Back to specialties

In Australia, specialty stores like greengrocers and butcher shops are treading on the dominance of the supermarket. In my view, a majority of U.S. retail produce executives would probably love nothing more than running their own specialty produce shop. If they truly wanted to follow their heart and not align their valuable talents with multi billion dollar corporations, we may see them operating the type of specialty stores described in this feature. To those guys, I say: Don't wait too long!

This story describes the trend.

Rising patronage of specialty and traditional fresh food outlets (green grocers, fish markets, butchers and bakeries) is threatening to eat away at supermarkets’ ‘share of stomach’ as consumers increasingly shop around in search of the freshest food offer, a report released today by The Nielsen Company reveals.By combining data from its retail measurement service, Homescan consumer panel and Winning Brands Store Equity Model, the 2006 Nielsen ShopperTrends Report provides unique insight into the current Australian grocery retailing environment and shopper behaviour.According to the report, supermarkets remain the dominant retail trade channel driven by frequent consumer patronage (98 percent of survey respondents claimed to have visited a supermarket in the past seven days).However, the supermarket channel could face some competitive pressure as the popularity of fresh food outlets rises.When respondents were asked what type of specialty food store they had visited in the past seven days, 34 percent said they had visited a fish shop and/or butcher (up 5 percentage points from 2005), half (50 percent) had visited a fruit and vegetable store (up 7 percentage points from 2005), and half had visited a bakery (also up 7 percentage points from 2005). The vast majority of consumers said that they most frequently visited a supermarket when it came to purchasing categories such as ice cream (76 percent), biscuits (90 percent), shampoo (76 percent), laundry detergent (86 percent), snacks (80 percent), confectionery (77 percent) and cooking oil (93 percent). However, when it came to purchasing fresh produce, supermarket loyalty was lower with around three in five consumers claiming to most frequently purchase their fresh fruit and vegetables (60 percent) and fresh meat, chicken, fish or seafood (63 percent) from a supermarket.While around a third of respondents said that they most frequently purchased their fruit and vegetables in a traditional green grocer (35 percent) and their fresh meat, chicken and seafood in a butcher or fish shop (32 percent).In a separate study conducted on Nielsen’s Online Omnibus, consumers were asked why they chose to most frequently purchase their fresh produce outside of a supermarket, and overwhelmingly it was the perception of quality that was the driving factor — with 80 percent of these respondents citing quality as one of the reasons, followed by price (39 percent), location (39 percent), range/choice (35 percent) and service (12 percent).