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A Brooklyn supermarket chain thinks that the fastest way to its customers’ hearts is through their noses.
NetCost Market, with stores in Brooklyn and Staten Island, has installed high-tech smell-making machines that pipe in odors such as “Smoky Bacon,” “Rosemary Focaccia” and “Lindt Chocolate” in hopes of making customers’ mouths water and wallets open.
“It’s subtle, but I definitely smelled the bacon in the meat department,” said Juliya Lubin, 22, who was shopping yesterday at the NetCost location on East 16th Street in Sheepshead Bay. “It made me really hungry all of a sudden!”
The olfactory-focused marketing campaign is produced by a series of five small, black wall-mounted smell machines — which are developed by a company called ScentAir. So far, they are installed at NetCost’s Sheepshead Bay location, but more are to come.
“In the fruit section, we’ve been doing strawberry and pink grapefruit,” NetCost merchandise coordinator Angelina Khristichenko told The Post. “Because of the scents, I think fruit sales are probably up 7 to 8 percent.”
The upticks have been more modest in the meat, bread and candy sections of the stores since NetCost began piping in the fragrances in late May. Nevertheless, NetCost managers believe the momentum is “growing bigger and bigger,” according to Khristichenko.
“They use this all the time in the Russian supermarkets,” she added, noting that she had been looking to contact a scent provider in Russia when she was approached by Charlotte, NC-based ScentAir, which is the world’s largest provider of piped-in scents.
“The systems do have adjustment settings,” notes Amy Rhyne, ScentAir’s senior director of marketing. “You can set the fragrance very low, or you can blast it. It’s all according to what the customer wants.”
One customer said she’s already gotten used to experiencing the new smells in the supermarket.
“I have allergies and a really sensitive nose, but this doesn’t bother me at all — it usually just makes me hungry, but I don’t think it makes me buy more,” said Raima Ayci, 46, of Brooklyn.
Customer Larissa Poulter, 38, added: “At least they don’t have one for the fish department — that would be awful.”
Additional reporting by Helen Freund