From RenewShaw (with apologies for quoting the full entry):
As a North Carolinian, I took for granted Harris Teeter grocery stores: they’re clean, well-stocked (fresh, beautiful fruits and veggies, awesome delis, great meat departments, outstanding wine/beer departments, a variety of all the essentials and more), well-staffed, and generally pleasant shopping experiences. Since moving to D.C., I have relished the few opportunities I’ve had to grocery shop at Teets out in Virginia.
As reported elsewhere, the District’s first HT finally opened today yesterday in Adams Morgan. Boo-yah. Another one is set to open on the Hill soon, and yet another is planned for NoMa. I don’t know if any of these Tajma Teeters will ever be a routine grocery stop for me, but it’s exciting to have them in the city, and hopefully they will inspire other grocers (Safeway and Giant) to take a hard look at how they do business.
That said, I’ve had positive experiences at the Shaw Giant lately. While the store has some definite shortcomings due to its limited space (e.g., the produce department is woefully lacking, the place is generally unattractive and uninviting), I’ve not encountered lines stretching to the back of the store lately and have generally experienced helpful people at the checkouts.
All true! I live right by that Giant, and over the last year or two it really has improved: the staff is better trained, they’ve introduced some yuppie-compatible brands (look, an organic section!), and the produce is at least less rotten.
But it’s a mistake, albeit an easy one, to assume that every store in a chain is the same. Of the proletarian grocery companies I’ve encountered, Giant has had both the nicest and worst stores. I’ve been to Safeways that look like fallout shelters, and others that are gleaming temples built for the greater glory of the deli counter. So far Harris Teeters seem to be consistently nice, but they’re a relatively new player on the DC grocery scene. Wait twenty years, or head back to the region where they were founded. You’ll find some atrocities.
Of course, this isn’t to excuse the people responsible for the Shaw Giant. Actually, it makes them more culpable, because their crappy offerings are the result of deliberate inattention rather than simple incompetence. Grocery stores, like a lot of businesses, work like engines that the central office can rev up or rev down as economic circumstances dictate. I’m sure that Giant HQ noticed the percentage of WIC and EBT sales declining as I and my gentrifying ilk moved into the neighborhood. The better food and better-trained staff followed in due course.
So as long as the customers going to the new Harris Teeter are relatively rich, the store will be nice. As long as the ones shopping at the Shaw Giant are relatively poor, the store will be lousy. It’s as simple as that, I’m afraid — the brands’ individual virtues don’t have much to do with it.
I do have another question about grocery stores, though. You hear constantly about how the industry operates with razor-thin margins, and survives only thanks to massive volume. But I’ve recently done a bunch of shopping at the Italian Market in Philly — a historic, year-round, daily open-air market that starts at Ninth and Christian and trickles down to the great cheesesteak palaces of the South. And the price difference is astounding. Three pounds of grapes cost $2. A dozen green peppers and two bags of onions cost less than $5. You can get five nice navel oranges for a dollar, and even more lemons.
Philly is a cheaper town than DC in general, but not that much cheaper — costs at Whole Foods and Superfresh are roughly comparable to the ones at Whole Foods and the Giant in Shaw. So can it really be the case that the cost of a roof, refrigeration and employee benefits is the difference? I guess so. The only other explanation I can come up with is that the mob is subsidizing my produce purchases in order to maintain their South Philly fronts.
Yeah, from what I know about retail (which is not terribly much), I think it’s all about rent–I don’t know what commercial rent is like in Philly, but I’m sure it’s pretty high in DC. And employee salaries are probably somewhat higher, as well.
I used to be in a position to see Walmart from the inside, and from what I know jake is on track.
It’s market driven, based upon local. Walmart paid cashiers more in Chicago than their own claims adjusters in Arkansas who handled the workers’ comp claims of the higher paid Chicago cashiers — because they had to pay more to get people. Certainly rent was higher in Chicago, and they charged more for the same products, because of higher cost, but also just because they could.
Giant charges more in Shaw because of costs but also because they can, and even if they cut costs they wouldn’t lower prices unless they had too. At the Philly Italian market (we have some great ones here in St. Louis) they charge less because of cost, but also because they must or people will go to the gleaming supermarket.
The major local chains here in St. Louis in the last 10 years have won wage concessions but they have never lowered prices, at least not until a Super whatever opened up down the street.
It makes sense, I’m just a little surprised, I suppose. It all implies to me that there are more competitive models available for food-selling businesses which just aren’t being used. It makes me wonder why we don’t see more variety in these things. The lack of centrally located space is probably the biggest factor, I imagine.