Oser Communications Group

SPECIALTY RETAILERS GOURMET NEWS SEPTEMBER 2013 www.gourmetnews.com 19 Specialty Retailers BRIEFS Manhattan Fruitier Expands with Online Specialty Food Store Manhattan Fruitier, with its elegant fresh fruit baskets and gourmet gift baskets that have been favorites of U.S. presidents, celebrities and discerning clientele for more than 25 years, has expanded its business with the Pantry, a new line of artisanal foods that customers purchase for self-consumption, rather than gift-giving. The Pantry consists of unique gourmet and artisanal foods that are handcrafted by independent producers across the United States and worldwide. The primary purpose of the Pantry is to provide customers access to interesting offerings that may not be available to them locally. "Our Pantry represents a whole new way to shop at Manhattan Fruitier. We want our customers to treat themselves for a change," said Jehv Gold, company owner. To coincide with the launch of the Pantry, Manhattan Fruitier has also completely redesigned its website. The Pantry section on the website allows visitors to browse through the foods available that can be ordered online. Each item is represented with a photo of the product and a detailed description. The company has created a niche by providing top-quality elegant fruit gift baskets that are hand-delivered across Manhattan and shipped across the nation. To view what the Pantry is currently offering, visit www.manhattanfruitier.com/category/pantry. Natural Grocers Expands Across Oklahoma Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage® opened its newest location in Tulsa, Okla. The Tulsa store at 9137 E. 71st St., is the company's second in Oklahoma, joining an existing store in Norman. Based in Colorado, Natural Grocers offers only natural and organic products on its shelves. Shoppers will find only USDA-certified organic produce, meats from animals raised naturally without the use of antibiotics or hormones, as well as other delicious organic and natural groceries free of artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners and hydrogenated oils. The grocery chain also offers an extensive natural dietary supplement and body care department, as well as a large selection of gluten-free and other special dietary need products. For more than 55 years, Natural Grocers has honored the Isely family's founding principles to provide the highest ingredient standards at everyday affordable prices. Natural Grocers will not sell any foods that contain artificial ingredients. Today, the awareness of the benefits of eating natural foods is higher than ever and continues to grow, helping Natural Grocers expand into 13 states with more than 65 stores. Started as a single family-run store, Natural Grocers has grown into a successful national chain with locations across Colorado, Texas, Utah, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Missouri, New Mexico, Montana, Kansas, Idaho, Nebraska, Arizona and Oregon. Special Events Make Market Street a Destination Supermarket BY LORRIE BAUMANN Just in case Texans did not have enough reasons to be proud of their state already, Market Street takes July of every year as an opportunity to add to those with a Best of Texas expo that helps Texans get better acquainted with the food and beverage bounty produced in the Lone Star State. This year's Best of Texas expo featured products ranging from Beanitos chips, Rhythm Kale Chips and Mrs. Renfro's Salsa for the appetizer course to Scoops Ice Cream and Sticky Toffee Pudding along with about three dozen other brands and product categories that all originated in Texas. "We do three or four of those kinds of events through the year. Best of Texas may be everyone's favorite because our guests expect us to feature local products and provide them with local products," said Eddie Owens, Director of Communications and Public Relations for United Supermarkets, LLC., the parent company of Market Street, which is coming up on its 10th anniversary in the Dallas-Fort Worth market. United now has 57 stores in Texas under four brands: United Supermarkets (36 stores), Market Street (11 stores), Amigos (three stores) and United Express (seven free-standing convenience stores and 18 other fuel stations with walk-in kiosks). A new United Supermarkets location and another Market Street store are under construction, and a new Amigos store, a brand designed for Hispanic communities, is scheduled to be built next year. Market Street, the company's specialty foods retail chain, is known in north and west Texas for three annual month-long expos: Best of Texas, Healthy New You, which focuses on health and wellness and is held in January, and Entertaining Made Easy, which takes place each November. Healthy New You includes some regular vendors, especially those who make health and body care products. Health screenings are also offered through nonprofit partners like American Diabetes Association. The Best of Texas expo is a sampling event with stations located throughout the stores. "We featured at least one product from every department of the store each weekend. If you came in the first weekend in July, you would not see the same products that you would see the second weekend," Owens said. The showcase for Texas products meets a need for Market Street guests, who, along with many other Americans, are increasingly more concerned about food safety and ethics. "There is a growing urgency for folks who want to know where their products are coming from. They want to buy close to home," Owens said. "We're trying to meet that need. We're hoping that once they're exposed to those products, guests will keep coming back to purchase them." Customers are also encouraged to keep coming back by a vigorous social media effort along with Market Street's weekly newspaper advertising. The expo events are marketed in the weekly ads as well as in runof-press ads in the same editions of the newspapers during the weeks in which the expo is happening. Notices are also pushed out on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram. The expos are celebrated with occasional radio remotes as well. "The whole point is to generate some excitement," Owens said. In addition to the events that take place in all 11 Market Street stores, there are two Market Streets in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex that include cooking schools. Both of those stores are larger than the other nine Market Street stores, which range from 65,000 to 71,000 square feet. These stores include larger kitchenware departments as well as classrooms and demonstration areas large enough for hands-on classes taught by the company's corporate chef and other chefs from the community. The classes are staffed by Market Street team members who handle registrations, clean-up and all the other tasks associated with running a successful culinary education program. "On the other end of the scale, there's a new store under construction in Flower Mound that's downsized to only 55,000 square feet," Owens said. He noted that United has been seeking to enter the Flower Mound market for several years, and the store will face heavy competition from other grocery chains that operate 16 competitive stores within five miles of the new Market Street location. "We think that this store is going to be our prototype for new stores for the foreseeable future. We think we can compete better with this size store," he said. GN Online Retailer OpenSky Launches Open Marketplace for Small Merchants OpenSky.com, a website where users can discover, share, shop and grow the world's most exciting emerging brands, recently launched an open social marketplace where small merchants can apply to open and manage their own stores within the company's network of nearly 3 million members. "Operating exclusively as an online retailer for the last two years, we built pioneering tools for social commerce," said John Caplan, Founder and CEO of OpenSky. "Today, we're handing these easy-to-use tools over to thousands of small businesses in a platform they can leverage to reach new customers and build their business." As with all social networks OpenSky users design their own experience by con- necting to other people. The launch of OpenSky's marketplace offers them the ability to connect, interact and share with thousands of small merchants from around the country as well. The marketplace will enhance the ever-changing assortment of goods for users to discover, shop and share with friends both within the network and outside. "There is a growing appetite to discover products that are unique and different, not mass produced," Caplan said. "The OpenSky marketplace is the social platform that connects people with extraordinary things and the small businesses who make them." For small merchants, connecting directly to OpenSky users, including many industry insiders, celebrities and experts who use the network, offers a unique opportunity for their brand and products to spread virally within a community focused on shopping. As members discover and interact with new products, their activities are shared socially among their OpenSky connections, creating a ripple-effect of discovery within the network. For merchants, opening a store on OpenSky is free. The site takes a commission on products sold to OpenSky members with the exception of any sales made to those members a merchant brings into the network when they open their shop. Potential merchants can apply by visiting www.opensky.com/merchant. GN

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