Simpactful welcomes Leslie Jacob, Sr Consultant, to the team.
An expert and leader in the grocery industry for 45 years, Leslie’s grocery experience at Whole Foods, Raley’s, Grocery Outlet and Safeway spans across multiple areas – including distribution, inventory and supply chain efficiencies, alignment with internal and supplier partners and strategic understanding of consumer trends.
Jacob is excited to work with the challenges and diversity of Simpactful clients, using her expertise in the areas of Health and Beauty, General Merchandise, and Non-Foods in the conventional, value and natural sectors.
The store is a place where customers go to be delighted
At Whole Foods Market, Jacob developed unique promotional programs with vendor partners resulting in company leading sales results, implementing category management programs in U.S. and Canadian markets, and oversaw new store development and remodels.
Jacob is excited to see retailers focusing on their online experience, while using that data and information to facilitate an experiential setting within brick and mortar. “When a retailer becomes a form of entertainment, in addition to meeting people’s shopping needs, that’s where the magic happens,” explains Jacob, “Roaming up and down the aisles looking at a sea of boxes is a mediocre experience at best. The chance to turn the retail experience to one where you can touch, taste, learn, and smile is how brands will thrive in the coming years.” Jacob firmly believes that bringing food back into a place of entertainment and enjoyment is giving grocery stores a new revival. With various ways for customers to buy groceries, from meal kits to same day delivery, retailers need to give the customer a reason to walk through their doors.
The food retail industry, like many industries is in a period of reinvention. Take the food hall concept, for example. In cities across the U.S. and in Europe, this aggressive expansion is driving growth for many brands and retailers, where they create a unique dining and shopping experiences, are quickly replacing the uninspiring shopping and strip malls that were places only set up for convenience rather than an experience and certainly weren’t a destination for any shopper. “It’s easy to sell packaged goods in an online experience and that’s where I see online food shopping going in the future, but perishables will see an evolution of the store experience,” adds Jacob, “Our Amazon world has changed the center of the store into an interactive space.”
So how can brands and retailers start preparing for these shifts in the Grocery store industry? Bring in change management experts and strategists like Leslie Jacob and the Simpactful team to make a difference for your business.
Reach out to Simpactful today at contact@simpactful.com or 925-234-6394.
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About Simpactful
Proven | Connected | Results
Meet Simpactful – a CPG/Retail consultancy firm built for today’s challenges, with a team of experienced leaders from both CPG and Retail firms.
Our experience spans functions – Sales, Marketing, Consumer Research, Human Resources, Product Supply – and all retail channels including eCommerce, Food, Drug, Mass, Club, Dollar, C Stores, and more.