Cost.U.Less offerings expand to meet consumer trends and preferences at new store

BY MAUREEN N. MARATITA
Journal Staff

Speaking with the Journal at the new flagship store in Hagåtña, Kevin Proctor, president of Cost.U.Less and Matthew Johnson, vice president of merchandizing, had a lot to say about what led to the new property and its contents and how the chain operates.

Cost.U.Less has leveraged its experience to ensure Guam’s stores are well-stocked.

“From a supply chain standpoint, we ship a lot of products and source globally from around the world. We have a distribution center in Oakland in the San Francisco Bay area, so we ship across from there to the South Pacific, and places as far away as Fiji, American Samoa, some further stores, Hawaii,” Johnson said. “Even though Guam is logistically a challenging market, we deal with markets that are even more challenging — that have longer lead times and less frequent routes and many more stops along the way.”

Additionally, he said, “We have quite a bit of experience in working with local ports. The teams are always there to meet freight.”

Fragile stock arrives on island as quickly as possible.

“We also air freight perishable products to Guam to ensure top quality — produce, yoghurt, some of the short shelf-life variators as well as all the berries, the bagged salad,” Johnson said.

Proctor said the teams and personnel contribute to speed and efficiency.

“Our warehouse manager in California has 33 years in the business, for example. In our warehouses here, in our stores — we’ve got people with 30 years plus in our stores. When you have people like that in the business, it really beats the risk for sure,” he said.

“We have a very stable workforce because people enjoy working with the company, and we’re lucky to have them. That’s very important. The strong partnerships with Matson and APL and the shippers that support us. We support them and its mutually beneficial. … A lot of our products come from the U.S., and we source and develop those relationships over many years – that keeps our supply chain strong as well,” Proctor said.

The company operates the same way in Guam.

“We have a lot of very strong local partners,” Proctor said. Those relationships have developed over the years, he said. “We have a pretty diverse sourcing network really. We have strategically mapped out a mix of local and regional buying and our corporate buying which goes through the California warehouse. We do some direct sourcing for wine,” Proctor said.

For example, wine from Chile comes directly to the market, he said.

Consumer tastes have developed over the years and now encompass a wider range of food which Cost.U.Less caters to, including grass fed beef, lamb and an array or seafood. Proctor said one of the reasons for the Hagåtña store and its size was to evolve. “We built this store to change our business to be able to deliver what the customer truly wants. The stores we have in Tamuning and Dededo are good stores; they’re not set up in the way that we would want them. Those stores are very much based on what the business was 30 years ago, which is a very different business than what it is today. The product lines have developed massively over that time — in particular in fresh. … They’re not really set up to cater to that fresh business.”

The Hagåtña store will supply that, offering a much broader assortment of fresh meat and fresh produce.

“We’ve a got a fresh bakery, which is the biggest that we’ve ever done, with a lot more product,” Proctor said. “So that area of business is where the biggest focus has been.” As to the Dededo store, which was renovated last year, Proctor said, “We have changed it over the years; we’ve done what we can. There is more opportunity to do some more there … and it’s an area of the business that we have invested in, over there, but this [the Hagåtña store] is going to be the flagship.”

While Cost.U.Less caters to customers who buy in bulk for large families as part of their weekly shop, its stores also consider other customers with small families.

“We think that’s important, in fresh in particular, because fresh is something people buy on a weekly basis and so that’s something we focus on — being able to provide people manageable nice products in fresh they will consume on a weekly basis,” he said.

Cost.U.Less also stocks a variety of prepped meals in line with customer trends and preferences to cook less.

“Grab and Go meals and ready meals solutions is a big part of our Go Forward strategy we plan. Rotisserie chickens have always been a staple item,” Johnson said. “We see that as a big opportunity to give people more Grab and Go that they can take home immediately or consume right away,” he said. “That’s kind of a floor staple that we can evolve to offer a lot more variety in that hot deli space. We see that as a big opportunity in our stores and crossover items and we can offer exceptional value all in that space,” Johnson said.

The Guam stores are fully enabled with contactless payment cards.

“We worked with the banks in all of our communities and advanced that side of the business initially to make it more convenient for the customer,” Proctor said.

A newer feature, Express registers, offers cash registers for people with smaller or fewer purchases, with four such registers at the Hagåtña store. Cost.U.Less also draws customers from the other islands who are visiting Guam.

“It’s a growing part of our business,” Johnson said. A team and manager deal with that sector and will be focused on expanding more into the surrounding neighboring islands. “It’s an exciting opportunity,” he said. “We know some of the longstanding retailers in some of the surrounding islands unfortunately closed, so we’re able to offer a lot of our great products at great value for those customers.”

The Hagåtña store has a dedicated area at the rear of the store to receive orders from the other islands. Orders can be called in or emailed. Cost.U.Less has other areas where certain locations act as hubs, Proctor said. Proctor and Johnson were in Guam for the launch of the newest store.

Events included a VIP preview on Aug. 27, and a grand opening on Aug. 28 that kicked off three days of celebration for the Hagåtña location, which spans more than 50,000 feet. Both have visited the island numerous times. Cost.U.Less opened its first store in 1989 in Hawaii. Its first store in Guam opened in 1992 in Dededo, and there are now 150 Cost.U.Less employees on the island. mbj