Michael D. Sleeper, President/CEO, Imperial Distributors, Inc.
There was a time when cleaning the floor was considered drudgery, but not today. As high-powered TV commercials show, when scrubbing easily with new-type mops, those dismal days appear to be gone.
Mops and brooms have emerged from that plain old cleaning section to a transformed, much stronger non-food department with big product improvements. While the Cleaning Aids category still includes brooms, mops and brushes occupying 8 to 12 running feet of gondola space in most supermarkets, it maintains its position as a grocery-store mainstay.
“Stick goods”--brooms and mops--have been reduced in the number of SKU’s stocked, but the offering has been upgraded with retails often approaching $20. Other cleaning items—from small kitchen scrapers to formidable brushes feature ergonomic handles and helpful how to-use instructions with attractive modern packaging. Technological improvements include new high-tech materials that cut through grease and clean up easily.
Like other products, each store needs to carry brands suitable to local wants and demographics. Imperial stocks two major brands (with over 150 SKUs per brand) and selected SKUs in two other brands for high- income and budget-minded shoppers. Pricing is especially pertinent today, and of course, an increased number of promotions are more important than ever in overcoming those shoppers who keep products longer, not replacing them as often.
Despite the softer economy, cleaning aids in supermarkets are doing well, overcoming heavy competition from mass merchandisers, hardware stores, home improvement outlets and dollar stores. However, for maximum success, supermarkets must recognize that, while impulse sales are helpful, lower prices will make a difference. Shoppers will know when important pricing reductions have been made and when featured items are promoted.
Cleaning aids have two major promotional periods every year: Spring and Fall Cleaning. This is an opportunity for supermarkets to add massive floor displays and combine lower-margin movers like dish detergents with high-impulse, high-margin cleaning aids in their ads.
The result of P&G’s efforts to cross-merchandise Swiffer Sweeper mops and pads by cutting in 4-feet to 8-feet inside the Grocery’s detergent departments, along with other manufacturers such as Clorox with Ready-Mop and Grab-it Mop by Pledge, creates another opportunity. We recommend merging Swiffer and other lines of sweeper mops and pads into the Cleaning Aids category to create a more complete department with better product adjacencies.
So in conclusion, success in building the Cleaning Aids department depends not only on the item selection, pricing and themes, but on the attention given to this basic well-established category. Give it the attention that’s due, and supermarkets will clean up with cleaning aids.
Cleaning Up with Cleaning Aids