The 4 Ideas to Borrow From Dom’s Kitchen

Dom’s Kitchen & Market is a fresh-food and grocery retailer in Chicago. The retailer describes itself as a “highly curated supermarket” that is redefining the “meal experience.” I think of it as a new-age crossover retailer, a concept that is increasingly being sought out by consumers.

Retailers like Dom’s Kitchen are attracting customers who might usually patronize quick-casual restaurants like Starbucks and Panera, as well as those who are seeking food on the go from QSRs like Subway or McDonalds. They also are attracting convenience-occasion customers who shop at Foxtrot and 7-Eleven.

This crossover concept type offers solutions for customers no matter what shopping occasion they are on: convenience, top-up grocery, and both take-home and on-the-go meal solutions and snacks.

We should expect to see more crossover retail concepts enter the retail sector as traditional grocery stores search for share by embracing smaller footprints, even as food-first convenience retailers go bigger in search of share from QSRs and quick-casual restaurants.

Having visited Dom’s Kitchen recently, here are four ideas you should borrow from retailer ...

Dom’s reason for being is to be fresher than anyone else. In my opinion, no one in the grocery, quick-casual or convenience sectors in this country is communicating and delivering on fresh like Dom’s. Everywhere you turn in their stores there is a freshness bomb.

These bountiful, beautiful, breath-taking and mouth-watering cues are everywhere. Of course, one expects them in the produce and fresh-food areas, but Dom’s display staff are experts at inserting refrigerated cases in all parts of the store, including packaged-goods aisles. They are true believers that you sell more if you are visibly in-stock. Just take a look at their beautiful and tasty pizza offer or the eye-popping, customer-facing sandwich case.

How much of the square footage of your store suffers from lack of customers at certain parts of the day? Perhaps it’s a coffee offer that’s packed with customers in the morning but you can shoot a cannon through the area in the afternoon and evening? Or a fountain or made-to order beverage area that has the highest revenue in the afternoon and early evening but is a ghost town in the morning? In a single 8-by-10-foot space, Dom’s Kitchen has created a breakfast-by-day and drinks-at-night offer. It serves made-to-order coffee and smoothies in the morning, then turns into an adult-beverage offer in the p.m. It’s appealing, operationally efficient, and works for both alcohol and nonalcohol drinks.

No matter what size box you run, we all saw a sales surge in our alcohol categories during the pandemic. The great news is these same customers still want to purchase from you as a convenient destination for their shopping. Dom’s Kitchen continues to go from strength to strength in being a designation for beer, wine and spirits offers. Dom’s two stores on the northside of Chicago have the selection, unique and revolving assortments, and they tailor package sizes to the individual or party planner. Once you become a destination for alcohol, it enables traffic for so many other categories in your store.

I’m a big customer-seating fan. In today (and tomorrow’s) retail world, one where we are trying to get customers off their couches and into our stores, seating matters. Dom’s Kitchen has leaned into an appealing and attractive seating space.

• Natural light is everywhere, including a sky light.
• The seating area is in the corner of the store to maximize light.
• The areas includes an appealing green zone with difficult-to-tell fake olive trees in the center.
• There is an indoor/outdoor patio that can only be accessed from the interior of the store.

The natural lighting, green zone and ample seating reinforce Dom Kitchen’s freshness value proposition. The space creates a morning and afternoon destination, complementing the food and beverage offers of the store.

Dom’s Kitchen is just one example of many retailers that are exploring new ways to do business. Get out and visit retailers in the convenience channel and beyond to get your own ideas brewing.

Polly Flinn is a former convenience retailer the founder and principal of Flinnstone Strategies. She has led businesses in the U.S. and around the world, holding marketing and operations c-suite roles at bp, Walmart, Castrol, Arco ampm and Giant Eagle/GetGo. Reach her at polly@flinnstonestrategies.com.