Re: [CH] Cheap hot sauces

The Old Bear (oldbear@arctos.com)
Sat, 13 Jun 1998 11:19:44 -0400

In ChileHeads DIgest, v.4 #452, Diane <marxman@skynet.be> wrote:

| Date: Mon, 8 Jun 1998 15:55:09 +0200
| From: "marxman" <marxman@skynet.be>
| Subject: RE: [CH] Cheap hot sauces
| 
| > Up here in Boston, I get Melinda's XXX at Bread & Circus, a yuppy
| > grocery store for $2.10 a bottle :-). I get two cases at a time &
| > keep bottles in the car, friend's car, office, girlfriend's house, 
| > etc.  The same type of stores are also in NJ.  The name will be 
| > different, but look for REALLY expensive veggies.
| 
| Hey, as a former team member of the Whole Foods chain, parent of 
| Bread and Circus <now that they've eaten all the competing stores up>, 
| I can say that the chain has a pretty good selection of hot sauces in 
| general, and always seemed to stock the whole line of Melindas without 
| fail.  As for the expensive veggies, are you comparing the organics to 
| the conventionally grown ones?  If so, no fair.... those organics are 
| worth the price and taste way better. Besides, I'll betcha they aren't 
| so expensive if you think of them as prevention in health care.... ;-)
| 
| Diane, ex-buyer for the A2 Michigan produce team 

Whole Foods Marketing (NASDQ: WFMI) was the outfit that brought 
commercial respectability to the natural foods supermaket concept by 
acquiring a number of successful local operations in California, 
Texas and the Northeast.

Interestingly, such stores do charge a premium for their produce, but 
one should compare the freshness and quality (as well as selection, 
if you're looking for a particular fresh herb or tropical fruit) with 
that available at even the better mass-market chains.

Having moved back to New England after a dozen years in California, I 
am even more aware of the generally tired look of much of the produce 
available in the local supermarkets.  To withstand a trans-continental 
trip, things are either picked before they are ripe or iced down in the 
hope of retarding spoilage.  Neither strategy is particulary successful.

However, I have to admit that compared with two decades ago, competition 
(from air freighted imports especially) has improved things somewhat 
from the 1970s when north-easterners could be assured only of finding 
heads of discolored iceberg lettuce, sacks of potatoes, and cello-packs 
of golfball-like tomatoes in their supermaket produce department.  All 
other veggies were on a catch-as-catch-can basis.

Most Americans take supermarkets for granted.  But the industry is one 
of the most creative and innovative industries in the United States. 
Thin margins, perishable products, aggressive competition, promotional 
pricing, over-reaching manufacturers and distributors, and fickle 
public tastes all dictate an intense management style which is rarely 
seen by the public who deal only with store personnel.

Most recently, the major chains have started to recognize Whole Foods 
Marketing (and a number of other local and regional naturual foods 
retailers) as real players in the marketplace.  As a result, there 
has been a number of new store formats introduced (such as Star 
Markets' "Wild Harvest" here in the Boston area) either as stand-alones 
or as "store-within-a-store" units.

Havings spent two decades of my life as an investment manager for a 
portfolio of commercial and retail properties from coast to coast, I 
have had the pleasure (and sometimes pain) of working with Safeway, 
King Soopers, Giant, Vons, Alpha-Beta, Stop and Shop -- as well as 
Alfalfa's, a Colorado natural foods market.  (Landlords care about 
this stuff because rent is often based on a percentage of gross sales 
formula.)  And I have been thankful to be an "informed specator" of 
the merchandising decisions and not the man or woman who has to decide 
things like store layout, merchandise mix, and the amount of shelf-space 
to commit to specialty items like hot sauce brands.

Twenty years ago, one of the big issues was how much of the household 
food dollar was being taken away by McDonalds and the other fast food 
operators.  Having watched that portion of their business go away, the 
supermarket chains are now responding to competitive challenges from 
the big box retailers (Costco, BJs, etc.) on price and the natural 
foods retailers on quality -- and possibly even the Internet through 
services like Peapod and others.  We live in interesting times.

Cheers,
The Old Bear