Newly built Kroger stores in 2013 in Amelia and Independence were launched with apparel choices, as well as a Florence, Ky., store which opened earlier this year.
Today, 22 stores across Kroger’s 34-state footprint carry clothing next to groceries and cleaning supplies. Thirty-seven more locations will add clothing items to its shelves by the end of 2014, said Keith Dailey, Kroger spokesman. The company operates approximately 2,640 supermarkets in total.
An 108,000-square-foot Butler County Kroger Marketplace store built in 2006 on Yankee Road in Liberty Twp is undergoing changes to its floor plan to introduce shirts and shoes to customers. Changing rooms are being built. Plans are to start selling clothes in Liberty Twp. in September, according to company officials.
“I would want to make sure it’s a quality that I would normally buy,” said Susan Smith of Dayton, when asked whether she would buy clothes during a Kroger shopping trip.
These stores will see some furniture and home décor items removed to make room for clothes, but Kroger Marketplaces, one of several store formats for the company, will still carry a limited inventory of home fixtures on a seasonal and promotional basis, Dailey said.
“More people these days are probably buying clothing than furniture just because there seems to continue to be this strange hourglass kind of economy with people at the top doing well,” said Terrie Ellerbee, associate editor of grocery trade publication The Shelby Report.
“But people at the bottom are being catered to by Walmart, by dollar stores. This is just another way Kroger can attract people,” Ellerbee said.
Grocery stores like Kroger, which has a more than 100-year-history, have added delis, bakeries, cake decorating stations and sushi stations over the years, Ellerbee said.
“They’re going to add whatever they can not only to get you into the store, but to get you to stay in the store … and maybe you’ll buy more,” she said. “They also want to offer the convenience of that one-stop shopping.”
Kroger officials say the company gets its buying power in the clothing industry from its Fred Meyer division in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Kroger acquired Fred Meyer Inc. in 1999, and that division has long offered the Marketplace model of selling electronics, clothes and jewelry, as well as food items.
“We listen closely and value customer feedback and these changes are intended to better serve their needs,” said Kroger spokesman Keith Dailey. “Customers have told us that they prefer an expansive apparel offering to furniture.”
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