Excerpt:
While growers at the farmers' market here are arranging colorful boxes of tomatoes, squash, blueberries, and baked goods for the afternoon opening, Tom Moriarty is standing under a canopy with only closed coolers around him, answering questions about River Rock naturally raised beef tenderloin, tri-tip, and flat iron steaks. Not much to see except white freezer-paper wrappers inside large coolers…
Moriarty was hired last year by the Konove family to run the beef operation, and against all odds, the endeavor is making money. "People are looking for things that they would go to a butcher shop for," says the 27-year-old Moriarty, a culinary school-trained chef. He says that beyond popular steak cuts and hamburger meat, other lesser-known cuts are sought after: hanger steaks, oxtail, even tongue. It reminds him of his years in Spain, first as a high school exchange student, then in college, and later in culinary school, where the butchers gave out recipes and cooking tips along with the sausages and cuts of meat.
Source: http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/food/articles/2008/08/20/after_a_loss_a_business_still_thrives/?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed4
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Excerpt:
Vallarta, with 320 employees, has a full-service bakery, where wedding cakes are a specialty; a taqueria with 60 entrees; a butcher shop with 10 to 15 meat cutters; and freshly made tortillas. The interior is brightly lit and resembles Old World Mexico, complete with faux palm trees. It sells homemade guacamole, a variety of sauces, five kinds of ceviche and a full lineup of shrimp and seafood, including baby octopus. If other Vallarta stores are any indication, the taqueria will be popular with customers and neighborhood residents. "It is a destination location for many," Marquis said, adding that entire families will stop and eat during their weekend shopping trips. The in-store restaurants also are popular stops for construction workers, police officers and others with short meal breaks.
It's a rival to Southern California-based Fiesta Foods, which has two stores in the southeast part of town: one at Kings Canyon Road and Willow Avenue and the other at First Street and Tulare Avenue. Marquis isn't worried about being the third guy in. "I think the market is big enough for more than one business," he said. Southeast Fresno, the most ethnically diverse neighborhood in Fresno, is about 43% Hispanic, said Mike Dages, the City Council member for the district. Countywide, the Hispanic population increased from 35% in 1990 to 44% in 2000. Nationally, the Hispanic population has grown at four times the rate of the general population since 2001. A study by the Food Marketing Institute found that Hispanics make an average of 26 grocery trips per month, three times more than the average shopper.
Source: Nax, Sanford. "Vallarta turns Save Mart into a supermercado - New supermarket in southeast Fresno angles for Hispanic business using Old World charm Fresno Bee, The (CA). 18 Jan. 2007, Lifestyle: Access World News. NewsBank. University of Texas at San Antonio, John Peace Library. San Antonio, TX. 15 Apr 2009
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Excerpt:
Higher income shoppers, Hispanics and specialty supermarket shoppers visit the deli more often than the average consumer, according to the INTERNATIONAL DAIRY.DELI.BAKERY ASSOCIATION'S (IDDBA) Foodservice Opportunities research, outlined in IDDBA's What's In Store 2008. Consumers with households annual incomes $100,000 or more frequent the deli an average of 5.7 times each month, vs. 3.6 times per month for consumers on the whole. Individuals from households with an annual income of less than $25,000 visit 2.4 times per month.
Source: http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-7688557/Profile-of-deli-shopper-trends.html (full article for purchase)
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Excerpt:
During tougher economic times, consumers tend to trade down when it comes to purchasing food products, favoring generics over brand names, as well as lower cost vegetables, fruits and proteins. This has normally tended to favor chicken, as it is the less expensive of the meats commonly consumed. But chicken, it seems, is not always recession-proof. Tyson Foods Inc., among other major chicken producers, is finding that out. The company posted a net profit of $9 million, or three cents a share, for its most recent quarter, down 92% from the year-ago period and short of analyst expectations. However, some believe that the inclination for consumers to trade down to lower-priced items is occurring within the realm of chicken products as well. “Within the chicken group of products, some are shifting from de-boned breast meat to the bone-in product,” says Paul Aho, consultant and poultry economist out of Storrs, Conn. “It’s not that people are abandoning chicken — they’re making those products stretch a little further.”
Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2008/07/28/chicken-the-recession-proof-white-meat/
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Excerpt:
Deli operations struggle on three separate fronts to make sure food is safe for consumers. First, everything starts with effective procurement, but delis have a problem. Many operate like restaurants but procure like supermarkets. Although retailers have various food safety requirements, especially of private label producers, few retailers have the procedures or resources to do much more than get indemnifications or audit certificates from vendors. Many delis have just recently started to buy items such as fresh produce directly, as the quantities used in deli foodservice operations have increased and the product is differentiated from what is sold at retail. For example, retailers now buy Romaine whole leaves for sandwich programs rather than Romaine heads sold in produce. Often these items are relatively small volume and purchased through a distributor or wholesaler—sometimes with unknown standards or competency to judge food safety practices. In addition, the deli is an unusual department because many products come in as branded products—say, the meats and cheeses used for slicing. Yet these same items are then used not only for slicing to sell to consumers, but also for slicing to create a “raw material” for a foodservice product such as a sandwich. This, in effect, becomes a private label product, but few chains apply their more rigorous private label standards to the vetting of suppliers of these products.
Second, deli operators need to wrestle with important issues regarding food safety training for employees, developing schedules and procedures for cleaning equipment and avoiding cross-contamination. These efforts can easily get push-back from management— both store level and executive—which, while sympathetic to the goal of food safety, may not fully appreciate the costs involved in doing these things well. Man hours for training, the need to shut down various services before the store closes to allow for thorough cleaning, or the authorization of man-hours to work after the store closes—all this can try the patience of those who see the expense and can’t quantify the return-on-investment. Third, the deli has special obligations to provide consumer education and information regarding food safety as its products often pose special vulnerabilities. Leave fresh apples in the trunk of a hot car for five hours and, in all likelihood, one just has shortened the shelf life of the fruit or perhaps lessened its eating quality. Leave the wrong deli product in that environment and one has given pathogens an opportunity to multiply—a recipe for food-borne illness. (page 22)
Source: http://www.delibusiness.com/e-books/db08oct.pdf
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