created a standard template for ribbon-cutting ceremonies, inviting participation from local politicians and neighborhood organizations, as well as music and nonprofit donations. New build store celebrations are much grander, and we have also created an ongoing slate of store events to maintain momentum in opening months (or more), based on the flavor of the local neighborhood.

Events that BWF organized include Friday Night Jazz in the Signature Café area of a store at which Friday evening was the busiest time. As that same store has a large population of young families, we also did several morning events including story time, cookie decorating, pumpkin painting, and fire safety with the local fire department bringing educational games to teach children valuable safety lessons. At a store situated in a wealthy area, we organized wine and cheese pairing classes, craft beer tastings and a Sangria happy hour featuring the bartender from a local Latin restaurant known for their Sangria.

Beyond grand openings, BWF offers PR support for Safeway Foundation grants programs, seasonal activities, specials and new products, Safeway Pharmacy campaigns and much more. We also worked with Safeway to create kick-off events for several annual programs, such as KICK HUNGER (in-store cart races gathering food bank items) and Back to School (pep rallies).

Results  

BWF has helped keep Safeway at the forefront in the Mid-Atlantic grocery picture, with both ribbon-cuttings and other events we have created and publicized, including TV, Radio, print, blogs and other online media, including social media. The grants programs, employee volunteer participation, food bank donations (in DC, Maryland and Virginia).