How does a small grocery store chain, closed nights and all day Sunday, compete against the supermarket giants? Jonathan Badger, the owner and COO, of Lee’s Supermarkets in Utah, gave me this personal shopping list:”Focus on customer service, give them a family atmosphere and put some really good beef in their carts.”
That’s a beginning, I thought, but even a minor league baseball team can have a few players that are better than their counterparts in the bigs. Well, maybe Lee’s doesn’t have the depth of a Walmart but they do have the dedication and they sell better meat.
Lee’s is that small, hometown retailer that occupies a special niche in our collective memory. In my hometown when I was a kid a little more than half a century ago, it was Wayne’s Market. Wayne was a butcher by trade who sold some groceries on the side and knew his customers well. I could walk in the store with my 25 cent weekly allowance, buy a candy bar and a comic book, get a dime in change, and he would ask me how my mother was doing and tell me she needed to buy some ground beef today because he had just ground it fresh. I never saw him come out from behind the meat case, probably because he thought the rest of the store just got in the way of what he was really there to do – ‘work up some good meat; talk with his customers.’
Jonathon Badger might be Wayne reincarnated. The Badger family seems to have a little bit of his DNA in their bones. Although their stores are in three towns, they treat each one like it was all by itself. So we have a trio of small town markets; each knows its own small town, each sells locally, each knows its own customers.
Now how can a monolith like Walmart compete with that? Price is the only advantage they might have. But even in these tough times, price alone can’t seal the deal with everyone. A look at one of Lee’s recent ads, though, shows they can go toe-to-toe at the cash register with anybody when it comes to the meat case. Here are a few items Lee’s was advertising this week in their Logan store:
USDA Choice Certified Angus Beef
Cross Rib Pot Roast
$359lb.
Offer valid 04/11/2011 - 04/16/2011
Recipe: Classic Beef Rib Roast
USDA Choice Certified Angus Beef Boneless Grilling/Broiling
Top Sirloin Steaks
$549lb.
Offer valid 04/11/2011 - 04/16/2011
Recipe: Moroccan Style Beef Kabobs with Spiced Bulgur
USDA Choice Certified Angus Beef Boneless
Flat Iron Steaks
$459lb.
Offer valid 04/11/2011 - 04/16/2011
Recipe: Low-Fat Beef Stew for Two
There is another big difference. I suspect Walmart has lots of customers in the areas surrounding each of the Badger family stores but Lee’s can count on Jim and Trish from down the street and the whole Jensen family who lives a few blocks away. Walmart has customers; Lee’s has friends and neighbors. Marketing gets easier when you know personally what Jim and Trish and the Jensens want…and can give each of them what they want at a fair price.
Badger is one of the thousands of people across the country who sells what you produce. He’s the local guy in an era when so many people want to reconnect with hometown resources - one the faces that American consumers connect with your beef. So I thought you should meet.
Q. Since we have a nationwide audience the majority of our readers have never been in your stores. Give me a quick description.
A. My father started the store in 1981 and we have grown it into three bigger ones now. When we bought the store it was very typical mom-and-pop. As a company we have grown. We went from 30 or so employees to the 400 or so we have now. We are family owned and operated. I’m a second generation of the company, but we try and keep that family feel. We are closed on Sundays. We are very community oriented. In all the communities, we participate in all sorts of charity and group things that we can help out with.
Now we are about 48,000-square-foot stores and we all have butcher blocks and self-serve meat cases, so we have always been known for good meat. We pretty much focus on families and somewhat on students at a nearby university, so our target demographic is really 18 to 55 years old.
Our biggest focus, especially as of late, is quality. Everyone can give you the lowest price on the block, but we want to give you the best quality at the best price. Our standout departments are produce and meat. We recently started carrying Certified Angus Beef ®. We went on the radio and we had a special tasting event in the stores. We had our meat managers come out with silver platters of beef and did an unveiling of sorts.
Q. Aside from focusing on beef quality, how do you try to market the beef to get more people to buy it or at least have the dedicated protein purchasers buy more of it?
A. We cut our packages into several different types. We have the 1-, 2- and 10-pound packages for smaller or bigger families. We try to market at least the packaging side of it so that it is affordable. You’ll have a few smaller steaks that are still going to taste good that you can feed a family on and then you will have a family pack of steaks that would maybe be a higher-end New York strip or ribeye. You will get both sides of the demographics with those choices. We use a lot of signage and advertising, and we try and do a lot in our ad, but the biggest thing is just the tasting. We typically put samples out once a week. We will have some samples of people cutting it and using it and everything else.
Q. Not all small grocery stores maintain a full-service meat department. Why is that important to you?
A. I think the biggest advantage is answering questions. There was a study that showed the meat manager is the second most trusted in your store, next to the pharmacist. People go in and get advice from them. If you don’t have a meat cutter or manager to ask you are going in almost blind. You say, “I think a flat iron steak is good.” You don’t really know what the benefits are or anything else. This way we’ve got someone who can explain things and educate your customer. Also, if someone doesn’t like that cut or if the roast is too big, we can take it back right there and take care of that customer.
Q. You’re closed on Sundays. Unless you’re operating a Chic-Fil-A franchise, that seems almost unheard of for any retailer in this day and age. Why do you maintain that day off and how do your customers respond?
A. We have a day, regardless of religious preference, that people can get away from work. They can spend the day with their family. We are in a very dominant Latter-Day Saints religious area and I think there is a respect for that side of it. That entices the community to shop with you because you are closed on the day they worship on. We get several comments about how we shop with you because you’re closed on Sunday. I think we would lose more if we opened than we would gain.
Also, we are one of the only stores in our area that breaks our ad on Monday to Saturday instead of the Wednesday-to-Tuesday ads, as all our competition does. That sets us apart, giving us that opportunity to get out there before everyone else does. We let people know what’s available and then come out again in the middle of the week with a little flyer.
Q. I think most people know it’s a business of tight margins and long hours, so why did you decide to get into the grocery business?
A. I love this industry. I grew up in it. You think of a grocery store as a place to go and shop for food, but I look at it as more than that. You go to an accounting firm and there’s an accountant, but here you have a baker, a butcher, a cook. You’ve got stockers; you’ve got people that deal with people on a daily basis—angry or happy whatever it may be. I love working with the public. I love working to generate a team and lead people that need motivation, that want to work hard for you and everything else. There’s not a day I wake up and sigh and think, “Oh, great. I have to go to work.” I enjoy it here. I love being here. The customers are great and the people are great, so it just fits well with my personality.
Q. When you’re away from the stores, like on those sacred Sundays, what do you do in your free time?
A. I suppose I should say barbeque, which I do like, but I like to golf and spend time with my family. That’s why I work—just to get home to my three little boys and beautiful wife. We like to be together at our house and take vacations.
Chuck Jolley is a free lance writer, based in Kansas City, who covers a wide range of ag industry topics for Cattlenetwork.com and Agnetwork.com.
Comments (0) Leave a comment