sampling at whole foods

[Rhea_S]

I noticed a family with several children playing the "sample game" at Sam's last weekend. The goal is, of course, to see which child can spot the sample tables first and each must loudly yell, "Mommy, there's samples!" In the meantime, Mommy turns beet red and I head the opposite direction to avoid the traffic jam.

[alacarte]

i wonder if they'd draw the line at people taking the bread sample over to the cheese and deli sample areas and making sample sandwiches.

i triple sampled the marinated sweet red peppers today.

Triple sampling is fine. It's the double dipping that is frowned upon.

[Raynickben]

I had to find this thread again because I had a great experience sampling yesterday at Whole Foods which by 3am turned horrible. You can see where I am going with this.

Each department at WF had a chili competition and the customers were the judges.

There were 9 chili stations, each chili better than the last. The seafood department made a chili with tuna that was amazing in it's lack of fishy flavor, perfect for non-meat eaters. My favorite was the meat department's entry which you would think would have the most meat but in fact used an abundance of tomatoes which was visually appealing and tasted fantastic. (No, they would not give me the recipe). All in all I had a great "lunch" at WF and I complimented myself on being at the store on the right day.

Sixteen hours later, I was cursing myself. I was so sick. I am so sick. It's got to have been that chili because the rest of my family isn't sick and they were not with me at WF.

I have learned a valuable yet sad lesson. I loved sampling but NO MORE!

[McDuff]

Whole Foods does in fact have a sampling policy that specifically applies to team members, who are encouraged to sample the foods so they know what they';re talking about but not make a meal out of it, and in general to the public. It's a stipulated 1 oz portion that fits into certain sized little containers. Most of the live demos have it on the sign, one portion per customer please. But we see it all the time with the passive demos, people just helping themselves to whatever. My feeling is, so what? Just about everything one buys in there is 50 to 75 cents a mouthful anyway. Sometimes companies pick up the tab on what's being sampled, today it was Coleman beef hot dogs, yesterday it was Bali spices and Bell and Evans chicken. In my department if we have stuff that's going to go out of code, we break it open and sample it to try and move the rest of the product. If a product gets damaged, it gets sampled, for instance a coffee cake that gets munched putting it in the bag. And if I'm working on a new product, I make extra to tease people, but strictly speaking, if we don't have it to sell, we shouldn't be sampling it.

[Alex]

"OK, ma'am. Just drop that second sample, put your hands in the air, and slowly back away from the table."

[LaurieB]

My youngest son (now 22) used to love to go grocery shopping (he was about 4) because:

"Mom! They got EXAMPLES!! And they're FREE!"

He thought it was the coolest.

My current favorite is a local grocery that gives examples (sorry, the word stuck) of wine on Saturdays. And, you know, I usually end up buying a bottle because what they're pouring is normally pretty good. So I guess it works.

[menton1]

foodie, while I don't doubt the sincere desire of the supermarket to relate and promote goodwill with their customers, what exactly are the other benefits of sampling to them?

I'm sure there is absolutely no altruistic reason for the retailer to do sampling; it's more likely that the sampling is subsidized by the manufacturer of the product, as the sales of the product could increase fifty-fold on the day of the sampling.

As far as sampling of bulk products, bread, cheese, etc., it just plain increases sales. Makes for an impulse buy.

[chickenlady]

foodie, while I don't doubt the sincere desire of the supermarket to relate and promote goodwill with their customers, what exactly are the other benefits of sampling to them? 

Working in a small gourmet food store, sampling is absolutely invaluable to us. We pride ourselves on having lots of unusual products that aren't available in other local stores. It's unlikely that someone will spend $32/lb for Roquefort unless they can taste it themselves and decide that it's worth the price. Some products (like olive oil and balsamic vinegar) have so much variation in flavor that it's really important to taste and decide on their own--my favorite is not necessarily everyone's. It also gives us an opening to start discussing a product. If I see someone looking at the pomegranite molasses, I'll give a small taste, then talk about what to do with it. Everything in our store is available to sample and we also do "focused" tastings on weekends. So, sure it makes the customer happy, but most importantly, it helps us sell more. I think the same is true no matter the size of the store.

As to those sample hogs... I think we've found a way to foil them. We don't put out too much of any one thing at once. Then if a hog comes through, we just don't refill it until they leave. If other people are in the store and we want them to taste it, we'll put in just enough for them, then personally offer it around. This lesson was learned after one man cleaned out 3 whole bratwurst in a row! That said, we don't mind if people have multiple samples. In the end, most people who taste things buy something, so the greatest benefit is to the store.

[Milt]

Harry's Farmers Market, here in the Atlanta area, was full of sample foods - and it generally convinced me to buy or not to buy that particular item. One must remember, however, that something about the way the business was run caused their bankruptcy filing. Whole Foods (who purchased the bankrupt Harry's) seems to offer less samples, while remaining fiscally solvent.

My limit on any sample is one per station. This was always stressed to our children when they were growing up. My oldest daughter knew our family policy so well that she would point out the adult transgressors - "Daddy, that lady took three pieces of pineapple". She did the same thing with those who litter.

Samples and coupons have each encouraged me to try something new - and sometimes I have made a purchase that I would not have otherwise made. That is the ultimate point of samples and coupons, isn't it? It is a marvel that samples are offered of a fruit that is not excellent. At Harry's especially, I decided not to buy a particular fruit because of the samples. I still bought fruit and the purchase was still of a fruit I had sampled. The samples worked well for me because I knew that I would be pleased with my purchase.