Sue Stock, News & Observer (Raleigh), July 11, 2009
{snip}
Responding in part to growth in the more than $30 billion Hispanic grocery market, the Salisbury-based grocer began testing the format in August of last year, converting five Triangle stores into ones carrying a much wider array of Hispanic products.
Along with significantly bulked-up selections of dry goods such as beans, tortillas and spices, the stores also carry cuts of meat and produce items popular with Hispanic shoppers.
The employees at those stores also undergo training both in the Spanish language and Hispanic culture.
In-store signs and television advertisements marketed directly to Hispanic households tout Food Lion’s message of “Sabor Latino,” which means “Latin Flavor.”
Marketing manager Daniel Herrera declined to offer specifics but said the five stores are “performing extremely well”—well enough that officials feel comfortable expanding the test program.
Last week, the company opened 13 stores in the Piedmont area all featuring the Hispanic focus, and it didn’t take long to see a sales increase.
{snip}
Food Lion will convert another 22 stores, including 10 in the Triangle, this month, with plans to reopen those stores officially on Aug. 12.
It will also revamp 19 stores in the Charlotte market this summer, reopening those in September.
When all of those conversions have been done, 59 stores, or roughly 10 percent of Food Lion’s 503 North Carolina locations, will have the Hispanic focus.
{snip}
And, Greer [Bill Greer, spokesman for the Food Marketing Institute] added, Hispanic products are also getting a boost from non-Hispanic customers looking for new options.
“Hispanic foods in many respects have gone mainstream.”
Original article
Email
Sue Stock
at sue.stock@newsobserver.com .
(Posted on July 14, 2009)
Comments
Two words: Food stamps.
Food Lion (and a lot of other grocery chains) love Hispanics, because they create extra demand for food, and their government-provided food stamps means that they can purchase it.
“Food Lion Caters to Latinos.”
I’m surprised they could find the time to cater to anybody, since they spent so much time “doctoring” their meat to look fresh when it wasn’t.
The lousy customer service, fithy stores, low quality deli products (not too mention questionable selling tactics) has got to appeal to someone. Food Lion already was one step away from a bodega.
One word: BOYCOTT
Food Lion, you may remember, was the grocery chain that made national news by routinely soaking spoiled chicken in laundry bleach overnight to remove the rotten smell, so it could be sold quickly to the unsuspecting.
I will never understand any retail chain that is willing to give up even a small fraction of their Anglo trade, in order to win a much smaller (and lower income) Hispanic trade. The outcome is not a net gain for the retailer.
There could be an upside to this. Think about all the Anglo dispossessed people who will still be shopping in these reformatted Food Lions (because they can’t afford alternative stores). If enough of them witness Spanish chattering families with bulging carts of specialty ethnic foods paying with EBT cards and packing off in their hooptymobile SUVs … Well, who knows what might happen?
Boycott is right, but let’s take it one step further and be sure to let management know WHY you won’t shop there any more. Who wants to feel like they are in the middle of a third world country when shopping here in the USA?
Along with significantly bulked-up selections of dry goods such as beans, tortillas and spices, the stores also carry cuts of meat and produce items popular with Hispanic shoppers.
Of course these people have 30 billion of expendable cash…THEY DON’T PAY 2/3 of their income to various taxes!!!! I just hope that Bi-Lo and Piggly Wiggly don’t go hispanic..Where will we shop then? Wal-Martinez (I liked that one) and Norte Carolina appear to be as lost as California.
I live in NC, and its quite true that Food Lion is about the worst of the grocery chains. It’s owned by a French holding company, DelHaize. Of course, they don’t give a hoot about anything. But they are making a mistake, the additional hispanos will drive away whites, and shoplift them blind in the bargain. Adios, FL, we are not sorry to see you go.
Tusky
Quoting Memphomaniac:
By the way, don’t we already have enough Wal-Martinez stores?
“The lousy customer service, fithy stores, low quality deli products (not too mention questionable selling tactics) has got to appeal to someone.”
Totally agree. Whites don’t even shop at the Food Lion here; only blacks and Hispanics. No self-respecting white person would be caught dead in there. The place is filthy, products are strewn all over the place, and the “staff” are unwelcoming to the point of almost being hateful.
To me it doesnt seem to be that bad.:
Let them open a chain only for blacks and another chain only for asians and if everybody shops where one belongs the racial seggregation is halfway solved. I am quite sure most of the amreners would be happy to shop in white only groceries.
J4ni
Our two large grocery stores, which are a chain in Central and South Texas, are doing the same thing as far as stocking goods used by the Hispnics. There carts are loaded above the brim and the beer sales are excellent. With four or five kids they need lots of groceries. When I go to the produce section, I think I’m in Juarez. Nothing from the US. All fresh fruits and vegetables seem to come from Mexico, Central or South America. Our area definitely need some competition. When we first came to the area, we went to a large grocery in north Austin. When we went in, we realized it was geared toward Mexican. The smell was horrible. It seemed to come from the fresh meat and fish area. We left without shopping. No thanks!
I live in NC, and its quite true that Food Lion is about the worst of the grocery chains. Tusky
As I recall, Food Lion was involved in a big “tainted meat” scandal a few years ago. I thought they would go out-of-business as a result of the bad publicity, but they just switched to another type of customer.
The Food Lion down by our veterinarian’s office is frequented by mostly black people. Women in too-small sweatpants shuffling around, loud noisy kids running around, rap music on the overhead, there was even a black lady with a plastic grocery shopping bag wrapped around her head(?)… I was in awe pointing at the pigs feet, chitlins, chicken necks and packages of all sorts of odd meats.
I say go ahead and let the Mexicans have Food Lion. If that’s what they need to do to stay in business, have at it. That was the one and only time we went to that Food Lion and I don’t plan on ever going back.
The Food Lion’s in my town are 50/50 the one near my home is 99% whites shopped & the one on the bottoms different story,..they cater to the geographical surroundings
1- I do not work for or own any stock in Food Lion.
2- The 5 Food Lion stores that I have been in, all in middle income and mainly White areas, were not dirty, and the store personnel were generally courtious.
3- The stores did vary according to local conditions. The one in an upscale area carried more expensive items, and was a bit fancier than the other Food Lions. Those that had significant Hispanic trade had Hispanic type foods and votive candles. (Food Lion has no control over America’s immigration policy.) It’s likely, therefore, that Food Lions in low income areas would be shabby.
4- The meat is a decent value for the price. You must pay more to get better quality. It is superior to WalMart.
5- Food Lion does not pander to Liberalism and Minorities more than is necessary to do business in the U.S. If you boycott all the stores that pander, where do you plan to shop?
I worked in a store in northern Nevada that catered to hispanics. Catering to hispanics created greater sales and profits, and for every white customer who refused to shop there anymore, there were literally two hispanics who were more than happy to take their place and shop in a store mostly devoid of white faces. For the most part, the hispanics were no more or less hostile than the average white customer shopping in a high volume “box” store—they were certainly less careful about picking up produce they dropped on the floor and subsequently ran over with their shopping carts, but not aggressively so. And they were very loyal customers—until “real” hispanic supermarket opened a few blocks down the street. Despite the fact that the “real” store had subpar produce—they didn’t seem to grasp the concept of rotating stock, and the few times I had to go in to do price checks, the tomato displays were literally dripping with rotten product. The prices were quite a bit lower than ours, but the quality was horrendous. The health dept. would routinely give them violation notices for not refrigerating meat—they would leave a pallet sitting in a non-refrigerated back room because there was no room in the meat cooler. Yet our business dropped almost 30%, and never really climbed back, basically as soon as this place opened. All of the employees were mexican, few spoke english, and their was not a white person to be found in the store. It was basically more important for them to show solidarity with their “brothers” and shop in an “authentic” mexican market than to get decent meat or produce. The company I worked for didn’t learn, however—the kept concentrating on trying to get the mexican customers to come back, and were still doing that when I left.
Picture it, USA in the year 2049-
“Comida Lion(Food Lion) or fill in the blank with grocery store, almost all with Spanish names, has announced it will retain an Anglo aisle for Anglos customers which will feature popular Anglo food products. Signs will be in English on this aisle to benefit our minority Anglo customers and one checkout will have an English speaking cashier.”
If things don’t change, this America will be your reality, and if you’re not alive, it will certainly be your children’s or grandchildren’s reality.
Odd the way stores will bend over backward to cater to Spanish speaking immigrants. Around here, even in chain stores, signs are prominently displayed in Spanish, sometimes before English!!
Back in my multi-culti daze, I ventured into 2 small Spanish grocery stores. I also had the unique pleasure of dealing with Latin American immigrant employees in big box stores and other public venues. I can assure you, the experience was unpleasant in the extreme. They were rude, almost to the point of practically making me leave. It didn’t matter where they were. They were always rude and unhelpful. I can say the same about Korean run stores. They were even worse.
Also, the large Korean supermarket (a chain called Assi) had a raffle for an automobile. The tickets to fill out were free. One odd question on the ticket was “Are you Korean?” True story. Imagine if someone put on such a ticket “Are you of European ancestry?” I should have saved the ticket, but at that point, I just gave up. I felt the local PC media would probably never show an interest.
