The Berry Best

Cranberry Township is one of the fastest growing municipalities in Pennsylvania – boasting a population growth in the neighborhood of 10 percent. Some might say it is because of the low taxes, spacious homes, large yards, low crime, good schools and close proximity and easy highway access to revitalized downtown Pittsburgh, 20 minutes to the south.  However, a better bet is that people cannot get enough of the Cranberry Township SHOP ‘n SAVE.

Some 21,000 customers from 90 different ZIP codes – some 15 to 16 miles away – flock to the store each week to partake of its outstanding hot foods, salad bar, bakery, fresh meats and seafood and very competitively priced groceries merchandised in a clean and easy to shop environment. Throw in the branch of the U.S. Post Office and Model Cleaners dry cleaner drop-off at the courtesy desk and it is easy to see why the Cranberry Township SHOP ‘n SAVE is so popular.  

“When you come into our store we want you to feel like you belong here and are wanted here,” says Dan McNabb, owner. “We try to do whatever we can to satisfy as best we can. That’s our goal.”

McNabb, along with his wife Judy, purchased the store in May 2016 from brothers Jim and Jeff Sorbara, who built it in 2011. A Supervalu banner, there are more than 90 independently owned SHOP ‘n SAVES throughout western Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Upstate New York, with some 57 concentrated in and around Pittsburgh. The McNabbs also own a store in Castle Shannon, Pa.

Floral Front and Center

When shoppers enter the Cranberry Township store, the first thing they see is the floral department.

“This store does very well with fresh flowers,” McNabb says, noting that floral department sales are exceeding expectations. “The whole idea is that the customer comes in and sees fresh. You get that impression, yet it is not overwhelming.”

“It is one of the stronger departments in our chain,” he continues. “We have a lot of good people here who are very creative, experienced and know how to take care of the customers.”

The floral business gets a bump in spring when the outside of the store is filled with bedding plants, geraniums and garden essentials, and McNabb is looking to further grow the business by getting into custom arrangements.

“We are doing small weddings to get our feet wet,” he says. “We promote through flyers and we are getting a lot of word-of-mouth business. We’ve had people come in who said they were at a wedding, liked the flowers and wanted us to do theirs. It has been slow going, but we are going in the direction that we want to take it. We want to walk before we run. A wedding is a woman’s dream and you want to make sure it is perfect.”

The store also provides arrangements to local schools for proms and homecomings. “We work with them and it has grown with us,” McNabb says.

General merchandise is also blossoming in floral. McNabb has added high margin, impulse-buy items, like wrought iron bicycle planters, solar glow lights, decorative metal yard signs and park benches.

“We’re trying to get more into the GM side with things that you don’t often see that are great for outdoors,” McNabb says. “Target wouldn’t carry this stuff because it is all hand-made, but we’re much cheaper than if you went into a specialty store.”

Specialty candy is also a sweet spot in floral, with boxed chocolates and gourmet delicacies from renowned local purveyors Applelicious, Anderson’s Candies, Sarris Candies and Rosalind Candy Castle, each merchandised on custom fixtures.  

“Sarris Candies is huge in western Pennsylvania,” McNabb says. “Applelicious specializes in chocolate covered candied apples and handcrafted items like a pretzel stick covered with chocolate that is covered with M&M’S, or Minions candies designed on a Nutter Butter cookie. You won’t see that from anybody else.”

Shoppers also see produce upon entering the store. In mid-April, they were greeted with a double-table carefully arranged display of Halos brand mandarin bags. “I don’t want to bash, but you go into certain stores and they are just dumped,” McNabb says. “We want people to come in and say, ‘Hey, they take care of things here.’ My people take pride in what they do. We have very experienced associates and they know these customers. They are dedicated and take pride in what they put out.”

Come summer, instead of California citrus those tables will be filled with a sea of local produce. “People here want that,” McNabb says. “We have Soergel Farms here, which is a huge local farm. We do a lot of produce with them come summertime,” as well as with another local farm based in Pittsburgh’s South Hills. “You kind of have to regionalize because those small local farms can only handle so many customers, and we’re a primary outlet for them.”

Free Golden Nuggets

SHOP ‘n SAVE’s produce department is expansive, running the length of the store. Items are not only neatly displayed, but frequently sampled, like the clear dome filled with wedges of Golden Nuggets, a seedless citrus with an unappealing bumpy skin that SHOP ‘n SAVE was selling at 4/$1.00. Similar domes throughout perishables offer pieces of cheese, rolled up slices of Kretschmar ham, cubes of artisan bread, store-made brownies and even Sushi with Gusto sushi.

“This Golden Nugget clementine is very good, but when you look at it, you may not find that look appealing because of the skin,” McNabb says. “We do a lot of sampling because you’ve got to taste this stuff. People are not going to spend $18.99 on a piece of cheese unless they’ve had it before or someone has told them it was that great.”

Since acquiring the store, McNabb has expanded its assortment of cheeses. “We have brought in more specialty cheeses as best we can,” he says. “That is one of the categories that I am trying to grow here because people like it. During the holidays, we were sampling out different cheeses that people had never tried before. They may see it, smell it, but they don’t understand it until you put it on a particular cracker or piece of fruit and they see that it is outstanding.”

The cheese counter is just past the service Old World Delicatessen, which does a booming business on its own, and is especially packed during SHOP ‘n SAVE’s 2 Day Sale, instituted chain-wide around major holidays.

“The deli has always been very important in this store,” McNabb says. “Pittsburgh has always been a deli town and in our legendary 2 Day Sale we always emphasize deli.”

About half of the salads are prepared in-store, including the Broccoli Carbonera – a mixture of broccoli, red onion, grated cheese, crumbled bacon and dressing. “It is a staple item in Pittsburgh. You’ve got to have it. Some you’ll see are too creamy. I think ours is just right,” McNabb says.

When it comes to lunchmeat, the department is a combination of thinly pre-sliced and sliced-to-order.

“If it is done right, pre-sliced is going to look fresh,” McNabb says. “You can’t just put a mound out there and let it sit. Our associates keep it fresh and cut it several times a day.”

Kretschmar is the house brand.

“Kretschmar is a nice, staple, middle brand that you can put up against Boar’s Head or Dietz & Watson. It is a very good product,” McNabb says. “We hang our hat on it and do very good promotions with them. We use Kretschmar in all of our sandwiches because we feel it is as good as you can get.”

Whale of a Signature Sandwich 

SHOP ‘n SAVE also hangs its hat on its signature Jumbo Fish Sandwich, offered every Wednesday and Friday at the incredible price of $6.99.

“It is pure cod, 10-12 ounces, and I would put it up against any fish sandwich you ever had,” McNabb says, adding that he offers the same sandwich in his Castle Shannon store. “Both my stores make it the same way. That was the first thing I looked at when I took this store over was whose fish they were using. They were using the same fish and the same breading as we were in Castle Shannon,” he says.

“During Lent we’ll have lines up, people keep coming by and it is hard to keep up with it. We’re very proud of this sandwich and will never change it. Some chains will throw a Pollack into their fish sandwich – it is not the same. You can taste the difference. And don’t even compare ours to McDonald’s because that does not even come into this. Ours is on-par with what you would get in a good seafood restaurant. They would charge you $10 or $12, and ours will still be bigger.”

Most of the fish sandwiches and other hot foods are prepared by deli manager Mike Manko. “Mike just takes so much pride in his work. He wants to see everybody come back and say, ‘Thanks. This was good!’ That’s his goal,” McNabb says.

Catering is also a rapidly growing business in the deli and meat departments.

“We are nestled next to a business park, so we get a lot of that business,” McNabb says. “Some will just ask us to bring the hamburger patties and we’ll deliver it to them and they’ll cook them on their own grill, and some we’ll cook the roast here and we’ll go and carve it out on-site. We also do cookie platters; deli-cooked chicken, and sandwich rings do very well for us.”

Come lunchtime, many of those business park workers make it over to SHOP ‘n SAVE and make their own salad at the Create Your Own Salad Bar for $5.99 a pound. “We’re constantly changing it up,” McNabb says, noting the new Grape Salad made with red and green seedless grapes, cream cheese, brown sugar and pecans. “Mike does a very good job of overlooking that. He knows what our customers like.”

Although the majority of its product is parbaked, the in-store bakery department in the right rear quarter of the store has a large open prep area. In addition to store-made brownies and cookies, there are artisan breads supplied via Supervalu, as well as products from the locally popular Theresa’s Italian Bakery cookies, Grandma Ann’s Nut Rolls, Jenny Lee Swirl Bread and other purveyors. A big draw is the store decorated cakes.

“I will put our cakes up to anybody,” McNabb says.  One is shaped like a mound of roses; another like a tub of hot buttered popcorn. “We also do a Princess Cake that is made-to-order that is an almond cake with fresh strawberries in the middle, along with banana cream and fresh bananas. People love it. It is phenomenal how many cakes we sell.”

Along the backwall, adjacent to the bakery department is the service seafood case.

“Our seafood department is among the best in the [SHOP ‘n SAVE] group,” McNabb says. “The amount of salmon that we sell out of here is crazy. We also do very well with Fresh Point oysters. The Copper River salmon is going to be in here shortly and we already have pre-orders.”

At the adjacent service meat case, all sausages and hamburgers are made in-house, and the selection is mouthwatering. In addition to plain, SHOP ‘n SAVE’s signature fresh gourmet burgers are available in Sweet Onion, Mushroom Swiss, Steak Burger, Mesquite Burger, Chili Cheese, Cajun Blue Cheese, Greek with Feta Cheese, Jalapeno & Jack Burger, Mushroom Swiss with Onion and Bacon & Cheddar varieties. All are only $4.99 a pound – a price locked in all summer long.

“In our meat case everything is cut fresh every day,” McNabb says. “Volume-wise we’re one of the highest volume meat stores in the group.”

Grocery sales are also very good, McNabb affirms, despite the stiff competitive tempo that includes Giant Eagle, Walmart, Aldi, Costco and Target, all in close proximity. Part of that is because McNabb and his crew have gone out of their way to stock local, unique products.

In produce, there is a display of nearby Freedom Farm honey, honeycomb and bee pollen; Mrs. Miller’s homemade noodles from Ohio also have their own stand. Nicholas Coffee and Tea is merchandised bulk in the coffee aisle, while Fortune coffee products hold their own against the Maxwell House and Folger’s. Glass jars and plastic bulk jugs of Isaly’s Barbecue Sauce are artfully arranged atop the service deli case while DeLallo Italian products can be found in virtually every aisle throughout the store.

“DeLallo is a purveyor that we utilize a lot,” McNabb says. “Most of our olive bar product comes from them, as do a lot of our cheese. We carry some of their lunchmeats, jars of garlic, olive oil, pasta and sauces. You’ll see it across the lines. They are very popular in this area.”

McNabb is working on making SHOP ‘n SAVE’s grocery aisles easier to navigate, starting with candy. The store worked with Hershey to redesign the aisle. A rear end cap is now permanently devoted to candy to drive shopper eyes and carts up the aisle. For the summer months, it contains all the ingredients necessary to make S’mores. That is followed by a self-service bulk section in the aisle.

“Hershey came in and reset the whole candy aisle and broke it off into categories,” McNabb says. “So candy is categorized by snack bags and not by brand. We’re trying to get out of that ‘all Hershey’ and ‘all Mars’ mentality. Then we have the bars and theater boxes. We are closely monitoring this to show the increase and what it does for the candy department.”

Included in the multi-bar section are Boyer Mallo Cups, similar to a Reese’s but with a marshmallow filling instead of peanut butter.

“They are hard to get,” McNabb says. “Supervalu doesn’t carry them. We get them from a secondary candy guy. They are an old-time favorite of Pittsburgh.”

Similar category management “initiatives” have also been carried out in the pet and dairy departments. “We’ll be rolling this out through the whole store,” McNabb says. “When you are walking and searching, everything is easier to find. Slowly, we are getting through the whole store that way.”    

HBC items are merchandised at the front of the store across from the frozen food and dairy aisles. Because of a non-compete covenant in its lease, the Cranberry Township SHOP ‘n SAVE does not have a pharmacy because there is a CVS at the other end of the shopping center.

“It is mainly here for convenience, but we are competitive on prices and run a lot of TPRs (temporary price reduction) for that fact,” McNabb says.