Chuck Williams, founder of the Williams-Sonoma chain of cookware stores, spoke last fall of his conviction that the interest in cooking was stronger than ever in this country.
”I`m not basing this on San Francisco, where I live,” he said. ”Eight years ago, when we opened a store in Dallas, it was a desert. Now there`s a big, beautiful market called Simon David. It stocks anything a cook might want, and it`s very busy. Go look at Simon David!”
I did and, impressed by what I saw, launched a six-month exploration of the rapidly changing face of the nation`s food markets.
”We are in the midst of the greatest change in food marketing since the first supermarkets opened 50 years ago,” a speaker told a supermarket industry convention at McCormick Place last week. ”Food markets today are satisfying desires a lot of us didn`t know we have.”
Chicago already has some, and soon will have more, showcase examples of these new-style markets. (See related story on this page.) But tours of pace- setting stores in locales as diverse as McLean, Va., Minneapolis, Beverly Hills and Warren, Ohio, plus presentations at last week`s Food Market Institute (FMI) convention, offer convincing evidence that consumers here can anticipate new food-shopping experiences.
This is because, in a dramatic turnaround, elements of the supermarket industry truly believe shoppers want the best they can afford and have decided to romance them.
The most intriguing of the new stores are stylishly decorated and alive with vibrant colors and vivid graphics. These sights are combined with real smells and everyday exposure to products and services once thought to be privileges restricted to the rich and famous. They are oriented to
perishables, not packaged goods. Most important of all, in a direct challenge to restaurants and caterers, the truly pace-setting markets are preparing food, not just distributing food manufactured by others.
”A significant number of Americans are willing to trade dollars for time saved or other features that give added value to a product,” says industry consultant Michael Whiteman. ”They don`t fit the traditional grocery shopper stereotype. They don`t want the giant economy size and they aren`t looking for bargains. That`s why there is so much innovation going on.”
The segment of the industry seeking these consumers is made up mostly of small stores with, in some cases, family owners–sophisticated moms and pops catering to a new generation of home-oriented moms and pops, or would-be moms and pops or older moms and pops with empty nests.
These markets are, frankly, elitist. They contribute only a tiny percentage to the $265 billion annual sales of the supermarket industry. In size they are overshadowed by the new generation of megamarkets, 80,000, 90,000, 100,000 square feet or more superstores that include such American-patented virtues as one-stop shopping, infinite choices and bargain prices. But, with the exception of bare-bones warehouse stores that sound the single note of economy, that elite tail is wagging the dog.
It`s come to the point that a trendy grocery store–in California, of course–defiantly tells its customers, ”We are not a supermarket!”
Back to the beginning, which, luckily, is not all that long ago.
A supermarket expert sets the start of the ”revolution” at 1980. In the previous decade, the industry had made a 180-degree wrong turn, observers now say with a unanimity that is astonishing, even in hindsight.
As they see it, supermarkets deflected the consumer activist onslaught of the early 1970s by curbing price increases. Then, obsessed with improving low profit margins, the chains depersonalized the grocery shopping experience by embracing the economics of ever-larger stores, introducing technology that would hold down labor costs, eliminating as many fresh, unprocessed foods as possible as well as the skilled personnel who handled them.
Pushing self-service meant many shoppers didn`t have any contact with a store employee until they reached the check-out counter. Therefore giant, faceless manufacturers–the ”food industry”–were allowed to determine what the nation`s consumers wanted to buy, in what sizes and in what colors.
By the late `70s, the critics conclude, there was a single supermarket all across the nation (with differing chain names and logos, of course). Grocery shopping became supremely boring.
So what happened?
The significant social changes of the recent past have been thoroughly documented: The movement of women into the work force and the rise of status and quality oriented, free-spending urban professionals are considered the key elements. Supermarkets were forced to make shopping easier and quicker, yet also more enticing and sophisticated, to fight back against fast food restaurants, on one hand, and European-style, high-end specialty food stores on the other. Extensive press coverage of recommendations for altering eating patterns and exotic fruits and vegetables fueled consumer demand for new products.
Most supermarkets grew, but others shrank. Many removed frills, while others began adding them. Some offered only discount prices to volume shoppers. Others began to stock luxury products once found only in specialty stores. Being new was no longer enough. Stores and their inventories had to have an element of originality, of freshness.
For example, at Simon David in Dallas, opened in 1985, the look is fresh. The store is a theater set, remarkably clean, inviting and pleasant. On the balcony level, shoppers can take a break and dine in an attractive cafe.
At Someplace Special in McLean, Va., opened in 1982, the smells are fresh. All manner of food is prepared, or partially prepared, on premise each day.
At Byerly`s in the Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park, a luxury boutique offering art and antiques is a fresh and startling innovation.
At the Irvine Ranch Market in Beverly Hills, the extensive displays of fresh fruits and vegetables are more appealing than magazine advertising photographs.
At Warren`s Woodland Market in Ohio, a small store in a residential neighborhood, shoppers are greeted by a Cezanne poster and free coffee. Freshly made carry-out foods and pastries are on view in beautiful state-of-the-art Italian display cases.
At J. Bildner & Sons in Boston (or New York City, or Atlanta), so much is fresh, new and unexpected that a summary sentence will not suffice. In 4,000 to 6,000 square feet, a tenth the size of today`s average supermarket, you will find the most innovative and exciting food marketing concept of the moment. It offers a multi-shop, personalized service, European-style shopping experience under one roof. Launched less than three years ago, Bildner`s plans to have stores from coast-to-coast before the end of the decade.
The case for Bildner`s is not based solely on impressive performance to this point. (Gross sales in 17 stores are projected to clear $60 million this year.) It also rests on forecasts of emerging consumer preferences.
A presentation at the FMI convention by Faith Popcorn, who heads a widely respected New York City consulting firm called BrainReserve, cited ten major behavior trends, attitudes that should trigger Americans` behavior into the
`90s.
They are:
–Desire for top quality product and willingness to pay ”a significant premium” to get it.
–Need to express individuality through personal statements and styles.
–”Cocooning” (increased focus on life at home).
–Desire for ”adventure” in the form of experimentation and safe risk-taking.
–Indulgence, including increased demand for personalized services.
–Continued ”grazing,” including quick, easy meals and snacks.
–Rebirth of respect for tradition and traditional values.
–Concern for ”wellness” that leads to increased consumption of fresh foods.
–Increased reliance on convenience products and services to help manage time.
–Strong urge to ”fight back” against faceless, impersonal organizations.
It is significant that the J. Bildner concept plays directly into every one of these trends.
Small and expensively decorated, the stores make a personal statement
(”J. Bildner” is a real person) of intimacy and quality that is very appealing to the style-conscious.
The fresh foods and flowers are beautiful (wellness), as is the extensive display of carefully-designed and decorated prepared foods. (These appeal to grazers and those pressed for time, are exotic enough for the adventure-seeker, expensive enough for the status-seeker and will be delivered to stay- at-home cocooners along with that other staple for today`s stay-at-home couple–a movie videotape.)
The lack of choice (J. Bildner presumably has selected the best products for you) and small size of the store saves shoppers time, while the presence of basic grocery products (at competitive prices) makes one-stop shopping possible.
The look of the stores and ads that stress lots of old-fashioned personalized service (including credit, free delivery and consulting) play to the desire for tradition and the wish to be indulged.
Last, but hardly least, Bildner stores defuse the ”fight back” urge by asking customers for comments, suggestions and criticism while they shop and through consumer advisory panels.
Capitalizing on the contradictions in consumer desires, J. Bildner is thriving in inner-city and affluent suburban locations most supermarket chains don`t want or can`t afford.
”We are not a gourmet store,” says Bildner executive John Howard. ”Our customers include students and senior citizens as well as yuppies and working couples. The link is that they all are seeking quality and service and they want to buy the best they can afford.”
”We are part specialty market, part convenience store, part traditional grocery market, part restaurant carry-out, part caterer,” Jim Bildner, the 33-year-old founder of the company, said during an interview last week.
”Luckily we are not directly competitive with any one of those elements, so our stores have not provoked direct responses.”
”Everyone is going after the carry-out, eat-in market today,” says Michael Whiteman. ”But equipping a supermarket with a real kitchen and real chefs is too big a step for most of the industry. You have to think small, and their instinct is to think big. You have to think full meals and changing menus, and their instinct is to think of packaged or mass-produced deli items.”
Whiteman and others feel most chains will not pay the salaries needed to hire talent capable of producing restaurant-quality fare, would not give them creative license and lack the commitment to quality. At most markets visited on this survey, even including Simon David and Byerly`s, prepared foods were the least impressive products on display.
Ann Brody, a consultant who was commissioned to write a primer called
”How to Go Upscale” for the National Grocers Association, is more hopeful.
”For the first time, the industry is turning to food professionals,”
she says. ”They need them to provide increased options, the fresh, natural salads people want, the soups and stock bases, the stuffed pork chops or marinated sirloin. Today`s consumers want options that don`t insult their intelligence and allow them to make some contribution to preparing a meal.
”Why make the effort? Three reasons. If you don`t, you`ll lose your customers. If you do, there are tremendous profits to be made plus an opportunity to set yourself apart from your competitors.”
Curiously, there is no shortage of cooking talent. The regular hours, variety and customer contact offered by a market appeal to many trained restaurant and hotel chefs. Knowledgeable personnel with management skills are harder to find and keep, however.
Michael Whiteman also warns that stores must ”be careful not to outrace the taste of their customers. If you sell only luxury party food, you won`t last long,” he says, citing the failure of specialty food emporiums opened by movie producer Dino DeLaurentis in Manhattan and Beverly Hills.
Another danger is boredom. For jaded urbanites, the extraordinary can become commonplace overnight. While menu items change frequently, even a store such as Bildner`s cannot remodel itself or change its product line regularly to stimulate customers who are dropping in three to seven times a week.
More than ordinary supermarkets, the upscale stores court dissatisfaction. ”Because of the rather grand claims we make about quality and service, we can`t disappoint customers, especially first-time customers, or we`ll never see them again,” says John Howard of Bildner`s.
But none of these hazards are likely to curb the push to upscale, and as these stores evolve, there will be changes.
Ann Brody talks of stores doing co-op prepared food programs with restaurants. Both she and Michael Whiteman foresee new technology making an impact, especially with vacuum-packed, shelf-stable fresh foods and meals. Bishop Allen already is planning to increase the non-food items in the new Simon David stores. Jim Bildner envisions expanding into luxury gift items. Nick Amogliotis, owner of Woodland Market in Warren, Ohio, hopes small, quality-oriented food merchants and small, quality-oriented markets across the country will find one another and form some sort of supply network.
”I don`t think it (J. Bildner & Sons) is competitive or a threat,” the editor of Progressive Grocer wrote. ”I see it as filling a certain need for certain customers.”
”Specialty foods already are the dominant force in the industry,”
answers Jim Bildner.
