Shoppers want it all.
They want seasonal produce grown by a local farmer, yet they also want that same produce in the off-season. And they want food that can never grow in their regional climates any time of year — food from far-flung locales and cultures.
Enter the consumer-demand term “glocal”: global + local.
This hybrid word popped out of the mouth of Mimmo Franzone, vice president of merchandising of Longo's, Vaughan, Ontario, at a conference in 2021. Previously the Longos' produce director for more than nine years, Franzone received The Packer's Canadian Produce Person of the Year award in 2022.
“It goes back to promoting the season's freshest commodities, regardless of where they come from,” Franzone said. “At Longo's, our take on ‘glocal' is: When available, source locally, and when it's not and our guests are looking for certain produce, source globally.
“It's also crucial to source from the freshest and closest growing region,” — regardless of cost, he said.
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For Longo's, local is defined as anything grown in the Ontario province. Stores that have hyper-local programs are just a few miles from farmer partners' fields. Global is defined as anything grown outside of North America, Franzone said. And U.S.-grown produce is considered domestic, but not local.
Offering the fresh tomatoes, green beans, strawberries, arugula, apples, melons and corn grown in the surrounding region is one big way for retailers to drive differentiation in the market. But so is being the store that has passionfruit, dragonfruit, bittermelon, chayote, dasheen, yuca, jackfruit, jicama, mamey sapote, Korean radish, Japanese sweet potato, yampi, lychee, turmeric, red kuri winter squash, rambutan, Trinidad scorpion chile and nopales. (Whew!)
Focusing on specialty produce, Philadelphia-based John Vena Inc. offers retail and foodservice customers eggplant varieties spanning the East, Far East and Western European parts of the globe: Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Sicilian and Thai.
The value-based, premium lifestyle choice to eat more seasonally — rather than look at eating locally as a limitation — has been challenging to the company's business model, said John Vena, president. "Whatever consumers report on surveys about their preference for local, the reality we see in the demand is that, when spending their dollar, most consumers and chefs will choose variety over restriction and value over provenance, although that's certainly not true in all segments."
It can get messy for consumers trying to balance all these conflicting demands in their purchasing decisions, he said. And as a supplier, it's hard to read and plan accordingly.
Retailers in the Salad Bowl of California have a year-round temperate climate advantage for offering local produce. Product differentiation is also a way to make the store visit more experiential, build store loyalty and make your store a destination driver.
“We want to be local because that's really important to our customer, it's important to our supply chain and the community that we have. But you can't just be local, right?” said Neil Stern, who has been in the supermarket industry for 35 years and is CEO of Good Food Holdings.
The West Coast-based holding company has five grocery retail banners: Bristol Farms and Lazy Acres Natural Market in Southern California, New Leaf Community Markets in Santa Cruz, Calif., New Seasons Market in Portland, Ore., and Metropolitan Market in Seattle.
Local products have to win on the shelf, just like other products do, he said. New Seasons, for example, strives to offer a third local, a third specialty and a third national products. Sometimes those items compete at the shelf themselves.
“Local is great, when we can be local. We're obviously in a fabulous part of the world where our stores operate to facilitate that,” Stern said. “But if a product has to come from halfway around the world, it will come from halfway around the world.”
Bristol Farms 3.0 would be an “Alice meets Anthony” hybrid, speaking of Alice Waters and the late Anthony Bourdain, to create “a culinary destination that brings together the spirit of the mindful gourmet and the adventurous foodie.”
This is a strategy to provide a deeper experiential connection with a younger audience through global, on-trend, innovative offerings, Stern said.
Good Food Holdings' quick-service restaurants inside its supermarkets include GoodGreens, which offers salads featuring peak-season ingredients, including greens from Kenter Canyon and Girl & Dug farms. Its in-store Viaggio Pizzeria uses slow-fermented custom dough from Washington and in-house pasta made from seasonal, local produce.
Five of the company's six key principles that drive success in produce are related to local sourcing: seasonality; high-intensity, quick duration promotions; local; and memorable.
A Metropolitan Market summer produce marketing campaign had a “Summer's on: Get it while it's hot” slogan for heirloom tomatoes, local melons, sweet corn and a peach-o-rama event. The slogan is splashed across store doors, employee T-shirts and display bins.
Photo: Courtesy of Good Food Holdings/Metropolitan Market
Signage communicates freshness with “picked today” and “sold out: more tomorrow” messages.
Many retailers are using paper bags and cartons or wooden boxes and bins to emulate a farmers market feel.
Remind shoppers that it's still a farm — whether it's near or far — and share details about it to make shoppers feel connected to the product, said Chris Romano, vice president of produce, floral and gifts at The Fresh Market, Greensboro, N.C.
“And when it's a farmer and a product that's from where you live, then you can still say it's local, right? Talk about who's growing it,” he said, mentioning a great apple grower in New Zealand. “That's about as far away as you can get. And, you know, we're in the Southeast and we've got apple growers in Virginia, right literally in our backyard, but still, our customers can relate to that, because we're talking grower stories. So, I think that's the global and local connection: the farmer story."
Across the board, retailers and marketers are emphasizing the importance of storytelling in drawing in the shopper. Storytelling can be both global and local.
Share the story of a Colombian banana farmer or Thai chile grower just as you would a New Jersey blueberry family or a California strawberry company.
“Customers want to know more about their food today. Where does it come from? Who grew it? What is it packaged in?” said Shawn Peery, vice president of produce at Albertsons Cos., Boise, Idaho. “They use social media. They want to have a relationship with the food, the growers and where it comes from. So, really, it is redefining what customers look at. You have to think about, what is your story? Where it comes from and how we communicate with customers,” he said.
Foodie shoppers want innovation, to be excited and intrigued. Sometimes they want a mini culinary adventure, such as trying out the Honeyglow pineapples from Costa Rica.
Sprouts Farmers Market, Phoenix, creates one or two-week events with “Willy Wonka-style displays, that just awe you that they can do that with labor these days,” said Caitlin Tierney, senior director of produce for local and innovation. “It's so we can entice them with different varieties, different experiences. We sell tropicals like I don't think any other retailer does.”
Many shopping lists don't have a lot of tropical items, even somewhat familiar items such as pineapple, on there as an everyday item.
“But if you have an amazing display with the right signage package, the right retail price and then sampling beside it, that entices the customer to build that basket and now add that pineapple to it,” Tierney said.
In the earnest desire to be relevant in-season, retailers and growers should avoid compromising quality by starting seasons too early just to generate sales, Franzone of Longo's said. “Or, on the other side, don't try to extend a season longer than it should be."
Quincy, Mass.-based Stop & Shop is spending $140 million on revamping its New York City stores, adding thousands more items from around the world, to better reflect each store's neighborhood makeup.
For example, the Bay Plaza store in the Bronx will feature a new Global Market with products from 14 regions tailored to its neighbors, especially food specific to Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica. And the Maspeth, Queens store will expand its Chinese and South American offerings while Brooklyn's Sheepshead Bay customers will enjoy more Eastern European and Kosher foods.
Now, that's glocal.