Building Store Patronage by Strengthening Community Relationships

Grocery stores are anchor institutions in the community. Two main questions of this presentation are: How is the local grocery store integrated into the community, and what difference does it make if the local grocery store is connected to the life of the community? Patronage indicators, social capital indicators, and demographic indicators are used in the analysis of two South Central stores and 2 Southeast stores through interviews with store leadership, store intercept surveys, and mailer surveys. This analysis found that grocery store social capital best practices include capitalizing on community assets and leveraging social networks; moving higher on the social capital engagement continuum; developing a comprehensive communications plan; establishing a brand identity; expanding on specialized and personalized services; and creating a shopping “experience”.