On Saturday, April 9, the team at Macey’s in Providence had a radio remote organized by the AFS marketing team and aimed to make the most of the publicity. The store elected to promote the many trending offerings from the seasonal general merchandise (GM) team including kayaks, trampolines, wood log furniture and playsets.
“The store team rose to the occasion and had the store and merchandising sets looking great,” said Chris Otteson, district manager, ARO. “Their preparation and collaboration with the other groups at AFS really set the stage for a great weekend.”
The planning and organization paid off as overall store sales were up for the day more than 22 percent over an already strong previous year. On Saturday alone the store sold more than $16,000 in GM sales which is up 71 percent. Part of the GM success was the sale of four swing sets with a retail price of $1,900 each. (That’s $7,600 in just four orders!)
The Macey’s Providence store isn’t alone in their GM accomplishments. Associated Food Stores’ member retailers are seeing unprecedented success with seasonal general merchandise sales which results in increased sales for the wholesale team as well. The seasonal GM team is showing sales increases of more than 47 percent in 2022. With a 43 percent increase the year prior, GM sales have seen a lift of approximately 90 percent over the last two years.
“Retailers are doing a wonderful job of ordering relevant products and then merchandising the items in a way that customers are seeing value and making purchases,” said Gordon Sanders, seasonal category manager. “Right now, we’re seeing nothing but peaks and are doing our best to continue taking advantage of the momentum we have.”