Store Brands Melting Pot
Mexicocoa from Cost Plus-World Market is a dark drinking chocolate mix with Mexican spices from the very birthplace of chocolate – Aztec Mexico. A Mexican pyramid is feature in the Taste the World emblem.
Ethnic Tastes Find New Borders With Private Label Choices
Pizza, tacos, and quiche are as American these days as apple pie and roast turkey. As consumers living in the United States, we can thank our immigrant heritage and adventurous tastes for acculturating ethnic cuisines onto our national tablecloth. A constant influx of new immigrants and changing population demographics brings new cuisines and ingredients for consumers to try — and try we do.
According to market research group Mintel, sales in the ethnic food market were $2.4 billion dollars in 2010. Mintel’s Global New Products Database (GNPD) showed that ethnic cuisines, once only found in city neighborhoods or on exotic vacations, are now flowing into American kitchens. The GNPD reports a 150% increase in new Caribbean food items since 2009, 230% for Japanese food items and 68% for Thai foods. What’s spurring this growth? Mintel reports a combination of international travel, exposure to new foods from television and other media as well as immigration. Market research firm Packaged Facts finds that Peruvian, Moroccan, Korean and Japanese cuisines are the hottest food trends today.
For both private label manufacturers and retailers, ethnic foods offer a way to differentiate them in the market, keep consumers who have switched to private label due to the recession interested and loyal all while expanding their private label lines. Private Label magazine’s recent store survey revealed that some retailers have only dipped a fork into the market allowing branded specialty and mainstream producers to stock their shelves, whereas others are stirring up exciting destination items for consumers to try.
Good Eats at Trader Joe’s
When the work and school day ends, families begin to ask “what’s for dinner?” For many that means take-out or a trip to a local eatery where they can find Thai, Indian or Peruvian chicken. Or it can mean a quick trip Trader Joe’s where everyone can get exactly what he or she wants at a price far less than eating out.
Trader Joe’s, Monrovia, CA, the all-private label neighborhood retailer prides itself on “continuously creating exciting, delicious products that you can discover at your neighborhood TJ’s.” The stores’ dry goods include several varietals of olive oils, rice from around the globe, and shelf-stable and instant meals such as Trader Ming noodle bowls, Kung Pao, Pad Thai, and Satay bowls that are ready in two minutes for only $1.99. Open a shelf stable foil pouch of Indian Fare, palak paneer, Punjab curry, Jaipur vegetables or lentils. Looking for something a little fresher? Add some vegetables and protein to one of three Thai simmer sauces or enchilada sauce for less than $3.00. When it comes to frozen ready meals there is a world to choose from including green papaya salad, chimichirri rice, falafel, tom yam soup, coq au vin and bibimbap bowl, to name a few of their almost 100 listed frozen meal items. Then there are ethnic soups, like Latin style Black Bean and Japanese Miso.
With most items well under the price of one restaurant meal, shoppers can try new items without feeling as if they’re throwing their money away if they don’t like something. The store’s combination of fresh produce, dairy and meats, along with pantry staples means that consumers can combine fresh food with ready meals to perk up their food choices.
Inspired Quality
When surveying private label ethnic food options one theme was apparent, high quality. It may be that ethnic foods recipes are better suited to simple, fresh ingredients, or that if a product doesn’t taste like home it won’t be accepted. But in many stores, the ethnic and ethnic- inspired lines were found to be organic, natural, or part of a retailer’s top-tier private label program.
Whole Foods Market, Austin, TX, offers shoppers private label imported pasta and a selection of spices but overall few frozen ready meals, canned, or shelf stable options. Instead, shoppers will find ethnic dishes under the Whole Kitchen food to go refrigerator case. The what’s for dinner question is answered with hot and sour soup, adobo black bean soup or butternut posole, 23- ounces priced at $6.50. Shoppers can find ready made dips and sandwiches with ethnic flavors made for each store’s demographic.
Safeway’s Eating Right frozen Chicken Methi Malai and Chicken Picadito come with on-pack logos proclaiming them to be inspired by the cuisines of India and Cuba, respectively.
The term inspired also has become part of the retail lexicon. It’s a term that alerts shoppers to something outside of the ordinary without scaring them away with fears of overly spiced foods or strange ingredients.
Target, Minneapolis, MN, is an example with both its Archer Farms and newer Giada De Laurentiis lines. Archer Farms features higher end gourmet recipes and organic ingredients. The prepared foods are quick to fix and promise consumers lots of flavors. For instance, in its freezer cases, stores offer steam-in bag products such as Thai-inspired rice and broccoli and cilantro lime rice and vegetables both on special for $1.94.
Frozen snacks include other “inspired” cuisines, Indian-inspired vegetable samosas and Greek-inspired spanakopita both priced at $4.24. However, consumers can also find more familiar shredded beef tamales, crab rangoon, and a mini quiche collection.
Target’s celebrity chef sponsored Giada De Laurentis has an entire Italian inspired line based on the chef’s cooking and own Italian heritage. Shoppers can find soup starter packages at $3.49 each in Tuscan-style white bean and fire roasted garlic, jars of Genovese basil pesto at $2.99, and black olive tapenade.
Supermarket giant Safeway, Pleaston, CA, is also offering a growing line of ethnic frozen snacks and ready meals from its higher end Select line. Select snacks include chicken potstickers and chicken and vegetable springrolls at $4.99. Select meals value priced at 5 for $2.00 include authentic beef tamale, sesame ginger chicken, triple cheese enchiladas and Szechuan style chicken. Safeway has also spiced up its Eating Right line with ready meals “inspired by the taste of India” and “inspired by the Taste of Cuba.” Consumers are alerted to these new recipes with what looks like a passport stamp on the Eating Right package. Safeway also offers a large variety of Italian made pastas in specialty shapes.
Wegmans, Rochester, NY, has added some new offerings to its Travels of Asia line that follows the trend for newer cuisines with bagged frozen meals of Thai red curry chicken, Indian chicken korma and Indian butter chicken. Shoppers can also find ethnic style frozen stir fry vegetables priced at $2.29 in Hong Kong, Japanese, Far East and Asian recipes.
For the organic shopper, a recent end cap freezer display was an attention grabber with 5 types of organic burritos $1.99 each, tofu vegetable and cheese, soy chorizo pesto, bean and cheese, tofu spinach and bean, rice, vegetable and cheese. And for a sweet ending, shoppers can try an Italian inspired Tiramisu or have some fun with a make your own cannoli kit complete with cannoli shells and the traditional sweet cheese filling. Both of these items are part of Wegmans Italian classics line.
Discovering a new cuisine or an imported product can be as gratifying to a consumer as deliberately adding an ingredient to a weekly grocery list. Shoppers who visit Cost Plus World Market, Oakland, CA, will find in addition to private label furnishings, a large selection of international food. The World Market label offers a full line of imported spices, pasta products, and olive and dipping oils as well as imported Italian fruit sodas with small bottles priced at a try-it 99 cents. Flavors include pomegranate, blood orange and orange passion mango. The retailer also has its own inspired line of sauces that include Provencal, cacciatori and lemon artichoke. Bottle labels are stamped flavors of Italy, France or the Mediterranean. Other products include Mexicoca and European deep dark drinking chocolate priced at $5.99.
From Inspired to Fresh and Authentic
In 2006, the Oxford American College Dictionary added the acronym EVOO – extra virgin olive oil. This new word made famous by TV chef Rachel Ray speaks to the trend that Americans are increasingly exposed to new foods through the media.
The International Olive Oil Council reports imports of olive oil are up 6% in the United States for the first 7 months of 2010/2011. Whether it’s due to Rachel Ray, the popularity of the Mediterranean diet or culinary vacations to Europe, it’s clear Americans have developed a taste for this versatile ingredient. Private label producers and retailers are taking imported olive oil to a new level by offering more organic products and even country and olive varietals.
HEB, San Antonio, TX, recently introduced three new imported oils under the Central Market brand: Kalamata, Greece; Umbria, Italy; and Seville, Spain.
Texas, retail rival Whole Foods Market has a new repackaged line of oils that offer consumers both regional and varietal flavors in one liter cans and 33.8 ounce bottles. Cans priced at $8.49 include Turkish and Italian grown olives. Bottles include Toscano, Val Di Mazara, Terra Di Bari and a Mediterranean blend. Organic varieties feature Arbequina, Koroneiki and Hojiblanea.
Trader Joe’s also offers a variety of imported olive oils from the basic extra virgin Italian, organic Spanish, to the more robust Kalamata. Consumers can find a complete olive oil guide on the company’s website. In a somewhat related category, Wegmans offers Asian Classics seasoned rice vinegar, while Topco Associates, Skokie, IL, has Szechuan sauce under its World Classics Trading company brand – not to mention sushi rice.
Private label is once again pleasing picky consumers with ethnic meals ready in minutes and high quality imported items that offer taste buds a virtual vacation, perhaps the only escape shoppers can afford these days.
