"market" news and stories

Growing up in the NYC suburbs, I always thought most grocery stores were the same. So many of the foods seemed to be generic items that were aimed at an ideal of America circa 1950. I assumed that if you wanted Kosher, Italian, Asian, and Latino foods you had to dig out that minor bottom shelf section in the back of the store. That is until I did several road trips across America, and lived all over during college and grad school. I came to realize that markets tailor their products to the region and even the city.
Now this regional specialization is being fine tuned to its maximum potential. Many markets, whether small and local, high end, or the big chains, are researching their customers to find out what they want and need. Attention is focused on ethnic and religious background, economic levels and education, and supplying products to fit their local neighborhood. The most progressive stores in custom tailoring tend to be privately owned independent markets that are in urban areas. The Philadelphia Inquirer has been investigating this trend among the smaller, urban markets in Philly. It seems that the "old-fashioned corner store" is back, and better than ever.

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If you've ever been in a bar with micro-brews on tap, you've no doubt noticed a trend towards the ornamental, baseball-bat-sized tap handles that accompany some beers. A recent AP story charts this trend and includes a little history on tap handles. Apparently they were a product of a post-prohibition regulation requiring bars to identify which beers they were pouring. I still don't know how that kept bars from putting a different keg on the tap. At any rate, the story highlights the niche that ornate tap handles have become, pointing to companies like Tap Handles, Inc., which cranks out about 200,000 handles a year. Their site has a pretty impressive portfolio of their creations. BeerCollections.com also has a pretty nice gallery of tap handles. I've always been fond of this tap for Rogue's Dead Guy Ale. The AP story also gets extra points for using the term "breweriana."

One of the best features of Trader Joe's is that they have a large display promoting their new products. They ususally introduce a few products at a time at intervals of three to four weeks, a small number that would disappear unnoticed into the regular shelves. But thanks to the displays, a regular shopper can tell at a glance if there are any new things that need to be added to the shopping list. This Crushed Ginger is one of their newest products and it only took a second before I decided to put it in my cart.

Typically, when a recipe calls for fresh ginger, it asks for a teaspoon or a tablespoon of minced ginger. With this pre-crushed ginger, I can just measure out exactly how much I need and continue with the recipe, without bothering to peel, mince (with my microplane grater) and then store the leftover portion of a piece of fresh ginger. The jarred stuff will keep for at least several weeks in the fridge once it has been opened.

A recent Australian study, the first of its kind, revealed that people who shop for groceries online tend to make better food decisions than those who don't. The reason for this was that when customers searched for one product - milk, for example - lower fat options were shown as a result, as well as the full-fat. Since they took the time to read the options on screen, as opposed to grabbing a carton and moving to the next item on their list, many shoppers chose the low-fat option. This happened with just about every food group.

Interestingly, the study also showed that the shoppers continued these habits, choosing the same, healthier products on multiple shopping "trips." When further nutritional advice was offered, consumers made even better choices.

The study tells us that when people take the time to really think about what they're doing or buying, people will tend to make better choices than when they're just taking the first thing that comes to mind. This is a good sign that messages about food choices and health are sinking in.

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Hannaford Bros. operates 150 grocery stores in upstate New York and throughout New England and is implementing its own system, perhaps in lieu of a nutritionist at each location, to let customers know the nutritional value of the foods they're planning to buy. Their rating system assigns stars to food items based on USDA guidelines, adding points for nutrients and taking away for high levels of fats and sugars, but not taking calories into account. The system is:

• 1 star: good choice
• 2 stars: better choice
• 3 stars: best choice
• 0 stars: no nutritional value

The store stocks over 27,000 items and only 25% of them got one or more stars. Some staples, like cooking oil, were not evaluated. Is it a perfect system? No, but it does accomplish its goal of giving consumers a general idea of the nutritional value of foods without requiring "a nutrition degree to understand." A store survey said that 8 out of 10 customers wanted some form of nutritional guidance and they're trying to deliver it in a basic form.

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