Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A Man Who’s Going to Save Your Neighborhood Grocery Store

longreads.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 50 posts

Re: A Man Who’s Going to Save Your Neighborhood Grocery Store

#21

Post by losteric »

Kalium wrote: post #18
PorterDuff wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. I like the idea of "traditional American supermarket" for the irony content. When I was a youngin', our town didn't have any chain stores, just a dozen or so family markets. I miss the culture and environment, not so much the lack of selection. Since then, it's hard to take sides in a Safeway vs Walmart vs Amazon brawl. The first chain fast food (aside from the ubiquitous Dairy Queen) came somewhat later. Th…

Having shopped at family markets, I also don't miss their prices.

I do miss their higher quality and usually locally sourced products... and the friendly "customer experience" of local employees paid above minimum wage.

Re: A Man Who’s Going to Save Your Neighborhood Grocery Store

#22

Post by Animats »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #3

Article has a confusing title, it not about saving your small local neighborhood store. It is about how supermarkets can compete with Amazon, Walmart and online. His idea sounds a lot like Whole Foods, and not a neighborhood store. The store that resulted is called Harvest Market, which opened in 2016. It’s south of downtown Champaign, Illinois, out by the car dealerships and strip malls; 58,000 square feet of floor…

It sounds like Kelly is trying to position his stores as "warm and fuzzy", with a "Mom's Kitchen" section, rather than "opulent", like Whole Foods. “When did you start to mistake opulence for success?”, he says.

Now consider Trader Joe's. They have modest sized stores. They're rather plain. They offer mostly their own house brands. They don't have sales, coupons, delivery, or affinity cards. The prices are reasonable. The quality is OK. Dwell time is low; you can be in and out of a Trader Joe's in ten minutes. Checkouts go fast, partly because they don't have coupons or affinity cards to slow things down.

Whole Foods is chasing the top 10%. Trader Joe's is chasing the top 50%. Dollar General has the bottom 25%.

Re: A Man Who’s Going to Save Your Neighborhood Grocery Store

#23

Post by learc83 »

Since my Vietnamese sister-in-law introduced me to Asian farmer's markets, I tend to only shop at them for anything fresh. Their produce selection is just so much better than traditional American super markets, they actually have a real butcher, and their seafood selection is much larger.

Their produce selection tends to be a lot cheaper than standard grocery stores too because they have separate supply chains and direct relationships with Asian owned farms.

Several local Asian chains have been moving into abandoned super market buildings in my area over the last 5 or 10 years, and I'm starting to see more and more non-Asian and non-Hispanic people shopping at them lately.

Re: A Man Who’s Going to Save Your Neighborhood Grocery Store

#24

Post by Scoundreller »

max76 wrote: post #15
Scoundreller wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My chief complaint about the small supermarkets in urban environments is that their produce just doesn’t turn over very fast. Especially for the larger pack sizes, if they even have them at all. More generally, Am I willing to save 30% on bread crumbs or soap if it means buying a 6-12 month supply up-front? Yes, that’s a great ROI! 4 or 5L of milk may be a problem (unless you freeze it). But I can go through a 10 lb…

> More generally, Am I willing to save 30% on bread crumbs or soap if it means buying a 6-12 month supply up-front? Yes, that’s a great ROI! This depends on the size of your home and the amount of storage space you have. I am generally unwilling to buy a 6+ month supply of household goods because real estate is significantly more expensive than toilet paper.

People say that, but people have a hard time letting go of junk they’ll never use to make space for stuff that they consume everyday.

Re: A Man Who’s Going to Save Your Neighborhood Grocery Store

#25

Post by notfromhere »

diminoten wrote: post #10
max76 wrote: post #9

I live in a dense urban area. I'd consider my neighborhood grocery stores to be the 5,000-10,000sqfoot places scattered around the area so no home within a three mile radius is more than a 10 minute walk to one. They survive just fine by being cheaper than Amazon Fresh and significantly more convenient than the Walmart/Costco that exist on the outskirts of the city.

Sure, right up until Walmart builds a Neighborhood Market a block away...

They tried that in Chicago, Wal Mart pulled out like three years ago.

The real threat would be an Aldi, since those guys are cheaper and have a fantastic selection.

Re: A Man Who’s Going to Save Your Neighborhood Grocery Store

#26

Post by chefandy »

briandear wrote: post #16
max76 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a fight we have fought before and won. I'm confident we can fight it again.

Why? Is the goal to have good groceries nearby or is it some kind of a war against “big” companies?

There's "nothing" "unreasonable" about wanting to give your "money" to a "local business owner" and not some "multinational".

Re: A Man Who’s Going to Save Your Neighborhood Grocery Store

#27

Post by logfromblammo »

tropo wrote: post #5
shambolicfroli wrote: post #2

Elorant, what is the one short paragraph summary of this article, please?

Heh. It's a longreads.com article, which should be a hint. Basically it's about marketing firms trying to convince supermarket owners that inefficient layout and cute themes will save the day. All sorts of stuff is to be feared: millennials who prefer restaurants or Amazon (and won't age out of it by starting families), the giant Walmart monster, etc. So make the customers zig-zag around a store, kind of like shoppin…

Joining your camp. I go to the grocery to buy food, not cutesy-pootsy marketing kitsch that somehow turns a chore into an "experience". And if the store does stupid stuff to make an identical list of items take longer to buy and transport back to my home than it took before, it is adding time cost to the money cost, while also making the store seem more crowded. It is reducing the value of me going there in the first place.

One thing that really irritates me is "lifestyle aisles". I do not organize my shopping list by whether the food is "ethnic" or "health-conscious". To me, hoisin sauce is not "Asian foods"; it is a condiment. It's the same as Worcestershire sauce, barbecue sauce, ketchup, or mustard. Canned frijoles negros are exactly the same as canned black beans, so why are they in different aisles? If I want Cap'n Crunch and also a gluten-free hippy cereal with a happy gorilla on the box, they should both be in the same aisle. Put the lo mein next to the spaghetti, and the golden syrup next to the sugar, and the matzoh next to the Wasa. I shouldn't have to bounce between different random aisles to complete a shopping list organized by the type of food, rather than by the type of person who typically eats it.

Re: A Man Who’s Going to Save Your Neighborhood Grocery Store

#28

Post by 013a »

atdrummond wrote: post #4

I grew up in the town Niemann Foods, Incorporated is headquartered in. If anything, this strikes me as a response to Hy-Vee's continued growth. Much of Harvest Market takes aims at design themes Hy-Vee has bee pushing for a decade now. I wish NFI luck but given their struggles in their home market, I'm not sure this is the Hail Mary they need.

Fun fact: Shook Kelley also did some research work for Hy-Vee. http://www.shookkelley.com/work-detail/45

Re: A Man Who’s Going to Save Your Neighborhood Grocery Store

#29

Post by r00fus »

logfromblammo wrote: post #27
tropo wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heh. It's a longreads.com article, which should be a hint. Basically it's about marketing firms trying to convince supermarket owners that inefficient layout and cute themes will save the day. All sorts of stuff is to be feared: millennials who prefer restaurants or Amazon (and won't age out of it by starting families), the giant Walmart monster, etc. So make the customers zig-zag around a store, kind of like shoppin…

Joining your camp. I go to the grocery to buy food, not cutesy-pootsy marketing kitsch that somehow turns a chore into an "experience". And if the store does stupid stuff to make an identical list of items take longer to buy and transport back to my home than it took before, it is adding time cost to the money cost, while also making the store seem more crowded. It is reducing the value of me going there in the first…

This is exactly why I don't shop at my local grocery/supermarket except when needed. TJs + Sprouts with occisional stops at Asian stores when I need more than hoisin/soy.

Re: A Man Who’s Going to Save Your Neighborhood Grocery Store

#30

Post by Kalium »

losteric wrote: post #21
Kalium wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having shopped at family markets, I also don't miss their prices.

I do miss their higher quality and usually locally sourced products... and the friendly "customer experience" of local employees paid above minimum wage.

Your family market experience was clearly very different from mine. High quality, local sourcing, and friendly services were never hallmarks.
Post reply on HN