I don’t know if fried meat on a stick is an item people are likely to eat at home, but there is definitely room for greater ethnic variety in retailers’ food assortments. A better example than county/state fairs might be casual dining restaurants such as The Cheesecake Factory, which routinely generate two-plus-hour wait times by serving a wide variety of ethnic foods in huge quantities. Mix-n-match dishes combining multiple ethnic traditions, while probably horrifying to purists, are also a big draw at many restaurants. Deep fried Snickers bars might be better left for eating on the food pavilion next to the bumper cars while a live performance by a one-hit wonder from 1974 wafts in the background.

I can remember a trip to Arlington Heights, IL about 20 years ago (longer?) when my colleague, Sanjeet, ordered a bagel. The waitress asked, “What’s a bagel?” Sanjeet explained. I could not help but think the waitress went home and told her family that she learned about an unusual Indian delicacy. Then Lender’s spread the word. I think that fairs can introduce new ethnic dishes to some of the people some of the time. But it will take something on a grander scale to get the word out on particular taste treats. Where I do think that fairs probably play a pivotal role is introducing their visitors to the possibility of trying something “new” to them. Once you’ve experimented and had a pleasing taste outcome, you’re willing to try another food experiment. There would probably be greater financial success in retail stores because there is greater access to those of age and wherewithal to actually buy the food. Think about the long lines of food tasters at Costco. As our country’s population continues to become… Read more »

Fun ethnic foods on a seasonal basis spell big bucks for supermarkets.

There is a run every year at A&P, SuperFresh and Pathmark locations for Paczki, Polish creme and fruit filled fried donuts. But the window for selling them is only until Fat Tuesday because Ash Wednesday starts lent and it would be a sin to be caught eating these heavenly donuts.

Italian, Chinese, Polish pirogi etc, have been staples in supermarket cuisine offerings for many years. Extensions of these and other kinds of ethnic dishes, on a seasonal basis, will generate new sales and perhaps,new loyal customers.

Indulging in fair food varieties is just that; a several day long opportunity to try various ethnic choices. It can be related to the movie theater giving you snippets of upcoming movies so you can choose what you want to see in the months ahead. Fair food allows us the same opportunity. The Food Vendors usually operate a restaurant in the area. This is their time to show us what their menu items will taste like and offer us the place to get it…their restaurants.

Grocers sell ethnic varieties that coincide with the demographics of the neighborhoods they serve. More than that will not lead to increased sales.

Questions: Is there a significant opportunity to broaden the range of ethnic foods found at fairs to retail food stores? Should more of the food found in fairs – albeit largely of the fried variety – be more widely adopted by retailers for year-round eating? I believe this is a situation where if one looks at the “small” picture the opportunity is missed. The “big” picture includes the food network and other cooking shows and their popularity. There is a definite and clear opportunity for more ethnic foods and flavors at the grocers aisles. Of course, there will be some markets where it will be more popular (mainly large metros) but over the years ethnic flavors and products will become a larger part of American cupboards. The big picture has shown that in more than 200 years ethnic foods have changed what we consider “American” and not the other way around. One day we might replace hot dogs and apple pie with burritos and churros. How does hummus and tortilla chips at the ballpark sound?

I wouldn’t say offering fair and festival foods in the grocery store is a “significant opportunity,” but it’s definitely an opportunity for savvy retailers and CPGers. Whole Foods, for example, recently launched a Street Eats initiative in San Francisco wherein the chain is bringing into its stores some of the unique foods cooked up by street vendors. It’s a great idea that immediately differentiates the brand and creates a product exclusive. Same thing with unique fair and festival foods.

My only caution: there is a difference between an annual indulgence and putting an item in the weekly grocery cart. Any foods under consideration should be selected with care to ensure that they don’t become one-time buys for consumers vs. frequent staples.

I like this combined with the celebration of a culture represented in the community it serves. Publix does an excellent job with this.

If the question was: is there room for America’s supermarkets to be more of a melting pot than they have become in the last 20 years, my answer would be, yes. North America’s population and cuisine has diversified with every wave of immigrants over centuries.

There was a certain standardization through the phase where supermarkets grew nationally, more from the perspective of managing SKUs and the inability to manage too locally. However, with diversifying pockets of population, data driven processes, and a management will to go “glocal” (if I may use that term), US supermarkets can play to ethnic tastes very effectively and should.