Rosauers Gains Edge In Organic Food Grocery Chain Attempts To Outsmart Competition

Grocery consultants say Rosauers has done a very smart thing.

By opening a Huckleberry’s Fresh Market on the South Hill and planning another in the Valley, the Spokane-based supermarket chain is repositioning itself as the area’s largest natural food source.

All that in addition to holding its own in its core business against the competition - Tidyman’s, Safeway and others, consultants say.

“What they have been able to do is break out of the crowd and stand forth as a store that supports certain values - the natural, wholesome, good-for-you kind of thing,” said Bill Bishop, president of Willard Bishop Consulting LTD, a food industry consulting firm near Chicago.

Consumer research proves that’s exactly what customers throughout the country are looking for, he said. With Huckleberry’s, “they’ve gone from being a retail store that just sells products to a store that declares itself interested in selling products that are good for me,” said Bishop.

Selling an image and an idea is not new to Rosauers. Its been doing that since the market opened in 1948.

“We’ve always tried to lead the market in innovation,” said Bill Haroldson, the company’s executive vice president. He said Rosauers was the first to provide an in-store, full-service butcher, first to have a deli counter and, even, the first to have chandeliers.

Haroldson said when the South Hill store at 29th and Mount Vernon opened in 1978, the idea was to provide an upscale atmosphere in which to shop. Consultants from Japan, Germany and Australia traveled to Spokane to see the luxurious supermarket of its time.

“We were also the first to try credit cards … and pharmacies inside the store,” he said.

As the needs of consumers changed, the store tried to adapt, he said.

That’s another smart thing, said Gene Gerke, president of Gerke and Associates Inc. of Columbia, Mo., another supermarket consultant.

“The challenge for the supermarket industry is how do you keep up with a changing consumer, with their wants and needs?” said Gerke.

“At one time, time spent in a supermarket was just a standard weekly shopping trip,” he said. “Now there’s all different types of people there. The stereotypical weekly trip is now atypical.”

In addition to stocking their refrigerator and freezer, shoppers are looking for ready-to-go meals, floral arrangements, housewares or certain specialty items.

As shoppers change, so does the relationship between the supermarket and shoppers.

“When you believe that everything in the store has been put there because it’s good for you, that creates a whole different relationship between the consumer and the store,” Bishop said.

Although Rosauers’ competitors say they have no plans to increase their natural food sections, the consultants said shoppers should expect other markets to mimic Huckleberry’s success.

Bishop said it’s standard practice for other supermarkets to expand their organic sections when consumer response to a full-sized market is so positive.

“That’ll be hard to do when (Rosauers’) whole store looks so good,” he said.

More changes are in store for Rosauers, but Haroldson didn’t want to elaborate. He did say Spokane can expect the store to be on the leading edge, “not the bleeding edge.”

“It looks easy when it works well,” Gerke said of supermarkets that reposition themselves. “But it’s not easy. It’s expensive and it’s risky. But when it works, you look real smart.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo