After moving to the US 10 years ago, Juana Carabarin still wanted to cook Mexican food for her family but often didn’t have time to go to specialty shops for the ingredients.
Now the Publix grocery near her home in Norcross, Georgia, carries products used in Mexican cuisine — including corn husks for tamales, chilies in the spice aisle, chorizo and queso fresco in the refrigerator case and some branded items. So she no longer has to make do with stand-ins.
Several major chains are expanding their specialty offerings to capture business from Latinos, the nation’s fastest-growing population and already almost one-sixth of the US total.
Other retailers are opening new stores that target Hispanic shoppers.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the nation’s largest retailer, is in the process of converting two of its stores in Phoenix and Houston to Supermercados — a test format aimed at Hispanic shoppers. Its wholesale subsidiary, Sam’s Club, is opening a store in Houston this summer — called Mas, or “more” —that targets Hispanic shoppers and businesses.
And Lakeland, Florida-based Publix, which has run a line of Publix Sabor stores for years geared toward Florida’s Cuban, Puerto Rican and other Latino shoppers, recently began expanding its Hispanic offerings at its Publix stores in other areas of heavy Latino population, like the store in Georgia where Carabarin shops.
Developing new stores or venturing into new markets may seem like a dicey proposition during a recession, but better serving the rapidly growing Hispanic population could pay off well for retailers.
Hispanic consumers tend to shop for groceries more often than the average US consumer, cook from scratch more often, buy more fresh items and spend an estimated 20 percent more at the store, the Food Marketing Institute said.
At the institute’s last count, in 2005, Hispanic consumers spent an average of US$133 per week per household versus US$91 for other families.
The institute also estimates that Hispanics direct an estimated 34 percent of their grocery shopping outside their primary grocery store, compared with 18 percent among general US shoppers.
It’s that 34 percent these retailers aim to recapture.
Sam’s Club said Mas will sell mainstream US products as well as brands and items not often found in the states. Mas will feature a fresh tortilla shop, expanded produce, meat and bakery sections, a full-service health clinic and financial services — through a partner company that is popular in Mexico.
Mas also will have a business side, catering to restaurants, stores or other businesses that want Hispanic-oriented products in one spot.
While some grocers still contain their Hispanic offerings to an “ethnic” aisle, some experts say the popularity of Hispanic products among Latino and other consumers merits more attention.
“I think there is an increase in appetite across the board for more international experiences, particularly in Hispanic grocery,” said Stephen Palacios, executive vice president at consulting company Cheskin Added Value.
“The ethnic-specific aisle is eventually going to evolve into everybody’s aisle,” he said.
A major challenge for retailers will be accurately understanding this diverse and dispersed population.
Felipe Korzenny, director of the Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication at Florida State University, said that some retailers have failed in their attempts to market to Hispanics because they didn’t understand the nuances among their customers.
But he added that if Wal-Mart and others simply change the sign out front, that wouldn’t be enough.
Wal-Mart says its Supermercados are much more. At its recently opened Houston site, the meat department offers sweet breads, milanesa (a type of veal) and arrachera (similar to skirt steak, for grilling), and the bakery sells fresh corn tortillas.
“It’s not about putting the same store into every market,” Wal-Mart spokeswoman Amy Wyatt-Moore said.
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