FOCUS ON FRESH “We don’t sell a lot of it, but there are people who want it, so we try to have it for them,” Baesler says, noting that Baesler’s Market’s commitment to delighting customers in the fresh arena is one way the retailer differentiates itself from Dollar General, which has several stores in the communities Baesler serves. In a rural locale with many farms, consumers are more apt to prioritize local sourcing because of the positive impact on the area’s economy; it’s not simply a trendy millennial-driven preference. Baesler’s Market carries local corn, carrots and watermelons. “We attempt to do as much local as we can, but there is a limit to what we can do,” Baesler says. Not only does Indiana have a limited growing season, but also local producers can’t meet the retailer’s need for many items during the warmer months. “Outside of the three mentioned items, [local farms] don’t have enough quantity to where we can just depend on them all summer for tomatoes or all summer for cucumbers,” he elaborates. Still, customers appreciate the retailer’s efforts to sell local produce, and Baesler diligently works with the area’s farmers to bring more locally grown items into the three stores. Local sourcing is a challenge everywhere, and some larger supermarket chains are helping to defray farmers’ production costs to ensure a supply of fresh products that can meet rising consumer demand, Oberman adds. Though still in the
experimental stage and not a solution to the local supply challenge, an emerging trend among grocery retailers is “hyperlocal” store-grown produce. Retailers are beginning to grow their own leafy greens and herbs in rooftop greenhouses, on the sides of stores in hydroponic vertical gardens and — as H-E-B-owned Central Market is doing — in a mobile container just outside of a store that could be moved from one location to another. Behind one of Central Market’s Dallas stores, a 53-foot custom-built Growtainer, made from a recycled shipping container, provides 480 square feet of climate-controlled vertical production space. The miniature farm features proprietary technology for ebb-and-flow irrigation, a water-monitoring system, and energy-efficient light-emitting diode (LED) production modules specifically designed for multilayer cultivation, according to Glenn Behrman, president of Dallas-based Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) Advisors, which developed the Growtainer specifically for Central Market. Behrman points out that the Growtainer has been a highly successful “innovation project” for the retailer. “They can’t keep up with the demand,” he says. The hydroponically grown leafy greens are merchandised in the store’s produce department on an attractive mobile “Store Grown Produce” display LEFT: Hy-Vee has garnered much customer enthusiasm for The Misfits, cosmetically challenged produce supplied by Robinson Fresh. RIGHT (including inset): A Dallas store of H-E-B-owned Central Market grows and sells its own produce in a controlled-environment Growtainer developed by Dallas-headquartered CEA Advisors.
www.storebrands.com /January 2018 / Store Brands
29