Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
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retailer profile chain gradually rolled out prepared offerings to the Poughkeepsie and Kingston stores in 2001 and 2005, respectively. Today, each location has an on-site kitchen, run by managers with chef or res- taurant backgrounds. At Wappinger, 20 to 25 full- and part-time staff is on hand churning out about 40 choices per day of hot and cold entrees, soups and salads, panini, and sushi. The menu rotates daily, with some standbys as well as seasonal favorites. Prepared foods' presence at Wappinger is largely due to needs of the customer base. The store serves a huge lunch rush from nearby offices and industry, and takeout-dinner needs are signifi- cant, especially for the community of young families. However, an older clientele also makes up a large constituency, drawn in part by Adams Fairacre Farms history. "The Adams name has been around for 95 years so it has recognition," says Adams. "To a lot of custom- ers, this isn't a 3-year-old store; it's a brand people know." Autonomy in the Product Mix Department managers have the flexibility to cater to customer needs and bring in unique products on request, something that helps each store maintain its own identity. Each store's department manager is that store's buyer, explains Barbara Johnson, store manager at Wappinger. Buying is not centralized, save for consolidated purchas- es of mass-market brands. The staff fosters some buying efficiencies by increasing regular meetings to grow communication. "In grocery, for instance, the buyers from all the stores meet on their own once a month. In a way they get to keep their autonomy by communicating more," says Adams. Most recently, for instance, the Wappinger store brought in a 10-foot set of 150 specialty f lours due to customer demand. "We also bring in a lot of small orders, which keeps our SKU count high," says Garrett Dyal, assistant store manager. "Some things work and take off and others don't, so we'll try the next thing." As the product selection is tailored to each store, so is the physical layout. Store sizes vary: Wappinger is 75,000 square feet, the second largest in the chain behind Poughkeepsie. Some sets are built as stores within stores, such as the 100-square-foot area that houses the majority of Adams Fairacre Farms brand private-label products. Much of the design and cabinetry are custom, some envi- sioned by Donald Adams himself. "Mr. Adams will draw sketches A BRIEF HISTORY A dams Fairacre Farms stores have always been run by the Adams family. In 1919, Ralph Adams and his wife, Mary, purchased 50 acres of farmland on the Dutchess Turnpike in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and soon opened a roadside farm stand, offering only produce. When Ralph died in 1957, sons Ralph Jr. and Donald took over the business. By 1960, the family had stopped growing their own fruit and opened a retail shop complete with garden center, produce, and some dairy and deli products. That selection expanded in 1977 when the Adams Country Foods department opened, offering imported and domestic cheeses, gourmet foods and groceries, and deli items. In 1981, the family opened a second store in Kingston, N.Y. The next store opened in 1998 in Newburgh, N.Y., complete with a salad bar, prepared foods department, sweet shop, gift shop, and specialty foods. Today, the Newburgh store is 70,000 square feet. Between 2001 and 2005, both the Poughkeepsie and Kingston locations were expanded to include prepared foods and sweet shops, bring their sizes to 80,000 square feet and 45,000 square feet, respectively. On November 1, 2011, the chain's fourth store opened in Wappinger, N.Y. Today, Ralph Jr. and Donald still run the stores, along with a third generation of the family, Donald's sons Patrick and Steve. In 2012, when the Dutchess County Historical Society honored Ralph Jr. and wife Doris, their son, Mark, reminisced in the Northern Dutchess News about the early days of the retail operation circa 1960: "The new store sold only what was grown on the farm. … Then one day a man stopped by in a truck that said 'Coomb's Maple Products.' He was from Vermont and wanted to sell boxes of maple sugar leaves and little maple sugar figurines. My dad said, 'No, we only sell what we grow.' But my brother John and I were in the store at the time and begged for the candy. Now Adams sells all kinds of stuff we don't grow." "The Adams name has been around for 95 years so it has recognition," says Adams. "To a lot of customers, this isn't a 3-year-old store; it's a brand people know." Steve Adams and Garrett Dyal 150 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE specialtyfood.com retailerProfile_AdamsFarm.indd 150 6/5/14 8:08 AM