Organic Nobility

A shopping trip to Barons Market is just like a visit to Trader Joe’s—a Trader Joe’s on 100 percent organic and natural, antibiotic-, preservative-, additive- and hormone-free steroids, that is.

The aisles of the newest Barons Market store in Murrieta, Calif., about 65 miles north of the six-store chain’s home base of San Diego, are filled with some 9,000 SKUs—compared to 3,500 SKUs at Trader Joe’s—of the finest quality, best-tasting organic and natural groceries available at the hottest prices in town. A tasting station offers samples of store-made salads and easy-to-prepare meals using a handful of ingredients, while an entire aisle is filled with shining stainless steel urns allowing shoppers to sample some two dozen different varieties of olive oils and fancy balsamic vinegars. 

Across the floor in the extensive wine and beer department, an entire cooler case is filled with local craft beers, and an aisle is devoted to wines from small, local Southern California vineyards—sold at prices less than at the wineries themselves.

“We kind of took the Trader Joe’s model—but we don’t have our own brand—and kicked it up a notch,” says Rachel Shemirani, vice president, marketing, at Barons Market. “Our concept is similar to Trader Joe’s and even Sprouts Farmers Market in that we don’t have a full butcher. We don’t make [custom made-to-order] sandwiches, or have an in-store bakery. And we are very conscious of pricing. We also just look at the different trends and what our customers have been asking from us.”

That includes a complete offering of produce, largely sourced from small, local farms. On a recent trip, a giant wooden tub was overflowing with tangerines fresh picked from a farm in neighboring Temecula.  

“We buy a lot from family farms, and in Southern California there are a lot. We concentrate on the pricing and stay competitive. Value never goes out of style,” Shemirani says.

Barons Market’s selection is tailored to the needs of its shoppers. 

“The customer is our boss,” Shemirani says. “We make sure that we bring them the best product, at the best price, with the best ingredients, as much as we can. People are busy. People have dual incomes, couples are working, everyone is on the go and people are on their phones every second of the day. People love to go shopping, but they hate grocery shopping,” she says.

But that is not true at Barons Market, where shoppers love the experience so much some cannot stay out of the place.

“We have people who I see shop the store for breakfast, lunch and dinner several days a week,” Shemirani says. “Most of our customers shop between three and five times a week at our store.”

One of those is Norma “Genie” Seymour, Ph.D., a retired psychologist and founder of a singles group called Grandparents Without Partners.  

“Before Barons Market opened I shopped at Albertsons and Stater Bros.,” she says. “This store opened on Jan. 27 and it is incredible. I’ve been back here since the 27th every single day.” She points to the fresh blueberries and raspberries in her cart that she will make into a fruit salad, the containers of chicken salad and hot tomato veggie soup. “I love the fresh chicken salad, and I like the freshness of everything—the fruits, veggies and soups.”

An Overflow of Organic 

In addition to being fresh, Barons Market’s product selection is 96 percent natural and organic, Shemirani says. There is a smattering of conventional products on the shelves but they are few and far between—and getting fewer.

“Anytime we can find a replacement for something that is conventional, we will,” she says. “Marshmallows was a tough one, but we were able to find vegan, all-natural marshmallows. One of our goals for 2016 is that we really want to get rid of the conventional products and really bring in the organic and specialty products,” Shemirani says. 

Something else Barons Market shoppers will not see are employees sitting on upended milk crates changing the shelf price tags every Saturday evening. 

“A lot of people think that because our stores are so pretty that we’re expensive—and we’re not,” Shemirani says. “We really believe that unless our costs change that our prices don’t go up.”

At 19,000 square-feet, the Murrieta store is the largest in the company, taking up half of an old Ralphs space; the other half is still vacant. Shoppers entering Barons Market are greeted with a small selection of plants and floral—it welcomes people, Shemirani says—with shelves of vitamins and supplements to the right at the very front of the store, and produce straight ahead. 

One of the largest produce departments in the company, items are arranged on traditional wall fixtures as well as tables, wicker baskets and wood full and half barrels. 

Like the rest of the store, the produce department has an open ceiling. At the end of the department that changes, however, to an ivory and white tiled drop ceiling that runs over the bread aisle, bulk food bins, olive oil urns, refrigerated cases, meat and fresh seafood, ending at the Barons Kitchen sampling station at the back of the store. “This feature was first used in our Alpine store and we call it the Ceiling Runway,” says Shemirani. “When you walk in it kind of directs you back here so you can be fed. Under this runway you have a lot of the most exciting features in the store—the olive oil, salad bar, soup bar.”

To the left of the Ceiling Runway, grocery aisles run at an angle. 

“It works with the flow better and takes you right out to the register,” Shemirani says. “It makes shopping a little more interesting too, because every time you turn a corner you see something else.”

Beyond an aisle of artisan breads from local bakers are four aisles of bulk bins. “This is the largest bulk section in all of our stores and it has been received really great,” says Shemirani. 

Mother Earth-conscious Californians love cutting down on packaging by bagging just what they need, she says. Special twist ties have a paper appendage where shoppers write down the PLU number for the bulk item they take, and the cashier types it in at the checkout. In addition to the typical granola, cereals, oats, flours and chocolate covered raisins, there are quite a number of unusual items, including hibiscus, chocolate covered honeycomb, chocolate covered banana chips, dark chocolate burnt caramel almonds, and even chocolate covered gummy bears.

Gummy Gate

There are uncoated gummy bears too. 

“Anytime we can find something that is the organic or natural counterpart we will replace it,” Shemirani says. “We used to have traditional gummy bears that were neon green, turquoise and other colors that do not exist in nature. We found these that are colored with red cabbage dye and beet juice. So we replaced them, and there was an uproar like you would not believe. People wanted their old gummy bears. But we had to stick to our mission, which was going toward natural and organic. We called it Gummy Gate. We never introduced the traditional gummy bears in our Alpine store or here, and people have said these are the best gummy bears that they’ve ever had.”

The next aisle under the Ceiling Runway contains two dozen large stainless steel urns. Each is filled with a specialty olive oil or balsamic vinegar with little cups and slices of bread for tasting. The corresponding filled bottles are merchandised next to the respective urn, at an adjacent round table and up front in the cooking oil set. 

“As far as I know, we are the only store in California with this,” Shemirani says. “It has been such a hit we are going to be putting it into all of our other stores.    

The neighboring soup bar has also been getting raves. Soups are custom-made by a local supplier, delivered daily and merchandised from a self-service circular fixture. Plexiglas bins on top merchandise artisan dinner rolls for 49-cents each. 

“The soup bar is a big hit,” Shemirani says. “If we changed our name to Barons Soup Store our sales would probably double. We have people from Boston commenting on our clam chowder. That is a huge compliment.”

At $5.99 a pound, the salad bar is a smash hit too. Unusual items include baked tofu, real bacon, mini sweet peppers and edame and salami slices. “People often buy their pizza toppings here. They then buy some pizza dough and a jar of sauce and make their own pizzas. This way you just get as much as you need and it doesn’t weigh a lot,” Shemirani says.  

Barons Market’s meat/seafood/deli department, along the right wall, is small when compared to conventional competitors, Shemirani admits. There is no service case; lunchmeats from Applegate Farms dangle from peg hooks and sandwiches ($2.99 for a half) made with Boar’s Head meats and local artisan bread are made and packaged in the backroom. A limited selection of meats, mainly steaks, ground beef and oven-ready roasts, are available in Cryovac packaging, as well as Rocky and Rosie brands of chicken. “We don’t have a butcher, so all of this comes from a local meat company,” Shemirani says. “They distribute to restaurants, and we are their only retail account. Our prices are a little higher, but the quality is definitely there.”

Fresh seafood is packaged salmon and tilapia, although a much broader assortment is available in the freezer case.

The Barons Kitchen demonstration area occupies a key area at the end of the Ceiling Runway. A store associate prepares and samples three dishes, sometimes an item from the antipasto or olive bar, but usually something prepared in-house using a handful of ingredients. Shoppers are given the samples in a decent-size two-ounce cup.

“We’ll typically have a recipe that takes less than 10 to 15 minutes to prepare,” Shemirani says. “We come up with recipes that do not have a lot of ingredients, are easy to put together and the components are all available in the store. We then print them on cards that we have on the table.”

Further down, a large juicer sits in the middle of the aisle.

“We do fresh-squeezed local oranges nine months out of the year when they are in season,” Shemirani says. “It is so unbelievably sweet and delicious and a great added feature for us, especially during the cold season.”  

Frozen foods occupy the aisle next to the back aisle. In addition to Amy’s and other “healthy” items there are decadent ones,  like an assortment of Julian Pies, a locally popular pie company that is also sold by competitors—at a higher price.  

Barons Market eschews the currently popular door units in favor of old-fashioned coffin cases. “You get much better sales with the coffin cases,” Shemirani says. “The doors save energy and you can fit more, but there is that barrier you have with the customer. Plus, when you open it and close it, it gets all fogged up and you can’t see the product.”

Another advantage is that coffin cases allow for cross-merchandising grocery products. That especially comes in handy over Barons Market’s extensive 12-foot frozen seafood set, where shoppers can find corresponding wines, beer, glazes, taco sauce, tartar sauce, bread crumbs, artichoke hearts, olives and capers. 

“Our seafood is all flash-frozen and from all over the world,” Shemirani says. “We’re working to find a new local fish supplier from San Diego, but that is surprisingly hard to find.”

For a health food store, Barons Market certainly has a lot of Moxie. Shoppers can find it in the refrigerated cooler filled, with it and other old-fashioned sodas.

“Even though we are moving toward organic and natural, the specialty sodas are huge out here,” Shemirani says. “We have a good selection and do really well with them. It is something different to add to the customer experience.”

So is the extensive selection of wine and beer. 

“We have a lot of California wines with 500 bottles that are less than $10.” Shemirani says. “Our wine and beer director has been in the industry for years and is actually a judge at wine and beer competitions, and just came back from being a judge at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. 

While most consumers consider Napa Valley the heart of California wine country, Southern Californians beg to differ, which is why Barons Market stocks scores of local products. “There are a lot of local wines out of Temecula, for instance, South Coast, Fallbrook and Ophelia is right down the road,” Shemirani says. “The big labels are from Northern California, but people like to buy local and we sell them for cheaper than the wineries. You can go to a wine tasting down at the vineyard and then come here and grab a bottle. And at the wineries they’ll tell their customers that if they like the wines they can also get them at Barons.”

Barons has also tapped into the local craft beer movement. 

“We have been told we have the best craft beer selection in any grocery store,” Shemirani says. “That is because anything new we carry and we have long relationships with other craft beer brewers and distributors.”    

Shemirani says Barons Market’s goal is to keep on growing, albeit slowly. “It takes so much time, energy, passion, training to open a store,” she says. “Before we open a store we spend a good couple of months driving through the community, counting houses, and look for people and asking them where they shop and where is the closest Trader Joe’s.

“We’d love to be across from a Whole Foods because we are $1 to $2 cheaper,” she adds. “We do really well near gyms. A Grocery Outlet, which is similar to an Aldi, opened across from one of our stores and our sales went up. There is a big pie out here and there is plenty of pie for everybody—but you have to do it right.”     

Check out some photos from GHQ executive editor Richard Turcsik's visit to Barons Market: