STORES Magazine - April 2008 - (Page 34)

EXECUTIVE SUITE / COVER STORY NEW YORK STATE OF MIND ipsters, artists, the upwardly mobile and an assortment of long-time neighborhood denizens yearning for a taste of locavore living have found a new gathering spot in, of all places, Brooklyn, N.Y. Urban Rustic, a 2,600-sq.-ft. grocery in the heart of Williamsburg, sells only products sourced from within a 100-mile radius. Close to the East River, it is located in an area where old industrial buildings that once housed the Domino Sugar and Esquire Shoe Polish companies share the landscape with multi-million dollar glass-faced condos, century-old tenements, non-descript public housing, art galleries, bars, restaurants and clubs. Urban Rustic is the brainchild of partners Dan Cipriani, Luis Illades and Aaron Woolf. The store is a combination grocery, restaurant and meeting place. Open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, it offers table service with “blue plate specials” and menu items focusing on whatever is available that day from local suppliers. It also has a juice, smoothie and coffee bar, but food is the main feature, especially items like biodynamic yogurt, produce from local farmers, organic chickens, grass-fed beef and ham sandwiches made from free-range pork. In order to promote the farm-to-market philosophy, an individual supplier’s products are sometimes featured on a table near the front entrance and a section of the store will be devoted to Brooklyn-produced fare. Urban Rustic’s philosophy puts a face to the foods and gives customers a storyline about where the foods come from and who produced them — factors that some food industry observers believe is lacking in mainstream retailing and marketing. Urban Rustic brings customers and producers together in regular meet-and-greet events, even offering tearsheets with product information and photo essays that tell the story behind each product. The store also is committed to “being green” and obtaining products from sustainable sources. As such, the owners are emphasizing foods from farmers that utilize wind power for electricity, and the store itself is trying to buy power from wind sources rather than depending on fossil fuels. Meanwhile, the paper products used for food takeout and delivery are made from sugarcane stock; even the cutlery, based on potato starch, is reportedly biodegradable. Shopping bags are made of recycled paper, and soy-based inks are used for imprints. H stalling regional food experts in stores and has launched a regional sourcing website, where consumers share stories and recipes involving local items. Such initiatives don’t always work. Sainsbury’s, for instance, stopped stocking organic carrots from a farm owned by Prince Charles due to excessive food miles. The carrots reportedly were being sent by truck from Wales to a packaging plant in Peterborough. They were then shipped to a warehouse in Bristol for delivery to Sainsbury’s. As a result of all the handling, product quality fell below the chain’s standards. The locavore phenomenon also is being closely watched by the foodservice industry, according to Julia Stewart, vice president of communications for the Produce Marketing Association. “A number of culinary schools are teaching students about the bene34 STORES / APRIL 2008 One expert says that farm-to-table is not a passing trend, but a lasting cultural shift fits of locally grown products and how to build relationships with growers in their area,” she says. This was confirmed in recent comments by Joan Brett, director and founder of the Culinary School of the Rockies. “Farm-to-table is not a passing trend in the culinary world,” she says, “It is a lasting cultural shift. We want our students to understand the intricacies and challenges of sourcing and serving local seasonal food.” Recent studies by PMA underscore the growing power of the locavore movement. A survey of 1,000 consumers found that 36 percent were motivated to purchase all produce for its nutritional value; 21 percent said “locally grown” was a key factor in their purchasing decision, while only 9 percent cited organic as a factor. “It was the first time we asked questions about local produce,” Stewart WWW.STORES.ORG http://WWW.STORES.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of STORES Magazine - April 2008

STORES Magazine - April 2008 Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page More Retailers Bagging Monthly Comp-Store Reports Time-Warner Center's Economy-Defying Results What Shoppers Think 10 Things You May Have Missed Numbers Worth Counting Full Price/Markdown Retail People Eating Locally Grocery Concept2Watch Restaurants Online Services Marketing Human Resources Product Lifecycle Management E-Commerce: Peer Reviews Drive Online Buyers Kiosks Recycling Operations Payment Systems POS Logistics E-Commerce: Getting Personal Website Management LOEB Retail Letter Arts Update Point of View NRF News Retail Industry Calendar Last Laugh

STORES Magazine - April 2008

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