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GOURMET NEWS JULY 2017 www.gourmetnews.com Retailer News RETAILER NEWS 1 0 BRIEFS Central Market Donates $25,000 to Buy Body Armor for Police Central Market has donated $25,000 to the Dickey's Barbecue Pit's charitable foundation Barbecue, Boots & Badges to to provide Dallas police officers with life-saving body armor. A $500 donation provides one officer with a set of ballistic plates, which are capable of protecting them from sniper rounds and high- powered ammunition. Wearing body armor more than triples the likelihood that an officer can survive a shooting to the torso, according to a RAND Corporation study. "Central Market has great respect for our police officers who commit their lives to our safety each and every day. This donation of vest plates is our way of saying 'Thank you' for their loyal and dedicated service to the city of Dallas," said Stephen Butt, President of Central Market. "These new plates will provide an added layer of state-of-the art defense for those who protect all of us." Lidl Opens First of 100 Planned U.S. Stores Lidl opened its first stores in the United States on Thursday, June 15. Lidl also unveiled the location of 20 stores opening during the summer of 2017. By next summer, the retailer plans to open up to 100 stores across the East Coast, creating a total of 5,000 U.S. jobs. Lidl will offer a simple and efficient approach to grocery shopping, resulting in lower prices. When entering a store this summer, shoppers can expect to get top quality goods and groceries at up to 50 percent less than other supermarkets in the United States. Publix at Moores Mill Celebrates Grand Opening Publix at Moores Mill opened on the upper west side of Atlanta, Georgia on May 31. The long- awaited shopping center will provide a grocery store in an area of Atlanta that has lacked this resource for years. In addition to the retail, the investment made in nearby Sara Gonzalez Park is a large part of the project, and real estate developer EDENS is collaborating with the neighborhood on the improvements there. Phase II of the center will begin this summer, with up to 345 residential units planned, as well as an additional 15,000 square feet of retail. Meijer Crosses Bridge into Michigan's Upper Peninsula Meijer opened new 192,000-square-foot supercenters in Escanaba and Sault Ste. Marie on May 18, marking the retailer's first stores in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The new UP locations are built to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards and are the latest in a $375 million investment this year that includes the construction of seven new Meijer supercenters and remodel projects for 22 additional stores in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky. The Grand Rapids, Michigan-based family-owned retailer, which opened its first store in 1934, now has more than 230 stores throughout the Midwest. Peapod Expands Nutrition Filters Imagine walking into a grocery store where all of the products displayed are based on a shopper's personal tastes, di- etary preferences and budget. Peapod, the country's leading online grocer, aims to do just that by enabling shoppers to cu- rate their own personalized digital aisle. An early innovator of smart shopping technology, Peapod has expanded its fil- tering capabilities to include four new nutrition filters: "Non-GMO," "Sugar Free," "Vegan" and "Vegetarian." Adding to Peapod's already robust sort feature, shoppers can now customize their searches with 16 features specific to nu- trition preferences, in addition to a vari- ety of filters including brand preference, price and sale specials. "Our customers have told us that one of the pain points of traditional in-store gro- cery shopping is the overwhelming selec- tion and the time it takes to read labels in order to find what they need," said Carrie Bienkowski, Peapod's Chief Marketing Of- ficer. "While we all want options, we also want to find what we're looking for and to do so quickly. As a digital player, we can create personalized, curated shopping ex- periences to help consumers find what they're looking for with just a few clicks. These tools also help our shoppers discover new products that meet their specific needs. The new filters are based on growing consumer food and nutritional trends, as well as Peapod's own consumer insights. Forty-two percent of consumers read nutri- tion labels before purchasing and non- GMO labeling is becoming increasingly important to consumers as sales of non- GMO products are predicted to hit $330 billion by 2019. Moreover, vegan and veg- etarian filters were added as plant-based diets continue to gain popularity. Almost a third of Millennials indicate they eat a meat alternative product every day, and 70 per- cent consume them at least a few times a week. "Our customers are often early adopters of emerging trends, "says Bienkowski. "As such, we're able to utilize our keyword search data to stay ahead of the market. Since adding the "Organic" filter in 2014, it has become our most frequently used fil- ter, and all Peapod carts now have at least one organic item." Enhanced smart shopping tools repre- sent Peapod's commitment to revolutioniz- ing how consumers shop for groceries. With more than 12,000 products, including fresh produce; meat and seafood; deli items; natural and organic foods; and a wide range of prepared foods and easy-to- prep meal kits, Peapod is a one-stop shop for convenient meal solutions and weekly stock-ups of pantry staples. GN Cheese and Wine Continued from PAGE 1 and a house-made pimento cheese. During the summertime, Marché makes its own mozzarella from curd purchased from a New Jer- sey dairy. The cheese se- lection is aug- mented by a selection of arti- sanal charcuterie, olives and tape- nades, locally made chocolates and breadsticks and a se- lection of small-production wines that can't be found in the town's specialty wine shop. The shop pours seven or eight by the glass and offers a free tasting every Tuesday in a pairing with a complementary cheese. "The popularity of the wine selection has been a happy surprise," Foucré says. "We sell a lot of wine." Marché's proximity to Marcel's, a store that already had a loyal following, meant that Marché had interested customers from the day it opened. There's still some overlap of the two stores' customer bases, but each also has its own community within the commuter suburb with a population of about 27,000 relatively affluent residents about 45 minutes west of downtown Chicago. It's conveniently close to the Metra train line that offers a simple connec- tion to the city for the population of young homeowners drawn to Glen Ellyn by its lo- cation in DuPage County rather than Chicago's Cook County. DuPage County offers good schools, while Glen Ellyn boasts upscale neighborhoods of very com- munity-oriented residents. "People grow up here. They leave. They come back," Foucré says. That's been good for Marcel's, Marché and other downtown small businesses be- cause it's also a population that's supportive of local small businesses, Foucré says. "People get that if they don't shop here, if they send their dollars online, we won't be here," she says. The small business community, in turn, sup- ports the Alliance of Downtown Glen Ellyn and the city's Chamber of Commerce, which are very active in promoting con- certs in the park, art festivals and other spe- cial events that bring visitors from around Chicago's metropolitan area as well as local residents out to enjoy the small town am- biance while they patronize the antique shops, book store, clothing boutique and small cafes as well as Marcel's and Marché. Marché itself draws two kinds of typical customers, although these come in all ages. There are those who come to buy cheese out of the case to take it home and cook with it or to make a cheese board for their entertaining and those who've made the store the gathering place where they meet their friends. "That customer wants us to have more tables and sees us as a quasi-restaurant/cafe," Foucré says. Both of these kinds of customers rely on Marché to offer them catered cheese boards. These come in four different sizes, serving from five or six up to 40 to 50. They're served on cherry wood boards that come back to the store when the cheeses and accompaniments have been consumed. "They're 100 percent complete when you get them," Foucré says. "People get them for their book club or for the dinner party they're having." Those who are choosing their own cheeses can count on the assistance of Marché's seven employees, each of whom is very knowledgeable about the store's wares. During fall, winter and spring, the shop also offers evening classes, and Marché and Marcel's encourage their re- spective customers to get to know more about the sister shop by hosting the occa- sional joint class with a cooking lesson that incorporates cheese and perhaps a wine pairing. The class schedule is suspended in sum- mertime, when Marché offers extended hours, and there isn't room in the shop for simultaneous classes and regular retail service. Those extended hours are critical to customers who stop in at the shop to pick up their picnic baskets on their way to an evening concert in the park, either in Glen Ellyn itself or a train ride away in Chicago. The Metra line serving Glen Ellyn coop- erates by allowing riders to enjoy their picnic and bottle of wine on the train. "We're looking to make the on-the-go part accessi- ble for people," Foucré says. ""So many people take the train.... People have really embraced that." She adds, "There will be events through- out the summer that it will be nice to take a picnic box to – and a bottle of wine." GN

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