Steel Town Girls

Everyone knows when life hands you lemons you make lemonade, but what if life hands you 20 pounds of chocolate rabbits leftover from Easter Sunday?

If you work at McGinnis Sisters Special Food Stores, you fry up some bacon, melt down the rabbits, and create a taste—and sales—sensation. 

“When our bakery department did not know what to do with the chocolate rabbits, Jason, our meat team leader in the Mars store, fried up a ton of different kinds of bacon and ran a chocolate covered bacon sale on the weekend,” says Carl Pursh, meat/seafood director at McGinnis Sisters, and a former Best Butcher in Pittsburgh contest winner. “He was selling them for 50-cents a slice, three for $1. We thought the guys would buy it, but what shocked us was that the No. 1 buyer was women. 

“So now chocolate covered bacon has become a Valentine’s Day staple for us,” Pursh adds. “We always have chocolate covered bacon for Valentine’s Day—and our customers know we are going to have it.”

A similar scenario happened when the produce department had an over-abundance of peppers and onions. That is how the meat department’s locally famous kabobs were born.

It is things like these that separate the family-owned McGinnis Sisters’ three stores in suburban Pittsburgh from the competition. 

“We were brought up that you would be crucified if you wasted something,” says Noreen Campbell, vice president and one of the three McGinnis sisters who own the Monroeville, Pa.-based retailer, along with her sisters Bonnie Vello, president, and Sharon Young, vice president. 

“We give our team members leeway,” says Jamie Dawson, marketing/special events manager, and Campbell’s daughter. She started her career with the company as a “Kabob Girl” in the meat department. “Here they have an outlet for creativity and not just waiting on customers,” she says.

“We tell them, bring us your ideas and we will see if it works,” Pursh says. “It is their success and they feel good about it,” Pursh says. “We are not just telling them what to do.”

As a result, associates often suggest new flavors or things they saw on TV shows or while traveling. “That is always really neat, especially for the younger kids. It is really cool to see them getting involved with that sort of thing,” Dawson says.

Campbell notes that because McGinnis Sisters is family-owned, ideas can be tested and implemented quickly and do not have to be run by a buying committee, chief merchandising officer or board of directors. “Our motto is ‘If you come up with it you have to implement it.’ That creates a lot of things—and stops a lot of things,” she laughs.

That attitude also endears employees to the company, and as a result, McGinnis Sisters has a lower turnover rate than its big chain counterparts. Also aiding employee happiness are the relatively limited hours, with stores closing at 7 or 8 p.m., except during the summer when they are open until 9 p.m.

“A reason people want their kids to come here for their first job is that we close at a reasonable time,” says Jennifer Daurora, director of operations, and Vello’s daughter. “High schoolers don’t have to give up all their activities in order to have a job, and we are one of the few operators to still have six paid holidays. That is a choice we made and we stuck with it.”  

What is today McGinnis Sisters was founded as a produce stand by their parents Elwood and Rosella McGinnis in 1946 after Elwood came home from World War II. The stand eventually grew into McGinnis Food Center, a 2,500-square-foot establishment in a southern Pittsburgh suburb that specialized in produce, milk, cigarettes, meat and lunchmeat servicing people coming home from work in the city’s mills.

McGinnis Food Center quickly became known for Rosella’s homemade potato salad, macaroni salad and coleslaw. Today, her cherished recipes are still crafted daily in small batches by carefully trained workers in each of the company’s three locations. “We still sell most of her recipes today; there is no changing of that,” Campbell says. “The girls are very proud of making it.”

In the 1970s, a second “East” location was opened in Monroeville and marked the company’s transformation into a gourmet supermarket.

“That store was in front of a Westinghouse office, and our customers from Westinghouse would have certain requests because they were well-educated and well-traveled,” Vello says. “We would research it, and bring it in.”

“So we started to get into gourmet, which was nice because it differentiated us from the typical chain stores—Giant Eagle, Foodland and Shop ‘n Save—at that time,” Campbell says. “I couldn’t buy Pepsi any cheaper than what Giant Eagle was selling it for, because of consolidation and everything was volume pricing.” 

Vello went to New York and worked with the nascent NASFT, now known as the Specialty Food Association, and came back with ideas about merchandising specialty cheeses, which today accounts for six percent of total store sales. “We had a lot of fun with it. It became our niche,” Campbell says.

“When local and artisan became popular, we had already been doing that for 50 years,” says Daurora.

Adds Dawson, “When home meal replacement and prepared foods became such a big, popular thing, we had already been doing that for about 20 years.” 

“We are really proud of what we do,” says Campbell. “Our kitchen staff is really well-trained. They are not high-trained professional chefs—just wonderful regular folks that want to come in and produce these items for us and keep the integrity of everything.”

That integrity spreads throughout the store. Each day produce team members go through the department and cull anything that is not top notch.                 

McGinnis Sisters newest location is the North-Adams/Mars location, which opened in September 2008. A half-hour north of downtown, its merchandise selection is somewhat different than its two sister stores—more Boar’s Head luncheon meats, for example—because it is in a newer section of the metro area with a more “transient” population of young families and non-native Pittsburghers, says Campbell.    

Best Fish Sandwich

Before shoppers even step inside they get hooked by the giant cod cutout announcing “Fish Fry Today!” from his perch just outside the front door. 

He is referencing McGinnis Sisters award-winning fish sandwich that is sold in the café at the front left side of the store for $8.99. “A couple of years ago one of the radio stations had a contest for Pittsburgh’s best fish sandwich and we won,” says Dawson. “We use fresh fish—never frozen—that comes in filleted and pre-cut for us.”

During the summer months, a tent sprouts up in the parking lot directly in front of the windows and the area is transformed into a farmers market of local produce, an extension of the produce department that begins just inside the front door. “We’re known for the Chambersburg peaches, which are grown down in the Harrisburg/Carlisle, Pa., area,” Daurora says.

“We are really a produce and perishables store,” Daurora says. “We still have an old buyer’s model with two buyers who buy for us every single day, while most companies now are just using national suppliers. That helps us with our pricing and selection.”

Packaged produce—even bagged salads—are limited, and there is a big wet rack. “We like to stick to things we can control and watch the freshness every day,” Daurora says. “We still do a lot of old-fashioned things, like hand-packing strawberries and green beans so we can give our customers the best ones.”

To the right of produce a two-door cooler is filled with milk, eggs, butter and jugs of iced tea. 

“At one time it was the floral cooler, but we weren’t that successful with floral so we’ve made it into a convenience center,” Daurora says.

Just past the cooler is the gift basket counter, another McGinnis Sisters specialty.

“We do a lot of bereavement, sympathy and get well baskets with perishable items, like a half-ham or turkey breast, plus pasta and potato salads, which I think is unique,” says Dawson. “Our customers are not just getting the standard fruits and nuts.”

The produce department leads into seafood. Through a partnership dating back to the 1980s with M.F. Foley Fish Co., based in New Bedford, Mass., McGinnis Sisters prides itself on having the highest quality and freshest fish in town.  

“I’ve visited many times with Laura Foley Ramsden, co-owner and president, and we worked with her dad who is now retired,” says Campbell. “They worked up a program where they did one retailer in each city, and they asked us to be their Pittsburgh retailer and we’re very proud of that. They’ve educated us many times and we’ve toured the boats and learned everything about fish. I tell my staff that seafood is like the canary in the coal mine. If it is bad, you can smell it coming into the store, it is a sign of what is happening in the entire building and is just not a pleasant experience.”

Fish cakes, crab cakes and salmon cakes are made in-house using Rosella’s recipes, while fillets are merchandised from cellophane-wrapped tins placed on a bed of crushed ice, according to Foley specifications, to keep it fresh longer.

“None of the Foley fish is brined, and if the air hits it, it will dry out,” Daurora says. “We buy the polysheets directly from Foley because they are made to their specifications. When you have an all-natural product like this it is more work, but we believe it is the right thing for our customers.”

Daurora admits there is also a drawback. “The thing that hurts us a little bit with our seafood is that it is going to be more expensive than the Giant Eagle, but nothing is previously frozen and our product is all rotated and tested every day.” 

Chicken on the Rocks

Crushed ice also plays a crucial role in the adjacent meat counter, where fresh chicken is merchandised on it. “I don’t know too many stores that still have chicken on ice because it is a chore constantly keeping it fresh and clean,” Daurora says. But customers love it that way, and especially like that the butcher will gladly cut breasts down into cutlets at no extra charge, and throw in some extra ice too. 

“We give them bags of ice to take home with their meat,” says Pursh. “We tell them to take it up front to the cashier and when they pack your bag they know how to place the ice to keep it cold and so the chicken is not dripping wet when you get it home.”  

The meat department sets itself apart in other ways too. Local Pennsylvania-grown meats are stocked where possible, including Leidy’s Pork from the Lancaster area. There is local lamb and some local grass-fed beef, and chopped meat is ground throughout the day from whole chuck roasts, and sold in 1-pound bags or made into McGinnis’ famous sliders. While there is a small self-service case for things like family-size packs and pre-wrapped hams, most shoppers opt for the service counter so they can chat with the butcher.

McGinnis Sisters has an admittedly limited center store grocery section; even its five aisles are narrower than the standard. “We are a perimeter store where the center store is very small and you might have one choice for laundry detergent instead of 80 feet,” Dawson says.

Her words ring especially true in the frozen food aisle, or rather half-aisle, consisting of 12 doors with an emphasis on organic and gluten-free brands. Compare that to three complete aisles of 100-plus doors at the Giant Eagle Market District. McGinnis Sisters has also discontinued its pet food section.

“We have found that we can’t compete on price with those things, so we just start doing the basics and what works for us,” Dawson says. “A lot of people are now splitting up their shopping trips anyway, visiting other stores like Target and Costco.”

Where McGinnis Sisters excels in is in its specialty offerings. Aisles abound with gourmet items, like Stonewall Kitchen, merchandised from special white wooden shelves reminiscent of a home pantry.

“We have a lot of items where we were the innovators in Pittsburgh and now they are popular all over, like Stonewall Kitchen,” Daurora says. “We do a lot with local companies. There are a lot of local pasta sauce companies here in Pittsburgh and a local dairies and cottage industries.” One of those cottage industries is The Purple Spoon, a Gibsonia, Pa.-based artisan jelly manufacturer owned by Linda Croskey who hand manufacturers a line of some 50 jams and jellies in mostly unusual flavors, like wild violet, dandelion, horseradish and onion.  

“Linda is so cute. She dresses in all purple and we’ve had her in the store giving a jam class on how to make your own jams,” Dawson says.

Paper Bag Bread

McGinnis Sisters’ renowned bakery department is located in the left rear corner. “Our bakery is very unique in that we do have some local specialized bread companies—Mancini’s and Breadworks—in addition to our own artisan breads,” says Cathy Loughran, deli/bakery director. They are merchandised the real old-fashioned way—unsliced in pap

er bags with the name written in magic marker. “We have our Irish soda bread year-round. Our competition might produce it the week of St. Patty’s Day, but this is a signature item for us, and when you walk into the store and they are baking it, the smell is just unbelievable.”

Muffins are made from scratch, and biscotti—merchandised self-service from old-fashioned gallon glass canisters—are brought in from a local firm.

The North’s bread selection differs slightly. “The younger crowd here is looking for a more healthy bread, but we are finding people still eat bread,” Loughran says. 

The younger crowd also affects the adjacent deli counter. When the North store opened Loughran brought in the same selection carried in Monroeville and Brentwood. 

“Because this area is so transient, people kept asking for ‘Boar’s Head, Boar’s Head, Boar’s Head,’” Loughran says. “So I met with the local Boar’s Head rep and told him I didn’t want him to take over my deli, like they do in other stores, but that we could complement each other, and he was very enthusiastic about that. We brought in what he recommended but once again my clientele told me what they wanted to see,” she says. 

“We are not selling pickle loaf or olive loaf in this location. It is more the turkey, chicken and roast beef,” Loughran adds. “The customers in this store are very into whole grains and healthy optio

ns, and although they do buy their lunchmeat they are very limited in their choices.” 

Luckily Mrs. McGinnis’ famous salads are still wildly popular. “We make them in 10-pound batches,” Loughran says. “It is easier to control and it keeps it fresh. We make less and make it more often. The movement on the potato salad is just really amazing.”

An aisle across from the deli/prepared foods counter is the cheese department where cheese spreads and cheeseballs are made in-house.

“We call our cheese department ‘the jewel on the package’ because it has all the fun stuff you need for entertaining,” says Dawson. “We’ve had a lot of success with our cheeses and our prices are competitive with the shops down in The Strip,” an Italian enclave downtown.

Aside from all of its great perishables and unique gourmet items, another advantage McGinnis Sisters offers is its manageable size. “We had a survey conducted and people said they like our store because it is smaller, more intimate, like a family store,” says Dawson. “One customer said she needed a box of toothpicks at Giant Eagle, and they handed her a map and pointed her in the direction. Our people take you wherever you need to go.”     

“We have people matching what we’re doing, which we were exclusive on before,” says Campbell. “And that is okay. We have just continued to evolve,” she says, adding that she still regularly gets emails and letters asking McGinnis Sisters to open stores in other neighborhoods.

However, as the next generation of McGinnises prepares to take over the reins that prospect appears less and less likely.

“What we’ve been focusing on is more of the service line extensions that we already have, instead of new bricks-and-mortar locations,” says Daurora. “Jamie is in charge of the corporate gift basket program and we are doing a lot of corporate catering. We don’t need a lot of lead time. Service is where our expansion will be. The market is pretty crowded in Pittsburgh now—the market has changed—and so this is what we’re focused on,” she says.     

To the Rescue

Nearly 40 percent of the food produced in the U.S. goes to waste, including more than 50 percent of produce, says Noreen Campbell, vice president and co-owner of McGinnis Sisters Special Food Stores.

McGinnis Sisters is doing its part to reduce the amount of food going to waste in its stores by partnering with a local group called 412 Food Rescue. Named after Pittsburgh’s area code, 412 Food Rescue gives food to families in need in Pittsburgh’s poorer neighborhoods.

According to the 412 Food Rescue website, 171,660 people in Alleghany County, where Pittsburgh is located, are food insecure, including 43,090 children. Unlike a food bank, 412 Food Rescue does not store the food, but rather specializes in perishable items that are still perfectly good, but no longer sellable. 

Food 412 Rescue uses multiple modes of retrieving and delivering food, including its own truck and volunteers who use their cars and bicycles to move food from the donors to beneficiary organizations, including soup kitchens and school backpack programs to directly distribute the food.  

“We have always supported the Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank, but 412 Food Rescue is nice because they come to us every day if we need them,” says Jennifer Daurora, director of operations for McGinnis Sisters. “We just have to call them and they will come. We could have excess produce, canned goods or baked goods. They’ll take whatever we have and work on the redistribution on their side, which really is helpful logistics wise. It would be too tough for us to do that, so that take care of it.”

In addition to McGinnis Sisters, 412 Food Rescue also works with area Whole Foods, Big Burrito and Costco locations.   

Check out some photos from GHQ executive editor Richard Turcsik's visit to McGinnis Sisters: