The Baltimore Sun reports that while many independents and family-owned supermarket companies have either been driven out of business or acquired by major or regional chains, the ones that do survive often do so by focusing on food. In addition, of course, to customer service.
“To be successful as a niche retailer, you have to watch what everyone else is doing, but you have to play your own game,” David Graul, a Baltimore-area independent, told the Sun. “It's the niching of the business, if you're going to survive, get really big or really specialize.”
“To be successful as a niche retailer, you have to watch what everyone else is doing, but you have to play your own game,” David Graul, a Baltimore-area independent, told the Sun. “It's the niching of the business, if you're going to survive, get really big or really specialize.”
- KC's View:
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Truer words were never spoken…and not just because we use similar phrases all the time on MNB.
We recognize that you need to have capital to make such an approach to business work. But sometimes focusing on food just means making the best damned meatballs in the state, not creating gourmet crab cakes or having fresh lobster. It means having signature products and services, and then flaunting them relentlessly.
There are few better examples of retailers that have done just this than Stew Leonard’s, and the Stamford Advocate in Connecticut ran an interesting piece about the company that you can find at:
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/business/scn-sa-stew1dec22.story
(Full disclosure: We’re quoted in the piece. But that’s not why we’re recommending you read it.)
