Ethnic retailing involves much more than just cutting in a Mexican section or introducing a few kosher products. From floral bouquets with Spanish-language greetings to an Asian department with dozens of varieties of rice, food retailers increasingly realize the importance of marketing to diverse tastes within an ethnicity.
Following is a list of the Top 10 initiatives SN editors have selected as the most creative in targeting Hispanics, Asians and other ethnic populations.
They do not appear in any specific order.
Meijer Travels the World
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — All 180 Meijer stories have a vast international section called “World Foods.” The large sections offer thousands of specialties from more than two dozen nations, including Britain, Germany and Greece.
The goal of the assortment is to provide a fun section that gives shoppers a taste of new foods and cultures. In doing so, Meijer hopes to appeal to all consumers, not just ethnic ones.
The aisle boasts everything from imported Italian pasta and Kit-Kat bars from England to German barrel pickles, Gerolsteiner bottled mineral water and even the Australian staple Vegemite.
Meijer keeps margins as low as possible, because it wants the department to add to the store's one-stop-shopping appeal, not act as a major profit center.
Flowers Bloom at Publix
LAKELAND, Fla. — Publix Super Markets has introduced packaged floral bouquets aimed at catching the attention of its Hispanic customers.
The medium-sized bouquets, a Publix exclusive in its market areas, are prepackaged in yellow and purple sleeves that bear the message “Pura Vida” (The Good Life). They retail for $9.99 and are available one week a month to all stores.
In addition to being merchandised in a prominent spot in the floral departments of all of the chain's stores, the bouquets are placed in secondary locations in some stores.
Publix is using the bouquets to show its Hispanic customers that it's carrying the products most important to their families.
“We have had very good customer response to the bouquets,” said Publix spokeswoman Maria Brous.
The flowers come at a time when Publix is strengthening its Hispanic marketing efforts in other ways. For instance, Publix Sabor is the retailer's Hispanic banner, intended to broaden its reach to the Hispanic community while creating an experience that all shoppers will enjoy.
Offerings include a larger variety of Caribbean and Central and South American products. Hispanic products are integrated throughout the store so all customers can shop the entire store.
Money transfers and money orders, bill payment services and fax services are also available.
The meat department has a full-service case where customers can find a variety of meats and have them cut to order.
Giant Eagle's Special Delivery
PITTSBURGH — Giant Eagle here has found a way to offer hundreds of hard-to-find international products without making a single adjustment to its shelves.
It's all part of “Giant Eagle Special Order,” an online service for organic, kosher, ethnic and other specialty items.
“Having a hard time finding your favorite international, organic, kosher, health and wellness or other items on the shelves of your neighborhood Giant Eagle?” Giant Eagle writes on its website. “Now, they're just a click away at our Giant Eagle Special Order site.”
A link from the retailer's site directs online shoppers to a Web page operated by specialty food company Kehe Food Distributors.
Once there, users can browse through a wide variety of African, Asian, Caribbean, French, German and Indian food and beverages, such as Hemingway Kenya Marinade in a two-pack of 12-ounce bottles, $6.58, and Sultan Basmati Rice, a 10-pound bag for $14.49.
Customers who can't find what they want can use a “Request It!” function that allows them to request a certain product in case quantities.
“We have access to hundreds of manufacturers and thousands of hard-to-find food products in addition to what is shown in this store,” according to Giant Eagle.
A $2.50 handling fee is added to all online orders under $25 to help defray the cost of picking and packing. Shipping fees are based on UPS shipping rates. Purchases made at the site are not eligible for the retailer's “fuelperks!” discounts. Visa, MasterCard and American Express are accepted.
Pathmark Celebrates Diversity
CARTERET, N.J. — Product assortment is certainly key when it comes to ethnic retailing. But equally as important is how a retailer shows its support of cultural diversity in other ways.
Pathmark is one of the leaders in this area, with its annual Multicultural Arts Festival in May and June.
The event celebrates Hispanic, Latino, African American, Asian, West Indian and Jewish cultures. It got its start 18 years ago as the Hispanic Cultural Arts Celebration, and was renamed the Multicultural Arts Festival eight years ago.
A variety of events are included. For instance, there's a West Indian carnival and parade; an African American gospel choir; Latin vocalists; and Asian singing and dancing.
A Multi-Generational Family Day is held at the Jewish Museum in Manhattan.
Free refreshments are served, along with product sampling, gifts and prizes.
Pathmark uses the celebration to recognize ethnic diversity and to say thank you to its customers, according to chain spokesman Rich Savner.
“Our multicultural celebrations provide an opportunity for Pathmark and its vendor partners to reach out to the diverse ethnic communities that are significantly increasing in the New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia marketplaces,” said Savner.
“It acknowledges these groups and provides a forum to celebrate their heritage.”
Food in the Amazon
SEATTLE — Nestled within Amazon.com's vast grocery store of 22,000 non-perishable products is a wide range of Asian, Latin American, Middle Eastern, African, Caribbean, European and other kinds of ethnic specialties.
That means that along with products like Kellogg's cereals and Betty Crocker cake mixes, Amazon.com users can browse through an international assortment of such items as Maldon Sea Salt, Thai Fresh Kaffir Lime leaves, Saffron from Spain and Jamaican dry jerk rub.
The site enables customers to shop by cuisine, brand, company or price.
Amazon's ethnic offering is one of several innovative components to its online grocery store. The site offers such popular features as personalized shopping lists and customer reviews.
There's also Amazon Prime, a membership program available to customers for a fee of $79 per year. Amazon Prime members receive unlimited express two-day shipping for free, with no minimum purchase requirement on more than 1 million items.
The online retailer has also introduced Subscribe & Save, which offers customers automatic delivery of grocery products with discounts of 15% and free shipping.
Subscribe & Save customers can choose when they would like shipments delivered (in one-month, two-month, three-month or six-month intervals). In return, they get a guaranteed discount and free shipping for the length of the subscription.
“We are excited to enable customers to set up automatic reorders of their favorite products delivered to their door at discounted prices,” Maria Renz, Amazon's consumables vice president, said in a statement.
In other news, as reported in SN, Amazon is testing Amazon Fresh, a delivery service for perishables. The program is available on an invitation-only basis to residents of Mercer Island, Wash., an upscale community.
The Food City Fiesta
CHANDLER, Ariz. — Realizing that many Hispanics lack sufficient medical care, Bashas' Food City banner took matters into its own hands by creating ¡A Su Salud! (To Your Health!), a program that provides free and low-cost medical care through stores in the metro Phoenix area.
Medical professionals provide services for the whole family, including children's immunizations; blood tests for diabetes, anemia and high blood pressure; pregnancy testing; mammograms; and vision screenings.
Another creative Hispanic program is the Food City Tortilla Wheel, which shoppers get to spin for a chance to win food, corporate merchandise, gift certificates and more.
Likewise, for the last eight years in September, the retailer has been host of the Food City Fiestas Patrias, which commemorates Mexico's independence from Spain in 1810. About 125,000 attend the three-day event, which includes food, activities and entertainment. “Food City is proud to support events that are important to the Hispanic community,” said Food City vice president Robert Ortiz.
Food City also caters to Hispanics through partnerships with Kraft and General Mills. The Food City website (www.myfoodcity.com) has links to comidakraft.com; and promotes “Que Rica Vida,” a Spanish-language magazine by General Mills that includes recipes, coupons and health and wellness information. Food City shoppers who buy $6 of participating General Mills products get a free special edition of the bilingual “Cocina Betty Crocker” cookbook. The 96-page special edition includes 33 recipes.
ShopRite's Kosher Appeal
ELIZABETH, N.J. — ShopRite makes it loud and clear that it caters to kosher shoppers.
The Wakefern Food Corp. member publishes a Jewish calendar and kosher food directory each year, and sponsors the annual Jewish Renaissance Festival.
Further, about one-third of its private-label items are certified kosher. The chain recently took kosher to the next level by introducing ShopRite-brand all-beef glatt kosher franks. Glatt kosher is the strictest possible kosher designation.
“We have worked hard to get the flavor just right,” ShopRite said of the new franks. “The right blend of spices make this hot dog the perfect choice for your summer barbecue and all year round.”
Some of Wakefern's member stores have received especially strong praise in the kosher market.
For instance, ShopRite supermarkets in Cherry Hill, N.J., and Philadelphia were named “Best of Kosher Philadelphia” in a survey of Philadelphia-area kosher consumers.
Both stores received top ratings on price; food and service quality; selection; and store environment.
The Cherry Hill store has a 3,300-square-foot Kosher Experience store-within-a-store that adheres to the highest kosher standards.
Kosher Experience is successful because of its employees, said Steve Ravitz, president of Supermarkets of Cherry Hill Inc.
“I'm most proud of the ‘Kosher Experience’ staff,” Ravitz said in a statement. “They're very dedicated, very knowledgeable in all aspects of Kashruth (Jewish dietary laws).”
It's a Jungle In There
FAIRFIELD, Ohio — Jungle Jim's rice business is so good that it sells a truckload every month. The reason is simple: It stocks a lot of rice.
An 80-foot section in one area of the store has about 35 different brands, while another 50 feet of basmati rice can be found in another department.
The rice department is located in Jungle Jim's “International Department,” which carries more than 44,000 imported groceries from more than 75 countries and regions around the world. There's 400 feet of authentic Hispanic groceries; nearly 80 olive oils from Italy, Greece, Spain and France; teas from 15 different countries; chutney and spices from India; and fine chocolates from Switzerland, Belgium, France and Germany.
“Comfort foods from home — wherever in the world home may be,” is how Jungle Jim's describes the department.
Recent specials included soy vinegar dressing, water chestnuts, besan flour and sriracca, an Indian hot sauce.
Jungle Jim's uses the section to cater to the growing number of people eating Indian food, as well as those on a vegetarian diet. The rice assortment comes from all over the world, including Thailand, Taiwan, California and Texas. The options are seemingly endless, including long-grain, medium-grain, jasmine and sweet varieties.
Jungle Jim's provides meal ideas involving rice by conducting product demos three days a week.
Micromarketing At Winn-Dixie
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Winn-Dixie has added 55 stores to its Hispanic “Neighborhood Merchandising” program, bringing the number of those stores to 103. Thirty of the stores are in the Miami market; 25 are in the Orlando, Fla., area.
Neighborhood units are merchandised and marketed specifically to Hispanics.
What's unique about the effort is that Winn-Dixie has tailored the product mix in these stores to specific ethnic nationalities.
For example, stores in neighborhoods with a largely Cuban population are merchandised differently than those that serve mostly Mexicans.
This is being reinforced with a special tag line, “El sabor de tu pais” (“The flavor of your country”), used in all Hispanic advertising programs and promotions.
“We have recognized the importance and diversity of the growing Hispanic market for a long time,” Winn-Dixie's president and chief executive officer, Peter Lynch, said in a statement. “The importance of the Neighborhood Merchandising initiative is that it allows us to keep our core product offering consistent throughout the chain, while identifying and fulfilling the special needs and desires of the many diverse neighborhoods that we serve.”
The chain is broadening its Hispanic reach in other ways. For instance, its new board of directors includes two Hispanic business leaders, Charles Garcia and Richard Rivera.
H-E-B Teams With Artist
SAN ANTONIO — It's important for stores with ethnically diverse customers to stock the right assortment of foods and beverages. But retailers also can't forget that general merchandise counts, too.
Take H.E. Butt Grocery Co., which recently started stocking the new selections of “My Loteria,” an assortment of Mexican tableware and general merchandise, including acrylic glasses and kitchen linens.
Designed by local artist Cristina Sosa Noriega, My Loteria features images derived from Loteria, a Mexican game similar to bingo. Sosa Noriega makes in-store appearances at H-E-B to promote the line.
“The line resonates with the Latino market because it's by them, for them and encourages the hope of the American dream,” said B.J. Welling, director of integrated marketing, Sandy USA, Springfield, Mo., the manufacturer and the licensee of the brand.
Prices range from about $3 to $6 for kitchen linens to $19.99 for a tortilla warmer.
An additional 57 stockkeeping units debuted in September in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month.
H-E-B first started carrying My Loteria merchandise in April. The line is exclusive to H-E-B until next year.
