Newsletters: January - February 2007
General Manager's Report
By Larrane Hartridge
As you are aware, we have been trying to expand for quite some time. We may finally have a deal. We have reached a verbal agreement with our property manager, Talcor, and Crystal Connection. This agreement would allow New Leaf Market to expand into Crystal Connection's current location, and Crystal Connection would return to their previous, and favorite, location down the shopping center across from Olive Garden. We are optimistic that this deal will lead to a signed lease and a bigger and better store. See Crystal Connection's ad on the back page for moving sale information.
Remember back in September when we were stopping customers at the exit door and asking them questions? Ever wonder what we were doing? We were conducting our second Customer Address and Transaction Survey (CAT). For four days we asked customers as they were leaving the store two questions: How much did you spend on your transaction? and Where do you live? We had a map of Tallahassee divided by census tracts, which are small, relatively permanent statistical subdivisions of a county. Each census tract was labeled with a number. Each customer found their home on the map and we wrote down the corresponding number. Customers living off the map were tracked by their county.
After accumulating over 900 responses we sent the information to Pete Davis, a consultant who specializes in market research and site analysis. Three years ago Pete helped us with our first CAT survey. Since then he has been reviewing and reporting on the suitability of potential expansion sites.
The results were very positive. Virtually all aspects of comparison between the two CAT surveys showed positive changes. It suggested that New Leaf Market is increasingly strong in its image-pulling shoppers from a broader trade area. Although we already knew that we have a substantial out-of-town customer base, we were surprised to see that in the past three years the percentage of our sales from "beyond" our trade area increased from 18.2 percent to 28.5 percent. The results from the CAT survey helped us tailor marketing efforts, better understand our market, and most importantly, stressed the need for our expansion. Thank you all for taking the time to answer our questions. I also want to thank those of you who are driving long distances to shop at New Leaf Market. We are working our hardest to continually improve your shopping experience.
