Independent Grocer Memo: Despite Two Tesco Fresh & Easy Stores and A New Wal-Mart Marketside Store, Gilbert, AZ USA Grocer is Ready to Rock Downtown

The Phoenix, Arizona suburb of Gilbert has recently been ground zero for new retail food and grocry store openings.

On October 4, mega-retailer Wal-Mart, Inc. opened one of its first four new small-format (15,000 -to- 20,000 square foot) Marketside combination grocery and fresh foods stores in Gilbert, along with opening three more on the same day in the cities of Mesa, Chandler and Tempe.

British grocery chain Tesco also recently opened its second small-format (10,000 -to- 13,000 square foot) Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market convenience-oriented grocery and fresh foods market in the city.

Both Wal-Mart's Marketside and Tesco's Fresh & Easy formats offer an extensive selection of fresh, prepared foods. The Marketside stores have in-store kitchens and the Fresh & Easy stores receive their prepared foods from the company's huge central kitchen in Southern California.

All this new store opening activity in by the world's number one retailer -- Wal-Mart -- and the world's third largest chain -- Tesco -- hasn't scared off Gilbert's historic Liberty Market, an independent grocery store that's been open in the city since the U.S. Great Depression, though.

Liberty Market owner Owner Joe Johnston and his partners have just completed a major remodeling of the supermarket located in Downtown Gilbert's historic Heritage District, transforming the grocery store into what Johnston calls an "urban marketplace."

The inside of the historic market features a mix of the old and new. There are modern-style clear exposed bulbs hanging from ceiling beams built in the 1930s. On the same concrete floor originally poured in 1958 sit modernist tables with smooth black surfaces.

The remodeled market features an in-store demonstration kitchen where shoppers can see what the chefs are doing through two large glass windows. Among the modern equipment in the in-store kitchen is a Vulcan Oven in which artisan pizza's are baked for sale in the store.

A major part of Liberty Market's new urban flair includes lots of prepared foods from the kitchen. There are full ready-to-heat dinner entrees and side-dishes as well as ready-to-eat grab-and-go foods prepared right in the store.

The market also features an in-store espresso bar/cafe which owner Johnson says he wants to become a downtown Gilbert social hub as well as a place where the city's many commuters will stop off on there way to work.

Professional chef David Traina is Johnson's partner in Liberty Market. He will be running the in-store kitchen, creating what he says will be a combination of basic comfort foods along with more adventurous offerings such as sweet potato salad and authentic Sicilian pizza's, among other offerings. There are fresh baked goods as well.

The market also has a retail section offering shelf-stable, fresh and perishable food and grocery items with an emphasis on specialty products.

Johnson owns three successful restaurants in Gilbert. Therefore focusing on in-store prepared foods along with retail food and grocery items in the revamped Liberty Market is a natural for both him and chef Traina.

The historic market has had four owners since it opened in the 1930's. Johnson is the fourth and says he wants to be the last.

Although he has done extensive remodeling to Liberty Market, owner Johnson says it still retains its historic core. He's referring to the historic elements such as the concrete floor poured in 1958, the 1930's wood ceiling beams and other historic elements which have been retained in the store's remodeling.

The fresh food and grocery market is part of the revitalization of downtown Gilbert and its historic district.

Johnson and Traina say they fear not the big chain outlets that have recently opened in Gilbert. They believe their upscale yet historically-grounded Liberty market and its downtown location offer residents and shoppers not only food and grocery items but restaurant-quality prepared foods items supported by Johnson's reputation as a successful restaurant operator in the city.

Additionally, It's also the only market in the downtown which has been adding various new amenities like Water Tower Park, which is slated to open next month, and the Western Canal Trail which is being completed and is scheduled for an early 2009 opening, according to Johnson.

These new public features, along with a number of new retail shops that have opened in downtown Gilbert in the last couple years, are expected to draw local residents as well as residents from outside the city to the downtown core.

Johnson and Traina say they are prepared for those new customers when they come, along with serving the residents of the entire city of Gilbert.

We like that independent spirit.

Marketing Memo: 60% of Consumers Interact With Companies On Social Media Sites; Natural~Specialty Foods Companies Not Using Social Media Missing Out

Nearly 60% of U.S. consumers say they interact with companies on a social media Web site, and one in four interact more than once per week, according to the results of the 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study which were just released.

The survey finds that 93% of Americans believe a company should have a presence in social media, while 85% believe a company should not only be present, but should also interact with its consumers via social media.

56% of American consumers feel both a stronger connection with, and better served by, companies when they can interact with them in a social media environment.

Mike Hollywood, director of new media for Cone, says about the results of the survey: "Social media... it isn't an intrusion into their lives, but rather a welcome channel for discussion."

Here is a sampling of what American consumers surveyed said when asked about specific types of social media interactions they said they preferred:

>43% say that companies should use social networks to help solve my problems

>41% want companies to solicit feedback on their products and services

>37% feel that companies should develop new ways for consumers to interact with their brand

>33% of men and 17% of women interact frequently (one or more times per week) with companies via social media

"The ease and efficiency of online conversation is likely a draw for men who historically do not seek out the same level of interaction with companies as women," says Hollywood.

Additionally, 33% of younger, hard-to-reach consumers (ages 18-34), believe companies should actively market to them via social networks, and the same is true of the wealthiest households (household income of $75,000+). Two-thirds of the wealthiest households and the largest households (3 or more members) feel stronger connections to brands they interact with online.

Additional, separate research shows similar findings.

Generation Y (those born after 1979) online buyers are more immersed in online and mobile activities than any other generation, according to 2008 research from shopping comparison site PriceGrabber. Some 85% of Gen Y respondents said they participated in social networking, and 57% reported involvement with blogs in a recent survey conducted by the online site.

The 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study was an online survey conducted September 11-12, 2008 by Opinion Research Corporation among 1,092 adults comprising 525 men and 567 women 18 years of age and older. The margin of error associated with a sample of this size is ± 3%. Cone is a strategic marketing and branding consulting firm based in Boston, Mass. USA.

The social media opportunity

A number of food and grocery retailers such as Wal-Mart, Inc., Whole Foods Market, Inc., (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter.com) Trader Joe's (Twitter.com), 7-Eleven (Twitter.com), Tesco's Fresh & Easy (Twitter.com) are using various social media sites to promote their stores, interact with consumers and offer various information such as recipes, tips from buyers and related information.

Others, including some of the above, also are using Blogs on their own web sites as social networking and marketing forums as well. Whole Foods has a series of such Blogs at http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/, and Wal-Mart has its "Buyers' Blog" at http://www.walmart.com/, for example.

Numerous food and grocery manufacturers and suppliers also are using social media sites to market their products. and interact with consumers.

But Far too few natural and specialty foods manufacturers and marketers are doing so however. This is a missed opportunity for category companies because social marketing fits well with natural and specialty foods companies which often are smaller, entrepreneurial businesses that have great stories to tell.

Social media sites like Myspace, Facebook, Twitter and others are great forums for story telling and networking with customers and potential customers. Natural and specialty foods companies often have great stories to tell because of their entrepreneurial origins or other aspects of what the company does. Social media fits all size companies though, from the one-person shop to the global mega-corporation.

Using social marketing sites like those above also is low cost. It costs nothing to use the sites generally. All that's needed is an employee -- hopefully one skilled in social marketing or willing to experiment and learn -- to maintain the site, post material and network with consumers.

The best practice if possible is to involve the entire company -- from the president to the marketing department to the warehouse staff -- in the site. The more social and interactive across the board a social media site is the more interesting it is to consumers in most cases.

Of course care needs to be taken regarding the content a company places on its social media sites since like in all marketing, company and brand reputation is at stake.

Over marketing is a good way to kill a social media site as well. What's needed is a blend of marketing and brand information along with lots of other information -- stories about the company and its employees, involvement of the company in charities, recipes, related news and the like.

Interactivity also is key -- and not just between the company and users but also between the various social media site users themselves. encouraging this can really spread word of mouth about a natural or specialty foods company and the products it produces and markets.

We believe natural and specialty foods companies not using at least one social media site such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and a few others are missing the 21rst Century marketing boat. The opportunities to connect with current customers, consumers, buyers of your products and potential buyers of your products -- and to link those people together around your brand --exist at present using these social media sites in ways never before imagined at marketing costs never before possible.

Natural~Specialty Foods Memo has a site on Twitter.com in fact. Just go to http://www.twitter.com/. Type in nsfoodsmemo in the search box, and you will be taken to our Twitter site or page.

If you want to view Whole Foods', Trader Joe's, 7-Eleven's or Fresh & Easy's sites on Twitter just type those respective names in the search box as well. You can also do a global search using say "food retailers" or "supermarkets." The same is the case with "natural foods companies" or "Specialty foods companies" and the like to see if any are using Twitter.com.

Meanwhile, we suggest those in the natural and specialty foods industry -- retailers, manufacturers/marketers, distributors, brokers and others -- who currently aren't using one or more social networking and marketing sites do so soon. It's an opportunity you can't afford to miss out on in our analysis and opinion.

Local Foods Retailing Memo" We Suggest the Next Steps in the Evolution of Local Foods Retailing Will Be 'Grocer Grown' and 'Store Grown'

By day Simon Richard is the produce department manager at the Bi-Rite Market in San Francisco, California's Mission District. Often by day he also is a farmer, growing a variety of fruits and vegetables, such as the heirloom tomatoes he's just harvested and is holding in his hand in the photograph above taken at his Sonoma County farm where he grows a variety of fruits and vegetables offered for sale in the store's produce department. We call it 'Grocer-Grown.'

Earlier this year Natural~Specialty Foods Memo coined the term "Local foods retailing 2.0" to explain a practice being conducted by a handful of retailers such as the upscale United Kingdom (UK) supermarket chain Waitrose, Wal-Mart's UK chain Asda and a few others that have taken the merchandising and sales of "locally-produced" food and grocery products to the next level by growing fresh fruits and vegetables on their own land, along with raising hogs, steers and other animals to be butchered and sold as fresh meat cuts and used in prepared foods items in their stores, as well as creating some specialty foods products from the produce they grow. We also call this phenomenon "Grocer-Grown." In the case of meats, we call it "Grocer-Raised. And in the case of value-added food and grocery products, "Grocer-Produced."

Waitrose is the pioneer and most aggressive retailer we've yet to find that is practicing "Local foods retailing 2.0," going from its own farm right to the supermarket shelf, offering numerous "Grocer Grown" fresh produce, fresh meat and value-added food products from it own large estate farm in England.

Wegmans experimenting with 'Grocer-Grown'

The innovative upstate New York USA-based Wegmans supermarket chain also is growing some of its own fruits and vegetables on a farm owned by CEO Danny Wegman and his family. The idea to do so came from one of Wegmans' daughters. So far, fresh fruits and vegetables grown on the Wegman family farm have been offered for sale at one of the Wegmans' supermarkets, a unit located nearby the farm.

Danny Wegman told Natural~Specialty Foods Memo earlier this year the family plans to produce more varieties (and increase production a bit) of fruits and vegetables on the family farm for that one nearby store, along with selling the produce at a few other stores in that same region. The retailer is experimenting with "Grocer-Grown" and doesn't want to over-produce because the idea is to offer a selection of seasonal, high-quality, artisan produce items grown on the family farm and sold at the company's supermarkets located in the region where the farm is in upstate New York.

Bi-Rite Becoming leader in 'Grocer-Grown'

Another innovative American grocer in the city of San Francisco, independent food retailer Bi-Rite Market, also is becoming a major player in "Local Foods Retailing 2.0" or "Grocer-Grown."

Bi-Rite Market, which is located in San Francisco's Mission District neighborhood, has a garden on the roof of the urban food store where it grows fresh herbs which are sold in the store's produce department.

Bi-Rite also locally raises and butchers its own hogs, which are then offered in the store in a variety of ways: fresh pork roasts and chops, sausage, bacon and other cuts of meat. The pork also is used by the food retailer in a variety of the numerous in-store fresh, prepared foods items it makes and sells in the upscale supermarket.

The independent grocer, which sells all sorts of natural, organic, specialty and prepared foods items (a great many which are produced locally) in its popular San Francisco market, along with a selection of basic food and grocery items, is now kicking up its local foods merchandising program into the 2.0 world. "Grocer-Grown" Bi-Rite Market has started growing a selection of its own fruits and vegetables and is selling the fresh produce in the store.

In Bi-Rite's case, the store farmer also is the store produce manager, Simon Richard. This spring Richard grew a variety of fruits and vegetables on land in Sonoma County, which is located about 45 miles from San Francisco.

His crop recently came in. Among the fresh produce grown by the farmer/produce manager being offered for sale in Bi-Rite's produce department include heirloom tomatoes, Romano beans, arugula and more.

What's unique and very interesting about what Bi-Rite is doing is that in this case the "locally-grown" fresh produce items being produced by the store to be sold in the store are being grown by the same person who then is in charge of how they are sold in the store. That would be produce manager turned farmer Simon Richard. Talk about not only a local but a personal touch as well. The produce at Bi-Rite Market isn't only "Grocer-Grown," its "produce manager-grown."

The San Francisco Chronicle recently wrote about Bi-Rite's newest entry into what we call "Local Foods Retailing 2.0," the offering of the first crop of "Grocer-Grown" fresh produce for sale in the store. You can read the story, "Food Conscious: S.F. grocery branches out into farming," by Chronicle staff writer Jane Tucks here.

"Grocer-Grown' more than a fad

Natural~Specialty Foods Memo expects to see more retailers, particularly innovative independent supermarkets and natural foods retailers, join the "Local foods retailing 2.0" movement by growing some of their own fresh produce, either on land they own or in special arrangements with small, family farmers in which the grocer takes a hands on role.

Numerous U.S. food retailers like Whole Foods Market, Inc., Raley's in Northern California, Wegmans, Publix in Florida and a others regularly contract with farmers to purchase 100% of a certain crop, such as melons, apples, onions and other fresh produce items; usually specialty crops. In some cases these retailers also have input into how the crops are grown.

This practice, although close, isn't quite "Local foods retailing 2.0" because there still remains a separation between the retailer and the grower rather than the retailer being the grower.

Whole Foods is getting much closer to becoming a "local foods 2.0 retailer" however. It's increasingly working in partnership with small farmers to grow crops just for the retailer as well as loaning money to a number of these farmers so they can expand there production.

The only thing keeping Whole Foods from being a "local Foods 2.0 retailer" like Waitrose, Wegmans and Bi-Rite is that it has yet to directly grow its own crops and then sell the fresh produce in a Whole Foods market store. At least that we are aware of based on our research.

Whole Foods Market and 'Store-Grown'

Natural~Specialty Foods Memo however has a way for Whole Foods Market not only to become a charter member of the "Local foods retailing 2.0" "Grocer-Grown" club but also to leap-frog over all the others and become the pioneer in what we call "Store-Grown" local foods retailing. Yes, we are coining another new term.

We would like to see Whole Foods Market include a good-sized organic hydroponic garden in one of its stores, along with an outdoor organic rooftop garden. Make the indoor hydroponic garden about 3,000 square feet to start (prototype store) and have it glassed in so store customers can watch workers tending the garden while they shop. This fits into Whole Foods educational mission as a food retailer very well we believe. Think of the glass-walled in-store garden as the store's version of a restaurant's open demonstration kitchen.

Why not skip the farm altogether and use the store as the farm? Single-store Bi-Rite in San Francisco is doing this in part with its small rooftop garden after all.

Additionally, we suggest devoting a substantial portion of the store's roof to the rooftop garden. The store needs to be in a geographical location -- California, Florida, ect. -- where there's lots of sunshine throughout the year.

There are a myriad of crops Whole Foods 2.0 could grow in this store rooftop garden and sell in the store below, including fresh herbs, tomatoes, greens, seasonal fruits and more. As is the case in any garden, Whole Foods' limitations would primarily be based on the climate, weather and the like. With modern, intensive farming techniques one can grow an abundance of different fruits and vegetables and achieve considerable yields in such a rooftop garden.

Between the in-store hydroponic garden, which has no climate or soil limitations, and the outdoor rooftop garden, that Whole Foods 2.0 store could produce a wide-variety and abundance of fresh produce to be sold in the store throughout the year -- putting an emphasis on seasonal fruits and vegetables. It would be a supplement to rather than a substitute for all the other fresh produce sold in the store.

We even have a name for this produce -- that which would be grown inside the Whole Foods store in the hydroponic garden and on the rooftop outside. That name -- and remember you read it here first -- is: "Store-Grown." We think that term would look rather impressive in the Whole Foods store's produce department alongside the other signs reading "Organic," "Locally-Grown," "Hand-Picked" and the like.

"Store-Grown" also would be a major point of differentiation for Whole Foods and that Whole Foods store. We think its an natural and logical progression for Whole Foods in terms of a "what's next" aspect to the natural products retailers innovation cycle. That's why we chose Whole Foods as the retailer we think would be best to do it right now.

Whole Foods Market, Inc. also needs to try something innovative to break out of its current malaise caused by its recent net profit decline and the significant drop in the value of its stock.

Creating the Whole Foods 2.0 store (it can be a remodel of an existing store as well) with the in-store hydroponic garden and outdoor rooftop garden (maybe toss in a garden on the side of the store as well if there is available land) also is a natural progression for the retailer in terms of its already extensive local foods procurement and retailing program. The "Store-Grown" aspect would merely be an addition to that and of course would be limited to the one test store for some time anyway.

Plus, you can't much fresher, higher-quality locally-grown produce than that which in the course of say one hour has been harvested from the store's rooftop garden and in-store hydroponic garden and stocked in the store's produce department bins and cases. That's why we call it "Store-Grown."

Retail Memo: Innovative Virginia Natural Grocer Ellwood Thompson's Local Market to Open New Store in Washington, DC USA in Fall 2009

Pictured above is an artist's rendering of the new Ellwood Thompson's Local Market natural grocery store to open next fall in Washington DC's Columbia Heights neighborhood. [Source: Elwood Thompson's Local market.]

Ellwood Thompson's Local Market, the largest independent natural grocery in Virginia, is expanding into the nearby Washington, DC market.

The currently single-store independent natural foods' retailer, which is now 20 years old, has signed a lease for a 15,000-square-foot store in the new DC USA development at 14th and Irving streets (the Columbia Heights neighborhood) in the U.S. capital city. The new store, the first in Washington, DC for the natural grocer, is scheduled to open next fall.

"We've been interested in the communities along (Washington D.C.'s) the 14th Street corridor as the home for our second store for quite some time," says Ryan Youngman of Ellwood Thompson's. "We walked the community and talked to the people. The overwhelming support we received from residents confirmed this is the perfect place to expand. Our commitment to environmental sustainability and conservation along with organics and clean local food is a perfect fit for these neighborhoods."

Putting an emphasis on locally-grown food and grocery products produced within a 100 miles of its current store in Richmond, Virginia has been a key point of competitive positioning and differentiation for the independent natural foods retailer. In fact Locavors, those consumers who try to purchase and eat only locally-produced foods, consider "local foods" those grown no more than 200 miles from where they live. Ellwood Thompson's does that official definition 100 miles better at its Richmond, Virginia store.

Natural and organic product offerings in the new Washington DC natural grocery store will include: naturopathic vitamins, supplements and personal care, products; local produce; bulk foods; fresh meats and seafood; wine; cheeses; and fresh baked goods, according to Ryan Youngman.

Prepared foods from "Ellwood's Kitchen" will be led by award-winning chef and vegan cookbook author, Jannequin Bennett, according to the retailer.

"The prepared foods offerings will cater to intentional eaters as well as provide a variety of natural, organic, and ethnically diverse dishes. Those who elect to eat vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and/or raw foods will find plenty of options in all departments," Ryan Youngman says. Additionally, the store will offer in-store and outdoor community seating with wireless Internet available so customers can use their laptop computers and other wireless devices while they sit at the indoor or outdoor tables having coffee or eating.

Ellwood Thompson's also plans to extend the "green" retailing practices it currently has at its Richmond, Virginia store to its second store in Washington, DC when it opens next fall.

Those pro-environmental practices include offering store employees and shoppers incentives for conservation and recycling in the form of monetary "envirocredits" for walking, biking and mass transit and for reusing shopping bags, water and food containers. The independent natural products' retailer isn't anti-automobile though. It will offer free parking in an underground parking deck located below the new store.

Ellwood Thompson's is an innovative, independent natural foods retailer. You can read about some of its innovations, as well as its prepared foods offerings and other merchandising and operational aspects, at its store Blog here.

Who says Whole Foods Market is a barrier to new retail entry?

Even though Whole Foods Market, Inc. plans to increase its store count in Washington, DC (although no new stores are set to open in the district next year) from its current three units, as well as Maryland-based 5-store My Organic Market (MOM) getting set to open a store in Washington DC (its sixth store and first in the district), Ellwood Thompson's decision to put its second store in DC shows there's still room in such competitive markets for natural products' retailers who create points of differentiation like the independent natural grocer does with its local foods program and numerous other unique merchandising and operations practices.

It also shows, as we argue regularly in Natural~Specialty Foods Memo, that despite the continued folly of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC)in claiming Whole Foods Market, Inc. is a monopolistic natural foods retailer (the FTC plans to hold a new hearing on the issue in February, 2009) post its acquisition of Wild Oats Markets, Inc. even though Whole Foods' stock took another beating last week and is now at least 55 -to- 60-% lower than it was when is acquired Wild Oats last year, reported a 40% drop in net income last quarter and laid off 42 headquarters employees last month, the marketplace says otherwise.

For example, Locally-based My Organic Market continues to expand in the market. Safeway Stores, Inc. plans to remodel its Georgetown neighborhood store, expanding it to about 60,000 square feet and adding thousands of new natural and organic products and numerous in-store prepared foods departments, using its expanded Lifestyle format which puts an emphasis on the natural, organic and specialty foods categories across all store departments. [One of Whole Foods' three DC stores is located in Georgetown.]

And of course innovative Ellwood Thompson's Local Market, which also offers specialty and gourmet food products along with natural and organic, now plans to build and open a brand new store in Washington DC. Rather than Whole Foods having a monopoly position in the Washington DC market, as well as is the case throughout the U.S., it's going to have to face even stiffer competition than it already has.

Washington DC is just one of the many examples of markets where independent multi-store natural products retailers such as Sprouts Farmers Market and Sunflower Farmers Market in the Western U.S., and other multi and single-store natural products retailers there and elsewhere, are challenging Whole Foods throughout the U.S. There's no Whole Foods Market, Inc. monopoly in the real world of main street.

Upscale supermarket chains are doing the same thing. Publix in Florida, Wegmans in New York, HEB and United Supermarkets' Market Street chain in Texas, Raley's in Northern California, Fresh Market in the South -- all of these supermarket chains and many more pose a competitive challenge to Whole Foods since their stores not only sell conventional groceries but put a major emphasis (and are designed similar to Whole Foods' stores) on natural, organic, specialty, gourmet and international food and grocery products, along with having a major focus on premium fresh, prepared foods.

Elwood Thompson's and DC's Columbia Heights

Ellwood Thompson's should find a warm reception when it opens its store in Washington DC's Columbia Heights neighborhood next fall. The neighborhood has lots of residents and the demographics are strong for natural and organic products retailing. [Whole Foods doesn't have a store in the neighborhood, nor is the DC My Organic Market store slated for the neighborhood.]

At 15,000 square feet the size and scale of the store also fits well into the neighborhood. It's big enough to be able to merchandise a strong multi-category offering but not so big so that it will look out of scale in the urban neighborhood.

The grocer's fresh, prepared foods offerings, along with the new store's indoor and outdoor seating with Wi-Fi, also should go over big in the neighborhood as it's residents like to spend time in neighborhood cafes and participate in urban street life.

Who knows, maybe even a U.S. Senator or two will stop by for some locally-produced fresh produce or one of Ellwood's ready-to-eat prepared foods dishes, along with offering a photo opportunity?

In fact, since it's true Michelle Obama likes buying natural and organic foods for her family, and has been known to shop at the Whole Foods Market store near where she and her husband, Democratic candidate for President Barack Obama, live in Chicago, Illinois, maybe if Senator Obama gets elected President in three weeks, he and the new first lady will do a little shopping at the new Washington DC Elwood Thompson's natural grocery store when it opens its doors next year in the capital city's Columbia Heights neighborhood?

The neighborhood isn't all that far from the White House -- especially if you have a car and driver at your disposal 24 hours a day and a secret service motorcade to speed up your trip to the store.

NSFM in the Media Memo: The '99-Cent Gourmets;' Specialty & Natural Foods and 99-Cent and Dollar Store Format Retailing

Prescott, Arizona Blogger, photographer and 99-cent store shopper Granny J. bought all three of the popular specialty food marinades above for 99-cents at the 'Amazing 99-Cent Store' in Prescot, Arizona. The store specializes in selling specialty, gourmet and natural food and grocery products for 99-cents. In this case, all three for 99-cents. By the way, all three of these specialty marinades are top sellers in the category. All three items sell in supermarkets at an everyday price of about $4.99 -to- $5.99 a bottle, depending on the store.

Korky Vann, the popular food writer for the Hartford Courant newspaper in Harford, Conn., USA, has an article in the food section of yesterday's edition about how shoppers are turning to alternative format food and grocery stores such as 99-cent and dollar stores as one way to save money during the current bad economic times in the United States.

In the article titled, "Shoppers Save On Food In Nontraditional Locations," Vann quotes Natural~Specialty Food Memo's (NSFM) March 27, 2008 story, " Food & Grocery Trends Memo: The 99-Cent Store Gourmets," in which we coined the term the '99-Cent Gourmets" for shoppers who are searching the 99-cent and dollar stores and finding bargains on natural, specialty, gourmet and premium food and grocery products, along with buying more of there basic grocery purchases in these format stores.

From Korky Vann's article in yesterday's Hartford Courant:

"According to the Natural Specialty Food Memo, an online food industry blog, 99¢ Only Stores, Dollar Tree and Dollar General, along with independent 99-cent stores, are reporting increased shopping traffic in their food aisles."

We enjoyed reading Korky Vann's well-written article about non-traditional format shopping. You can read the complete from yesterday's Hartford Courant here.

You can read our March 27, 2008 piece from which Korky Vann quoted by clicking on the title link here: Food & Grocery Trends Memo: The 99-Cent Store Gourmets.

Retail Memo: After All is Said and Done in Food Retailing it's the People Who Make the Difference

Novato Safeway nut counter clerk Imani Murphy adds flavoring to a batch of raw nuts (Photo credit: IJ photo/Jeff Vendsel)

Retail Memo Profile

There's an old saying in the retail grocery business that goes something like this: "If it doesn't happen at retail, it doesn't happen at all." We might add that saying has the added benefit of being true.

San Francisco Bay Area-based (Pleasanton, California to be exact) Safeway Stores, Inc. opened a new 50,000 square foot Lifestyle format supermarket in its Bay Area corporate backyard in August, in the Marin County city of Novato.

Marin County residents, among the most affluent of all Americans, take food and grocery shopping rather seriously. Sure they love a bargain as much as the next shopper. But price isn't the top item on their grocery store choice lists.

Rather, at the top of the average Marin County food shoppers are concepts like quality, variety, freshness, organic, gourmet, green and the like.

And Marin shoppers have lots of food store choices in the region to choose from, ranging from Safeway and Lucky supermarkets to upscale local grocery chains like Mollie Stone, United Markets and many others, including Whole Foods and a number of independent natural and specialty foods stores.

Safeway is well aware of this fact. That's why it's new Novato store is among the most upscale of its Lifestyle format stores.

The 50,000 square foot Novato Safeway also is service-oriented. The grocery chain hired 200 hundred employees to work in the store, many of which work at the various in-store full service departments such as service deli and prepared foods, the service butcher shop, fresh bakery and...the in-store service nut bar. No nut and berry Marin County jokes please.

And working that Safeway Novato in-store full service nut bar, which offers over 40 varieties of nuts, including many warmed to a customers desired temperature, is 31-year old Imani Murphy, who the Marin Independent Journal newspaper says is a big hit with the store's customers. He takes "service with a smile" to new heights, including not only greeting every nut bar customer with a smile -- but also with a handshake.

The Marin County newspaper profiled Imani Murphy, who also works as a store checker in addition to his nut bar duties, in Saturday's edition.

It's a short and interesting profile...and will make you smile just like Mr. Murphy does when he greats each nut bar customer.

Click here to read the profile, "Marin Snapshot: Novato Safeway nut bar clerk loves dishing out smiles, snacks." There's also a nice slide show of Imani Murphy and the Novato Safeway nut bar at the link.

Many decades ago Safeway Stores had a saying it would tell its employees. That saying: "There's the 'right way,' the 'wrong way' and the 'Safeway' of doing things."

Imani Murphy obviously knows the "right way" of customer service, regardless if its the "Safeway" or not.

Safeway Stores, Inc. should be nuts about Imani Murphy. After all it appears the Novato store's customers are. He's what you call "value added." And that's both the "right way" and the "Safeway" of doing things in our opinion.

Food Retailing & Society Memo: In Philadelphia Designers Create Supermarkets of the Future; Meanwhile A Local Food Retailing Icon is Lost

The proposed concept for the Brewerytown market above avoids the traditional big-box style for a design that fits into the urban street grid and camouflages the large expanse of parking.

Natural~Specialty Foods Memo Editor's Note: Two stories, published just six days apart in the Philadelphia Inquirer USA newspaper, paint an interesting picture of the dynamic nature of the food and grocery retailing business.

As the piece below by Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron describes, visionary designers are busy dreaming up the supermarket of the future for urban Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, the second story by Philadelphia Inquirer staff writer Vernon Clark reports on the closing of 100-year old Caruso's Market, a beloved, small-format neighborhood grocery store.

We offer no analysis or commentary this time around. The two articles speak for themselves.

Changing Skyline: Food for thought on supermarkets

By Inga Saffron
Philadelphia Inquirer Architecture Critic

If we are what we eat, then it follows that our cities are shaped by the buildings that sell what we eat. In that case, we're heading for trouble.

After a long absence, the neighborhood supermarket is making a comeback in urban places like Philadelphia. Only the new arrivals don't look anything like the friendly local grocers we once knew. In quick succession, a gang of boxy, suburban-scaled cornucopias has moved into the thick of Philly's rowhouse neighborhoods. They've laid claim to whole blocks at 56th and Market, 52d and Parkside, Columbus Boulevard in Pennsport. And more are coming.

You might assume that the more stores that sell fresh food, the better - especially given that Philadelphians struggle with their collective weight, at least according to certain out-of-town list-makers.

The problem is that these new supermarkets tend toward obesity themselves. It's hard to overlook all that bulk when the chains dock their flagship boxes in a marina's worth of parking. And once you breach the store's solid walls, you could as easily be in Fairbanks as Fairmount.

So a competition to encourgage architects to think outside the supermarket box comes in the nick of time. The Community Design Collaborative asked three Philadelphia architects to come up with more urban-friendly structures for our modern hunting and gathering.

To keep the exercise from devolving into the abstract, the collaborative identified three sites that have already been targeted for food stores, two in Philadelphia and one in Chester. It also partnered the architects with real clients. Even if none of the three gets built, the design exercise provides the food retailers with alternatives they can chew on.

The most exciting concept was developed by Interface Studio Architects, which pulled the most ambitious of the three projects. The firm was asked to design a new full-service supermarket for developer John Westrum at 31st and Girard, in the Brewerytown neighborhood.

Westrum had been trying to bring a supermarket to the three-acre triangular lot ever since he completed Brewerytown Square, a townhouse project. But it's been difficult because the site has only the tiniest bit of frontage on Girard Avenue, the area's commercial street. The property also sits on a steeply sloped bluff overlooking the east side of Fairmount Park and the Schuylkill. You can practically see the Philadelphia Zoo on the opposite bank.

Panoramic views are nice, but what supermarkets really need is to be able to broadcast their presence to passersby. The usual box, set behind a welcome mat of parking, would be nearly invisible to motorists and pedestrians traveling on Girard Avenue. In any case, that highway model is unworthy of a grand urban street that is still a mix of townhouses and independent stores.

Interface, led by partner Brian Phillips, solved the problem in a way that goes beyond just reimagining the utilitarian supermarket; its design has real architectural heft. The proposal clicks because it acknowledges the supermarket's dual nature as a car-oriented business that happens to be located in a multifaceted pedestrian neighborhood.

Since there is so little frontage on Girard Avenue, the designers bent the main commercial structure into two angled sections that wrap their wings around the corner of 31st and Girard. The section closest to Girard would provide small retail spaces for things like a bank, and the northern portion would house a midsize supermarket.

Though their angular form breaks from Philadelphia's street-wall tradition, it compensates for the deviation by offering the neighborhood a substanial plaza that works as a pocket park. At the hinge, where the two wings come together, the plaza slides down under the buildings, providing sight lines and walking ramps to the parking lot at the low end of the slope.

Because of that sharp incline, the supermarket floor would be below the level of 31st Street. Interface turns the problem into a virtue. An all-glass facade would enable arriving pedestrians to see into the store, while a sequence of switchback ramps would move them gently down to the store entrance. Since the parking lot is at the entrance level, customers who drive would have easy access.

This jaunty arrangement solves the site's problems in one stroke. The designers use the level change to screen the parking lot from the neighborhood. Meanwhile, the swooping roof becomes the building's can't-miss sign.

And by splitting the commercial structure into two sections, Interface avoids the bulkiness of the box. With their glass facades, the structures resemble park pavilions, which is what they are, since they overlook Kelly Drive.

Like Interface, the other firms that participated in the design exercise, Agoos Lovera and KSS, recognized that supermarkets are about more than just food. They're neighborhood anchors. Interface included housing at the north end of its site. The supermarket's sinuous roof winds around, jumping onto a third structure that would contain loft apartments.

Because the other projects involved retrofits of existing buildings, there was less opportunity for the designers to reinvent the supermarket form. Nevertheless, in its three-stage scheme for turning an Ogontz Avenue rowhouse in West Oak Lane into a satellite for the Weavers Way food co-op, Agoos Lovera sketched a plan that includes a meeting room, a demonstration kitchen, and a community garden. KSS came up with a nearly identical program for an old furniture store on Chester's Avenue of the States, purchased by a Chester food co-op. In the future, they believe, food stores will be community hubs.

At the moment, most people see supermarket shopping as a necessary chore. But who knows? If these designers can open the eyes of store operators, we just might start to look forward to the weekly shopping trip.

Caruso's Market closes in Chestnut Hill
By Vernon Clark
Inquirer Staff Writer, October 1, 2008

It was a boutique grocery that specialized in quality meats and produce, and that anchored the Chestnut Hill shopping strip for nearly a century.

Last month, Caruso's Market, 8418-24 Germantown Ave. (pictured above), closed abruptly, leaving many residents recalling bygone days of personal service and a family-friendly atmosphere, and wondering what will become of the property.

Fran O'Donnell, head of the Chestnut Hill Business Association, lamented the loss.

"I think the closing brought great concern to the community as far as being a fixture there, but also as a necessity," O'Donnell said. "It's not like another retailer. This is servicing what you put on your table."

Ellen Maher, 78, who has lived most of her life in Chestnut Hill, was a regular shopper there for decades.

"It was always a very nice market," Maher said. "They did delivery service. It was an alternative to the supermarket. My husband and I always walked to Caruso's."

Residents said the store's windows were covered with brown paper on the night of Sept. 15 and a sign posted that read, "Closed for repairs." A day later the sign was replaced with one saying, "Sorry for the inconvenience. Reopening soon."

The next day the sign was changed to "Sorry for the inconvenience. Closed until further notice."

CMS Cos., an investment company in Wynnewood, issued a statement saying that John Capoferri, the market's operator, "had terminated the Caruso's Market lease," making way for a CMS affiliate to take control of the property.

Capoferri did not respond to several phone messages left for him.

Capoferri bought the 10,000-square-foot building in the spring.

The market was operated for decades by the Marano family, owners of a South Philadelphia pasta business, said Joe Marano, who operates Marano's Fort Washington Garden Mart.

Marano said Caruso was the name of relatives who opened the market in the early 1900s.

"Despite attempts over the prior several weeks to work with Mr. Capoferri to help restructure his financial obligations at the property, we concluded it was in our investors' best interest to take control of the building," said Richard T. Aljian, a CMS official.

He also said the company was preparing the building for "re-leasing, with a grocery-store concept remaining a potential strategy."

O'Donnell said residents want another grocery at the site.

"I think in a community like this, there has to be an outreach to make sure that it stays just the same use," O'Donnell said. "Whether it's Caruso's or not, we want it to still be a food market."

Paul Dodge, owner of the French Bakery on Germantown Avenue, said the closure was a major blow to the community.

"So many older people really rely on the local businesses," Dodge said. "A loss like this is devastating. Who can open a grocery store?"

Dodge said that at the holidays, customers would flock to the store.

"On Thanksgiving they had hundreds of turkey orders," he said. "Caruso's Market was like a dinosaur in many ways."

Philip LeCalsey, an official of the Chestnut Hill Community Association, said that many in the neighborhood want the market to be replaced by one similar to Caruso's.

"Having a neighborhood grocery for such a long time . . . has been a big asset to Chestnut Hill residents," LeCalsey said.

He said he had been a regular customer at Caruso's.

"I was in there usually twice a day, getting coffee in the morning and getting lunch," he said.

Marie Chiodo, who has lived in Chestnut Hill for more than 50 years, worried about the future of the store.

"It was very convenient," Chiodo said. "Now, who knows what's going to happen? I hope they come back and reopen."

Standing outside the store with her infant daughter, Tessa, in a stroller, Katie Maier, a Chestnut Hill resident for about 31/2 years, also regretted the closing.

"I think it's a shame that it closed. There is nowhere else here where I can go to get a few things," Maier said. "I was here last week and ordered a roast. They said the butcher was going to call me, and the next day they were shut."