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Romancing the food

By MARK ALBRIGHT
Published October 11, 2006

	[Times photos: Chris Zuppa]
	Amanda Gonzalez works on setup of the Fresh Market, part of the smaller-is-better movement sweeping the supermarket industry with chains like Trader Joe's and Wild Oats.
	Dennis Turbeville helps prepare the Fresh Market at 3722 Henderson Blvd. in Tampa for today's grand opening, which will feature a jazz band and free coffee bricks to the first 1,000 customers.

TAMPA - Lured by polished produce, the scent of fresh-baked breads and free samples of artisan cheese, Janice Jurist has been driving 9 miles out of her way to tickle her taste buds at a Fresh Market in Carrollwood.

"Even when I go to buy one item, I'll spend $35," said the retired pharmaceutical marketer. "I always find new things right out of Bon Appetit."

Yet this destination that romances food with all the tricks of a European street market is only a third the size of a typical supermarket.

It's part of a smaller-is-better movement sweeping through the supermarket industry.

For decades, supermarkets got bigger and bigger. Now the Wal-Mart supercenters and warehouse clubs make it tough for even the biggest chains to compete on price. So some are shrinking to small stores stocked with little more than high-profit perishables - meat, baked goods, produce, seafood, flowers and delis - served in their appetizing glory.

This new breed comes wrapped in many guises. Whole Foods and Wild Oats are designed for the better-for-you food crowd. Limited-assortment grocers like Trader Joe's and Aldi, which is scouting Tampa Bay locations, are about eclectic foods you cannot find elsewhere. Others such as HEB Central Markets in Texas are slick venues for gourmet foods, as are Mazzaro's in St. Petersburg or Whaley's in Tampa.

Fewer people cook from scratch anymore. So the small stores cede to competitors aisle after aisle of low-profit-margin dry groceries, paper goods and cleaning products that consume more than half the space.

The trend got a lift from today's food shopper making many weekly trips: one for serious shopping and a couple of small ones frequently on the way home from work to hunt for their next meal or something ready-to-eat.

"Our customer is here two or three times a week and spends about $20 to $25 on foods consumed within two days," said Brett Berry, chief operating officer of Fresh Market Inc.

Berry was in town to open the Greensboro, N.C., chain's third Tampa Bay area store at 3722 Henderson Blvd. With revenue of about $500-million in 2005, Fresh Market was transformed from operating under the radar to a force that added nine stores this year with plans for 14 more in 2007.

Berry's father, Ray, a onetime 7-Eleven executive, founded the chain in 1982 and created an atmosphere to sell quality perishables. "Back then, all supermarkets were huge, everything was displayed under harsh fluorescent lights and all the produce was wrapped so you couldn't touch it," he said. "We're all about the food and the experience."

It's harder than it looks. The typical Fresh Market employs 100, about what it takes to run a supermarket three times the size.

Fresh Market is not a gourmet market. Tomatoes are competitively priced. The USDA choice sirloin compares with Publix premium at $7.99 a pound, $8.99 a pound for leaner, hard-to-find Hereford beef. But the store tempts constantly with 2-ounce tubs of salmon roe caviar at $10, $20-a-pound prosciutto and wheels of Parmesan Reggiano cheese.

Now that the piped-in toodle-de-doot at this former USave was replaced with Vivaldi, Fresh Market will be tested.

South Tampa is full of gourmet grocers. The busiest Publix in the Tampa Bay market is across the street and equipped with that chain's latest deli and food-to-go experiments. It's such a competitive area that Sweetbay Supermarket bought an empty Winn-Dixie nearby just to keep rivals from opening near its Gandy Boulevard store.

Janice Jurist, meanwhile, boasted to her mother that her Fresh Market fix is so close now she can walk.

"She told me I may walk there, but I will need a car to get back home."

Mark Albright can be reached at albright@sptimes.com or 727 893-8252.

[Last modified October 11, 2006, 05:57:51]