{"id":281,"date":"2017-10-12T15:36:43","date_gmt":"2017-10-12T15:36:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newpig.co.uk\/expertadvice\/?p=281"},"modified":"2021-10-18T00:25:18","modified_gmt":"2021-10-18T00:25:18","slug":"market-basket-foods-case-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newpig.co.uk\/expertadvice\/market-basket-foods-case-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Market Basket Foods Ended Trips & Slips and Saved over $100,000 using PIG Grippy Floor Mat"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it comes to customer service, convenience and quality, Market Basket Foods<\/strong> \u2014 headquartered in Nederland, Texas \u2014 is absolutely single-minded: be the best of the best. Walk into any of their 34 locations in Southeast Texas or Southwest Louisiana and you know
\n\"PIG immediately that you\u2019re not in a big box store. They\u2019re cleaner. Brighter. Friendlier. If you\u2019re a regular, their associates probably know your name. Because it\u2019s not just about the groceries, it\u2019s about being a good neighbour.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s why you won\u2019t find rental floor mats in a single Market Basket store anymore.<\/p>\n

Cross the threshold of any commercial building or retail store and you\u2019ll find a floor mat.<\/h2>\n

And here\u2019s the reason: over 85% of grime and water enter a building on the soles of their visitors\u2019 shoes. According to the National Floor Safety Institute (NFSI), a non-profit agency dedicated to preventing slip-and-fall accidents, serious injuries often happen in entrances, foyers and reception areas when rain, snow, mud and debris are tracked in. Commercial floor mats have long been regarded as the best practice to stop these hazards at the door and prevent slips and falls.<\/p>\n

Rental floor mats were part of Market Basket\u2019s floor safety program that also includes wet floor warning cones, spill clean-up procedures, regularly scheduled floor cleaning, employee training and incident documentation. Every store used the mats wherever moisture was a problem \u2014 placing them at entrances and in front of the produce and egg cases, ice machine and fresh flower display. But even though they were doing everything right, customer trip-and slip accidents were still a problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have shopping carts running across rental mats, they will move thirty feet in the course of the day\u201d<\/strong>, says Mike Rohrbaugh, Market Basket Vice President and Division Manager. \u201cSo everybody was constantly bending over and moving them back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liability \u2014 delivered weekly.<\/h2>\n

Once a week, every Market Basket store would get their rental mat delivery and the battle would begin. Some of the mats wouldn\u2019t lay flat. Most of them wouldn\u2019t stay put. They were hard to vacuum and clean around. If they curled on the ends, they became a tripping hazard \u2014 and a frustrating, potentially expensive liability.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor forty years we\u2019d been renting mats. Those mats come rolled up and they\u2019ve got rough edges on them”, adds Rohrbaugh. \u201cPeople were catching their toes and tripping over them, so we were looking for a better solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

ANSI and NFSI set new floor mat standards.<\/h2>\n

In 2012, The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and NFSI released B101.6-2012<\/p>\n

\u201cStandard Guide For Commercial Entrance Matting In Reducing Slips, Trips And Falls\u201d which defines safety regulations pertaining to commercial matting, establishes \u201cthe criteria for the selection, installation, inspection, care and maintenance of mats and runners in commercial facilities,\u201d and the requirements \u201cpertaining to the safe usage and applications, design, construction and quality criteria of floor mats and runners.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Standard states, \u201cwhen mats ripple, curl or have torn edges, they are to be removed from service and replaced with mats that lay flat. If a mat buckles, either the condition that caused the mat to buckle shall be corrected or the mat shall be secured or removed from service and replaced.\u201d<\/p>\n

B101.6-2012 also makes it clear that the responsibility for selecting and maintaining safe floor mats rests squarely on the facility manager\u2019s shoulders. And although the standard is voluntary, the choice to comply or not to comply can determine the outcome of a slip-and-fall lawsuit: showing you\u2019re in compliance will bolster your legal defence, while failing to comply can be perceived as negligence.<\/p>\n

Even with their comprehensive floor safety program, Market Basket still had a glaring problem if they wanted to comply with ANSI\/ NFSI B101.6-2012: how could they conform to the standard if they had no control over the quality of their floor mats? There had to be a better way.<\/p>\n

Getting a grip on the floor mat problem.<\/h2>\n

In the fall of 2013, Mike Rohrbaugh spotted an intriguing product called PIG Grippy Floor Mat<\/a> in the New Pig Leak & Spill catalogue. The description said the product was, \u201cAn absorbent mat with a specially formulated, full-coverage adhesive backing that holds tight to the floor, but peels up easily.\u201d And there was an added bonus: it was tested and certified by NFSI as a high-traction walking surface, making it the perfect alternative to rental floor mats.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it might work,\u201d says Rohrbaugh. \u201cSo I called up New Pig and talked to John Boyd. He sent me two six-foot pieces to test out, and I installed those. And it worked so well that I bought a roll. We tested it in one store, then six. Pretty soon, the other 28 managers were calling me so they could be next.\u201d<\/p>\n

Replacing their rental mats with PIG Grippy Floor Mat<\/a> provided immediate and dramatic results for Market Basket. Because of the adhesive backing, the mat laid flat and stayed flat with absolutely no shifting, bunching up flipping over. Slip and trip hazards were virtually eliminated overnight. Associates and managers didn\u2019t need to spend valuable time putting mats back where they belonged. Shopping and stocking carts easily rolled over the mat with no creeping or bunching up under the wheels. Even loaded pallet jacks could roll across without affecting the surface or lifting the adhesive.<\/p>\n

Although Grippy Mat is much thinner than standard rental floor mats, its polypropylene construction makes it much more absorbent to keep floors drier \u2014 even during a torrential downpour.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had six-and-a-half inches of rain recently, and the managers were talking about how dry it stayed inside the stores with this mat,\u201d says Rohrbaugh. \u201cThey were flabbergasted. When our shopping carts came back in, they were just dripping wet. The managers were telling the guys to run the carts over the mat and bang the wheels to knock some of the rain off. And they said no water was coming off the end of the mat. So the Grippy Mat was absorbing almost all of the water that would have been tracked into the stores.\u201d<\/p>\n

PIG Grippy Floor Mat<\/a> also proved to be effective at removing dirt and grime. \u201cI put about twelve feet of Grippy Mat in the vestibule at a few of our stores as runoff mat. Next, I\u2019m going to experiment with putting another six feet on the other side of the door. Nothing will get in then \u2014 particularly at the stores where there is a high sand content in the soil from the parking lot. When customers walk in, that sandy grime will go into the mat and prevent it from coming into the store and dulling the wax finish on our floor.\u201d<\/p>\n

How PIG Grippy Floor Mat pays off at Market Basket.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

PIG Grippy Floor Mat eliminates a major trip and fall hazard from the stores.<\/strong><\/p>\n