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Retailer News BRIEFS GOURMET NEWS SEPTEMBER 2019 www.gourmetnews.com RETAILER NEWS 1 0 Whole Foods to Anchor LA Development Whole Foods Market has leased space for an approximately 50,000 square foot flagship grocery store that will anchor the urban, mixed- use Cumulus District development in Los Angeles. Cumulus is a transit-oriented development expected to open in late 2020. When completed, Cumulus will feature 1,210 apartments, a one-acre public park and plaza, and 100,000 square feet of grocery-anchored retail and restaurant space. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Kroger Raids New Nashville Division President from Walmart The Kroger Co. has named Sonya Hostetler as President of its Nashville division, succeeding Zane Day, who is retiring from the company after nearly 45 years of service. Hostetler spent the previous 30 years with Walmart Inc., where she began as an hourly associate and excelled to hold key leadership positions in retail, asset protection, human resources and operations. Most recently, Hostetler served as vice president, regional general manager based in Dallas, Texas. In this role, Hostetler led 13 markets, 122 stores and 45,000 associates. Stanley's Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Grocery Store Offered for Sale Paine Wetzel Commercial Real Estate and MWA Capital Advisors have been hired by the Panagiotaros family to publicly market the 1.05- acre former Stanley's Fresh Fruit and Vegetables property located at the corner of North Avenue and Elston Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. After serving the area for decades, the family has decided to sell the property as competition and redevelopment comes to the area. The Stanley's property totals approximately 1.05 acres and currently features a 7,665 square-foot retail building and a cold storage building. With potential assemblage of adjoining parcels, the acreage increases to 3.67 acres. Weis Markets Reports Results for Second Quarter Weis Markets, Inc. has reported that the company's sales increased 1.9 percent to $888.0 million during the 13-week period ended June 29, 2019, compared to the same period in 2018, while first quarter comparable store sales, adjusted for the holiday shift, increased 1.4 percent. The company's 2019 second quarter sales benefited from the Easter holiday shift, since the Easter selling period occurred in the last week of the first quarter in 2018 while the slow selling post-Easter week fell in the second quarter a year ago. In 2019, both weeks fell in the second quarter. Management estimates the incremental holiday sales impact in 2019 for comparative purposes was approximately $9.7 million, which has been excluded from the company's 2019 comparable store sales total. The company's second quarter net income increased 7.2 percent to $20.5 million, compared to $19.1 million in 2018, while earnings per share totaled $0.76, compared to $0.71 per share for the same period in 2018. Barons Market Thrives in Southern California BY LORRIE BAUMANN Soon after Barons Market opens its ninth southern California store early next year, it'll host its first entirely unprofitable Barons Backroom Beer Pairing event at that location. As happens quarterly at each of the Barons Markets, the store will sell $15 tickets for the event, staff it with employees to provide four small plates and paired with local craft beers for each dish, and 60 to 100 people will show up to eat supper in their grocer's back room or out on the load- ing dock. Rachel Shemirani, Senior Vice President of Barons Market and daughter of Founder Joe Shemi- rani, who opened the Barons Market in San Diego's Point Loma neighborhood along with his brothers in 1993, happily anticipates that the event won't bring in a dime for the store. "This is something we're paying for," she said. "It brings customers to the store. It gets a lot of attention for local craft breweries and community organizations. We raise a lot of good money for local charities, and we've become wonderful partners for them. We believe it's money very well spent." Barons donates 100 percent of the ticket sales for the events to one of a rotating list of local charities – sometimes Feeding America/Feeding San Diego, sometimes breast cancer research, sometimes local dog rescue organizations. New to this year, each store chose a local elementary school to benefit during the January pairing with Refuge Brewery. "We try to make the char- ity local to where those stores are, so they're giving back to their local communi- ties," Shemirani said. "We know that if our Fairway Campaign Continued from PAGE 1 they'd go to Greece and let Barka introduce them to artisanal food producers from Greece and Cyprus. "They had meetings with all of them," Barka said. "We presented them with the best of the best companies." Ultimately, Fairway agreed to provide shelf space for products from 18 of those compa- nies for a six-month trial period. "Those that do well will stay here indefinitely, like any other brand," Barka said. Fairway will also kick off the trial with a three-week promo- tion that includes publicity and in-store demonstrations and sampling events. "As part of the promo campaign, we will run a contest," Barka said. The contest will offer participating shoppers the chance to win one of two culinary-focused trips, one to Greece and one to Cyprus. The promotional cam- paign will kick off with a September 26 breakfast at Fairway's Red Hook store and continue for the following three weeks through October 17. The products selected by Fairway for its shelves include estate olive oils, natural jams and juices, baking mixes, artisan cheeses, spiced sea salts, raw honey and honey spreads and traditional soup mixes, cookies and sesame spreads. "Most of the products will make their debut in the U.S. market and are products that, until now, one could only find if they traveled to Greece and a local gave them foods from their pantry," Barka said. Barka is optimistic that Fairway's shoppers will enjoy the opportunity that Fairway is presenting. She points out that Americans are interested in the Mediterranean diet and that many are already familiar with Greek cuisine. Greek-Americans have done a good job of running festivals spotlighting Greek cuisine across the U.S., so there are Americans every- where who are potential customers for the products they'd need to duplicate aspects of that cuisine for their own tables, she said. "We are looking into opening up more stores for these kind of products," she said. "Amer- icans love Greek food – there's not a lot of real Greek food here. We will see more.... Even- tually, we'd like to have a lot of these products available." GN communities thrive, everybody wins." Like her father and uncles, Shemirani be- lieves that the events develop customer loy- alty that helps the chain compete with online grocers. "Amazon Go doesn't donate for your kids' team fundraiser," she said. "That keeps your customers loyal and ap- preciative and supportive of your business. People who shop at brick-and-mortar stores shop with their hearts." "It's super easy. That really is the antidote to online grocery shopping," she contin- ued. "My advice to other independent re- tailers is not to be scared. Do what you do." Barons Market's focus on customer experience starts in the parking lot, where fresh flowers and produce are displayed in front of the store. "A customer decides if they want to shop in your store in the first five sec- onds," Shemirani said. "Our displays there are fresh, full and clean." Once inside the store, customers see orchids, more fresh produce and fresh baguettes from a local bakery. "They see a smiling employee," Shemirani said. "It really is about customer experi- ence. We extend customer service to our vendors, our distributors and other part- ners — it's about being kind and respecting people." Inside the 15,000 to 20,000 square foot store, customers will find 9,000 to 10,000 SKUs. Demonstrations are scheduled eight hours a day to introduce customers to new products, which are selected every Wednes- day by a food panel of store managers, de- partment managers and Joe Shemirani. "For about three hours, we taste, discuss, judge and vote," Shemirani said. Each week, the tasting panel will try 80 to 120 product samples and choose five or six of them to carry in the stores. "We discon- tinue about 10 items to make sure that the selection is intentionally limited," Shemirani said. "Our customers are busier than ever, and we not only value their wallets — we ne- gotiate the best price for them we can — but we also value their time.... Our customers will shop typically three to five times a week and then go to Costco for paper products. That really is our typical customer." The smallish store footprint and limited selection allow many customers to be in and out of the store in about 10 minutes. A few may be there two or three times in the course of a day. "They're now wanting to shop fresh," Shemirani said. "They don't want preservatives. They're going to buy it and consume it within the hour or within 24 hours." Around the store's perimeter, they'll find an olive and antipasto bar, fresh salad bar and hot soup bar. Each store makes fresh sandwiches and entrees every morning, and the chain is rolling out hot food into the stores as health permits are secured. The same tasting panel that decides on pantry products selects the prepared food menu. "The hot soup bar is popular. We could change our name to Barons Market Soups," Shemirani joked. "Our Mac n' Cheese, chicken curry and beef short ribs are all doing really well in our new hot food bar. The salad bar where people create their own has been a huge success. The kids love to make their own salads." Pricing for everything in the store is on an everyday low price model. "The only time we change our prices is if our costs change up or down," Shemirani said. "True value is for everything. We have good food from good ingredients at very good prices." GN

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