Pastoral, Artisan Cheese, Bread & Wine, a Chicago-based independent specialty chain that focused on small producers, closed all four locations earlier this month after a 15-year run, a development co-owner Greg O’Neill attributes to shifts in where and how consumers shop for specialty foods in 2019.
“When we opened, people where becoming cheese hobbiests. It became a high involvement category. Over time, the whole market elevated at retail. You can now go to almost any retail channel and the level of median product is higher than it was 15 years ago. That cuts into visits to independent retailers,” says O’Neill. “You can often find good-enough products in supermarkets and club stores. It’s been elevated from a commodity level.”
Delivery platforms are another factor affecting independent retail sales, O’Neill says, and to some extent, so may be online shopping. “It’s unclear how much impact online has on day-to-day specialty food shopping. Most gourmet online shopping happens in the fourth quarter and around holidays like Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day. I haven’t seen aggregated data that shows its impact on brick-and-mortar year-round,” he adds.
“We’ve been more affected by the percent of loyal customer visits being less robust than they were five or 10 years ago. People don’t wander into small shops as much anymore.”
O’Neill and co-owner Ken Miller opened their first location, a 383-square-foot shop, in Lakeview in 2004. Locations in the Loop neighborhood, Chicago’s French Market, and Bar Pastoral, the restaurant and bar side of the Lakeview location, would follow.
During its run, Pastoral Artisan Cheese, Bread & Wine won the Specialty Food Association’s Outstanding Retailer Award twice, in 2007 and 2012. “We’re proud of what we accomplished,” says O’Neill. “We were one of the youngest and smallest retailers to win the first time and we won again in 2012. It’s reflective of a great team.”
He continues, “We’ve had great honors—we were on Oprah’s favorites list three times. We appeared on Food Network. And it’s been gratifying to hear from customers, chefs, and press that we’ve raised consciousness of these products, the producers, and their stories. We’ve educated on why food matters, why knowing where your food comes from matters. That’s a big imprint to make.”
O’Neill notes that the specialty food market is in a new phase of maturity and that purveyors and producers are going to have to acknowledge that. “Walgreens’ concept store has a specialty food section. That tells you something,” he says. “It’s not bad. Customers may see a brand they’ve come to know and be reassured they are getting something quality.”
“We’ve been cognizant of the market changes. There was no one reason to close but we felt we had responsibility to go out on high note,” says O’Neill. “We’re not sure of future plans, but we have a lot of love and intellectual energy tied up in this industry. The collaboration and willingness to help and lift others up is why we got into it after corporate experiences. We can hold our head high. We tried and succeeded for a good long while. Not all dreams last forever but doesn’t mean they’re not worth pursuing.”
from Specialty Food News https://ift.tt/2EwAzRi
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