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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vegan, gluten-free, and paleo. Creating in-store signage and online promotion of menu items are simple ways to remind current and potential shoppers of their additional offerings, Riggs notes. Providing on-trend menus is only the beginning. More retailers are creating in-store areas with seating and table service like a tra- ditional restaurant, if not operating full restaurants in, or adjacent to, their stores. Non-food retailers have proven the success of this model, Johnson notes: in-store foodservice at Nordstrom's can rake in nearly $1 million in sales a year per unit, and Ikea's casual dining operations do well over $2 million per store. Here's a look at what these three food retailers are doing to expand their foodservice offerings. Roche Bros.: Channeling a Beloved Diner Many of the Roche Bros. specialty markets in suburban Boston have in-store seating where customers can eat meals prepared on-site. The retailer took the foodservice element one step further last July when it opened a Brothers Marketplace in Medfield, Mass., complete with a full-service diner that seats 12. The site had previously been home to a diner that the town had grown nostalgic about, says Aimee Morgida, director of operations at Roche Bros. "We wanted to honor their town history and felt it would be a great fit within our concept," she says. So they built their own. The diner's menu is inf luenced by the season and the availabil- ity of local ingredients, with winter options including comfort foods like chicken parmesan. Popular menu items include a breakfast Trafc at the diner is steady during all meal times. combo served with two eggs any style with choice of French toast, pancakes, or waff les, and sweet potato home fries; a hormone-free beef burger served on a brioche roll; and a raspberry lime rickey or frappe, which customers continued to order even through the cold winter months. In addition to the diner seating, Brothers has tables located in an adjacent cafe, where guests can bring prepared meals and other foods purchased in-store. Traffic at the diner is steady during all meal times, as well as when area schools let out for the day, Morgida says. With its own 10 employees, the diner holds the same hours as the market. The retailer hopes to mimic the success of the Brothers Marketplace diner at its new Roche Bros. store in Boston's Downtown Crossing, scheduled to open this spring. The 25,000-square-foot f lagship supermarket will offer traditional departments including deli, specialty cheese, bakery, f loral, grocery, dairy, produce, and meat and seafood, as well as a wide variety of ready-to-eat meals, snacks, and prepared foods. Prepared foods will have a prominent place in the store, espe- cially given the volume of commuters seeking value and convenience, says Dena Zigun, director of marketing at Roche Bros. The store will also feature home delivery and full-service catering. "The increased growth in dine-in and prepared foods to go over time aligns with macro-level consumer trends," Zigun says. "We are giving customers what they are looking for." Harbor Greens Market: Differentiating from the Competition Harbor Greens Market, with locations in Gig Harbor and University Place, Wash., has become a destination for customers in search of satisfying sandwiches and other prepared foods to go. The retailer's menu includes hot soups, fresh salads, pulled-pork buns, tamales, and hot pizza by the slice, all made in-house. When business partners Chad Roy and Scott Teodoro opened the first location in Gig Harbor eight years ago, they included a small, full-service deli area with seating for 16 but had to remodel quickly once they saw how much traffic it pulled in. Constrained by the layout of the store, they decided to open a second location in University Place in 2013 with a bigger emphasis on dining and 24 seats. Prepared foods now comprise 10 to 12 percent of sales at each store, a stat that has been a pleasant surprise, says Roy. He estimates about half the customers eat their meals in the store. Prepared foods comprise 10 to 12 percent of sales at each store. PHOTO: ROCHE BROS. PHOTO: HARBOR GREENS MARKET 36 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE specialtyfood.com