Let your customers break (fresh) bread

Let your customers break (fresh) bread
Tags: Consumer Behavior, Department Stores, Furniture and Fixtures, Kiosks / Self-Service, Marketing, Merchandising, Online Retailing, Point-of-Purchase / POP, Retail - Apparel, Retail - Automotive, Retail - Electronics, Retail - General, Retail - Home Center, Retail - Mall, Retail - Warehouse, Shopper Marketing, Specialty Stores, Store Design & Layout, Supermarkets & Grocery Stores, Technology
December 13, 2007

If Ron Wilkinson has his way, consumers are about to acquire a taste for very, very fresh bread. His Bread Bakery, a 7-foot-tall, 4-foot-wide machine, churns out 400 loaves of fresh bread every 10 hours. Customers can watch the dough being proofed, the loaves being formed, and the finished products roll off the conveyor belt — all while a flat-screen display at the top of the machine displays educational content. And, of course, the smell of fresh bread wafts throughout the store the whole time.

There's no question that the presence of fresh gourmet coffee has changed the way many shoppers feel about certain retailers — who is to say, then, what impact the smell of freshly baked bread might have?