Retailers across all channels have been striking alliances in recent years with businesses and government agencies to provide value-adds to their shoppers. Winn-Dixie, a Jacksonville-based supermarket chain, has been actively pursuing such a strategy the past two years as they seek to gain an edge in the competitive battle for supermarket shoppers. Today Winn-Dixie shoppers can buy Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida insurance cards, obtain re-loadable prepaid Visa cards, rent movies from Redbox kiosks, take their Winn-Dixie reward cards to buy gasoline at a discount from dozens of Shell stations and buy Jacksonville Transportation Authority bus passes at some locations.
Such retailer partnerships reinforce the importance of supermarkets seeking to differentiate themselves from their competition based upon the suite of products and services they offer their shoppers. Something as simple as a Redbox kiosk could be what sets a supermarket apart from the one across the street and what drives a shopper to come over to their side.
