In Chicago’s retail world, Rob Strube, president of Chicago’s Strube Celery & Vegetable Company, BB #:102030 says, “Pricing goes as Jewel goes. They get aggressive, then back down. The independents do battle with an occasional shock price.”
The Shelby Report finds that Jewel-Osco has the highest retail market-share in the Illinois-Indiana market, which includes Chicago, at 25 percent.
He does not see any great effect from the trend toward online grocery shopping. “I feel that Chicago[ans] overall still like to touch and feel their produce. I’m sure we have lost some business to online because of all the independents. Still, [companies] want to open more stores, and others from outside the state want to come here.”
Strube sees this trend in his region: “All markets seem to be targeting more and more Hispanic. Ethnic markets, along with big-box and the bigger independents, really push the Hispanic trade.”
Sam Maglio, president of Maglio Companies, headquartered in Glendale, WI, BB #:105281 observes that “households overall are shrinking. The empty nesters have only two persons. The millennials might have one or two children (as opposed to the Baby Boomers, who had three, four, or more children). Those shoppers buy smaller quantities of food more frequently.”
Maglio also sees an impact from ethnic markets.
“Many cultures live as a family unit, with multiple generations under one roof, and they shop in quantity for the six to ten people who might be in the same household. There are fewer stores that cater to these shoppers, but the ones that do create huge traffic and commensurate volume in sales.”
He is “definitely seeing” growth in Hispanic-based retail in southeastern Wisconsin and in the Asian populations of the Twin Cities.
As for specific items, Bill Dietz, president of Heartland Produce Company in Kenosha, WI, BB #:133466 points out a drop of demand for citrus such as grapefruit.
Varieties of melons, such as cantaloupes, with long shelf lives, make for year-round availability, but they aren’t as tasty as the more traditional varieties and so risk turning off consumers. The demand for kale has leveled off.
“It depends on what the next craze is,” says Dietz. “That’s fine for us in the produce industry. Any way you can get people eating more fresh fruits and vegetables is a win.”
This is a multi-part spotlight feature on Midwest produce adapted from the October 2019 issue of Produce Blueprints.
