News

Latest Upstate N.Y. Store Features High-Tech Marketing, Green Electric Components

Date Posted: Jul. 26, 2007

Source: CSP Information Group - http://www.cspnet.com

CICERO, N.Y. -- A new Nice N Easy story in Cicero, N.Y., includes a lot of “firsts” for the chain—many that consumers will notice immediately and some that aren’t so obvious.

“This is our first ‘green’ store,” Fran Duskiewicz, senior executive vice president, told CSP Daily News. “The Hussman Protocol unit controls a bank of compressors (on the roof, just like a supermarket) that only supplies the correct power demanded by coolers, etc., in the store. This lowers utility bills, but also keeps the store cooler and quieter.”

More obvious are the in-store media: 47-inch Exhibio flat-panel TV screens that show customized Nice N Easy promotions and Wayne Ovation 2 pumps with full-color media capabilities.

The store, which opened July 1, also includes:

The chain’s Easy Street Eatery.
A “shop-around fresh case” stocked with fruit cups, salads dairy products and more.
A new Chill Zone frozen beverage area with machines of two heads each.
A walk-in beer cooler.
A create-your-own six-pack beer display.
Wayne Nucleus touchscreen point-of-sale (POS) units.
Digital gasoline-price signage.

Outside, the store includes two “reverse vending machines” from TOMRA that encourage recycling of cans, plastic bottles and glass bottles.

“The store is another hit, doing numbers we might expect in a store three or four years along,” said Duskiewicz. “But because it is in the bull’s-eye of our marketing demographic, I suppose we should not be surprised.”

Similar stores are planned to be built in Utica and Rome, N.Y., in the near future.

Nice N Easy Grocery Shoppes were founded in 1980. The chain is headquartered in Canastota, N.Y., with more than 80 store locations throughout upstate New York.