Distinguish your micro market by offering a recurring pop-up program
One of the defining characteristics of a leading micro market operator is the willingness to try new things that will set their company apart. Driven by the decline of office cafeterias, pop-up food delivery services are emerging to bring in fresh food to building lobbies and even directly to employers. When complimentary workplace food and beverage shows up, it means a rather dead day for the micro market operator, so why not be the pop-up supplier for your client once a week?
Pop-ups make people happy
The desire by employers to bring employees back to the office “feeds” nicely into the concept of a special pop-up food day, especially if that day is the “mandatory” day of the week when all employees are to report in-person for work – a new common practice at many companies. With employers desperately trying to make their staff happy to be in the office – a pop-up food day (paid for by the employer) – is a perfect fit.
A priority: Bringing people together
In a CNBC interview, Larry Gadea, CEO of workplace technology company Envoy, said that as companies try to manage a tight labor environment as well as other market challenges, more time needs to be spent on “thinking about how to bring teams together.”
“The number-one reason that most people stick with a company is that they love the people they work with,” he said. “It can be a lot harder to love those people if you don’t ever see them because they turned off their video on Zoom or if they don’t even know them at all.”
The beauty of a pop-up market day, a special event that is set on a recurring basis, is that it will encourage employees to come in to work and re-connect with co-workers. This is clearly a goal that many office administrators are focused on and willing to invest in. Your willingness to integrate the program as part of your micro market, makes it even more appealing.
Free food brings them in
How important is free food in the office? According to the “Return to the Office Tracker” from software company Robin, free food is one of the top reasons for employees to return to the office.
- A survey of 1,000 office workers found that job satisfaction rates increased more than 10% when free food was in the office. Those meals help nourish employees and create an environment they feel is supportive of their efforts.
Some tips on making your pop-up a success:
- Keep it simple. Choose a popular local restaurant and ideally, limit the menu to three individually wrapped lunch items. Avoid substitutions. The more complicated you make it, the more problems will “pop-up.”
- Bypass the third-party delivery service. If possible, have your people place the order, pick it up, deliver it and set it up for distribution.
- Promote the event well in advance through your micro market.
- Get a discount from the restaurant, helping to cover the cost involved with the effort to bring the pop-up to the client. You are entitled to make a profit on the food and the micro market sales you will generate from beverage and snacks because of the event.
- Dedicate a key employee to oversee the program.
- Once you get your pop-up program rolling, talk to the team at Fixturelite about how they might be able to provide support, including custom retail displays or counters, to help make your pop-up that much easier to facilitate and a destination for the customer.
One of the other defining characteristics of leading micro market operators is the willingness to seek out experts for advice. Fixturelite specializes in helping operators create micro markets that are a destination, a place to collaborate and come together.
Let’s have a conversation about how you can grow your company in 2023, using proven retail strategies, and how to build spaces that will set you apart from your competition. Visit https://fixturelite.com.
