SFA Feed looks back at the retail pioneers who helped build the specialty food industry. First up, a profile of A Southern Season, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, first published in October 2003.
The staggering numbers almost tell the story of A Southern Season's new flagship emporium: 59,000 square feet of space, 75,000 items, 10-day Grand Opening, 100 events, 600,000 distributed announcements, 50-seat state-of-the-art cooking school, eight departments, and nine demo stations.
But the merchant's achievements are attitudinal, not arithmetic. The commitment to exceptional products and customer service took a 28-year-old specialty food fixture in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, from a one-person coffee roastery to a $25-million, 250-employee retail and mail order operation and now one of the largest specialty-only retailers in the U.S.
Specialty Food Magazine visited the fashionable, massive new store just one week after its September 25 opening in University Mall, only a quarter mile from the former Eastgate location—but with double the space. Loyal shoppers can find favorites and standbys such as a coffee and tea selection teeming with hundreds of varieties, a mammoth candy and confection counter, the Weathervane restaurant, and specialty goods from North Carolina and around the globe. But there are also new and expanded entries such as a House and Home department quadrupled in size, a new floral market, a full-service wine bar and a cooking school, Culinary Lessons at A Southern Season (CLASS), offering an epicurean education.
While opening crowds have more than doubled transactions and tripled sales overall, the crowning achievement is that the store has managed to maintain its comfortable charm and down-home brand of customer service despite the grander setting.
$312 a Day or Bust
Staying the same while changing is a feat A Southern Season has accomplished through numerous expansions. Today, operations include the retail store, a mail order and Internet business and Carolina Cupboard, a wholesale division. (In addition, airport retailer The Paradies Shops operates two Taste! A Southern Season boutiques at Raleigh Durham International Airport.) It's a long way from the 800-square-foot coffee roastery that kept the doors open every day until the $312 necessary to stay afloat was taken in.
It began in 1975, when founder and president Michael Barefoot, whose business background consisted of one dropped class at the University of North Carolina, set out to introduce fine coffee and specialty foods to the then un-indoctrinated people of Chapel Hill. "I knew that there were a lot of starving graduate students who loved food," he says.
Eventually, A Southern Season moved to a larger space at Eastgate. It expanded over the years, as Chapel Hill developed from a sleepy university town to a business epicenter that forms one point in the Research Triangle with Raleigh and Durham—a growth that brought a migrating affluent, well-educated, well-traveled customer base seeking top-quality foods.
A stellar reputation led the retailer to be hand-picked to anchor one end of the University Mall by new owner Maurice Koury in hopes of reinventing the declining shopping center as a specialty destination. The promise of added space in a vacant Belks department store proved a potent motivation, one that even won out over the potential roadblock of a current nine-year lease at Eastgate. (Since the move, Eastgate has been transformed into a catalog store for retail and mail order, as well as handling some wholesale.)
The relocation has given most departments the opportunity to expand by around 50 percent. "For the first time, we can add without kicking anything out," says Barefoot. Sales were projected to increase 20 percent, but are currently performing well above expectations. Historically, a September week would yield about $150,000 in sales; the store took in $500,000 during Grand Opening's first week. "We'll need a month or so to gauge the sales potential," Barefoot says. "So far, we're running two to three times higher than usual, depending upon the department."
A Collection of Small Shops
Today's mammoth operation is run on the model Barefoot learned as the sole employee, when he did everything from roasting coffee to scrubbing the floors. When the business grew enough to justify an additional staff member, he split the work in the only way he knew. "We drew a chalk line to divide the store. I still did everything but in a smaller area," Barefoot recalls.
A Southern Season's eight profit centers—Gourmet Grocery, Wine, Candy, House and Home, Coffee, Prepared Food/ Deli/Cheese/Bakery, Floral and Gift, and the Weathervane—are similarly decentralized. Each is considered an individual business under the ownership of the department manager. Explains Barefoot, "The big store is a collection of smaller separate shops. For example, Caroline Cahan is the proprietor of the coffee department. Once a year, we agree on a plan, but she is responsible for product selection, pricing, merchandising, customer service, and employee training. Her employees call in to her when they are sick; if there is no one to cover, she has to. It's like having your own business: You get the glory and take the heat."
A Southern Season is so dedicated to the philosophy of individual ownership that it runs weekly merchant meetings—similar to those you would find among separate stores in a mall—among its department heads and store managers. "We discuss the merchants' vision for the company, ideas are exchanged, promotions decided, and decisions made on what's missing and what's working," says Barefoot.
Customer service is a constant theme. Feedback from shoppers is continually solicited and every comment that the store receives verbally, via fax or on its website, southernseason.com, is distributed, discussed, and replied to. "We've trained our customers to feel as though they own the store. They are quite verbal and concerned," Barefoot notes.
Don't Get Too Big or Too Cold
Some customer apprehension revolved around the move to such a large space. "Each time we've expanded, we've heard not to get too big or too cold," says Briggs Wesche, general manager. "But just today a shopper told me we pulled it off again."
Maintaining the look and feel was no accident. A Southern Season used the architect it had for its last expansion and kept the same appearance right down to the floors, where it replicated Eastgate's reddish painted concrete flooring. "It was a new idea in 1992, and not so much today, but we deliberately stayed the same," says Wesche. The Metro shelving, oak paneling, and rustic color scheme were also preserved, and have been warmed up with wooden shelving and cases.
With the appearance intact, six store managers keep the attitude consistent. "We look at the store through the customer's eyes," says Tim Manale, vice president, who moved from the mail order division he developed to help run the new location. "Is it beautiful, is the music on, is the customer engaged? We act as the maitre d' of the store.
"We're as passionate about service as we are about quality. It's not formal, but more of a friendly service that makes us part of the community."
A Complete Entertaining Package
House and Home is purposefully positioned in the center so its selection can complement whichever department is opposite. For example, wine customers look out onto stemware. House and Home is the most dramatically expanded section, and now includes fine china in addition to a Villa Vietri boutique of imported Italian dinnerware.
Departments lining the periphery include gourmet grocery, with a refined selection of shelf-stable items, including pasta, jam, barbecue sauces, crackers, condiments, oils and vinegars. Some of the top grocery sellers are private label.
The new space affords several special showcases along the wall, including one highlighting Stonewall Kitchen's product line. (The display is actually a former booth used at the Fancy Food Show.) Adjacent to that is the Spice Boutique, where shelves are lined with specialty salts, spices, blends and rubs, including luxuries like Black Truffle Flavored Flour. Local products get a niche in "The Best of North Carolina" showcase, featuring nuts, cheese straws, grits, and regional cookies such as Moravian Thins from Salem Baking Company.
Candy and confection has long been a staple; its vast selection encompasses everything from a 49-cent truffle to a $40 box of Neuhaus chocolates. Here, private label also boasts a large presence, with gift items from individually wrapped foot-shaped Tar Heel chocolates, to boxes of brittle, pralines, and bon bons appearing under A Southern Season and Carolina Cupboard labels. A wall display of domestic and imported candy bars, billed as "The Ultimate Chocolate Bar," leads to a counter featuring pricier, hand-crafted items, plus dispensers of jelly beans and other bulk goodies.
The 412-seat Weathervane has a year-round wrap-around dining patio. Though the new restaurant operates from a kitchen separate from prepared foods, there is still overlap. "If an item is a success at Weathervane, we try it in the deli," says Barefoot. "Both use specialty foods carried in-store as ingredients in their menu items." Prepared foods/deli offers about 40 entrees, soups, sides, and salads daily, plus smoked fish, olives and a small charcuterie selection. In addition to a salad bar, there is a sandwich bar with items like The Cockadoodledoosey, a grilled chicken, havarti and honey mustard sandwich, for $6.99. Bakery and a select cheese case, which features domestic and imported selections hovering around $10 per pound, sit nearby.
The debut of floral helps the retailer become a destination for a dinner party. Says Manale, "The store was already thought of as the source for good olive oil. Floral and House and Home is a foray into a complete package for entertaining."
The 3,000-square-foot wine section is almost library-like, with its wooden cases and low-hanging lighting. The department is portioned off from the main aisle with high shelving units. Displays include Staff Picks and Great Deals, where wines are priced as low as $5 on vendor close-outs. Inside, several alcoves have been built into the back wall, housing specific regions or varietals, which are signed over each entranceway. The massive department carries 1,200 selections and nearly 20,000 bottles.
Education and Entertainment
CLASS Cooking School, on the mezzanine, is complete with a 1,056-square-foot demo kitchen outfitted by Wolf/Subzero, and includes a 40-foot granite island, overhead mirrors and audio/visual capability. There is also a 500-square-foot outdoor classroom and grill veranda. Stadium-style seating accommodates 50 and this quarter's current 30-plus classes are mostly sold out. The schedule is anticipated to include up to 250 classes and demonstrations a year with a mix of celebrity and local chefs, events, tastings and some staff-run programs.
Other educational in-store events and demos are planned for the permanent demo areas encircling the sales floor. There is something happening nearly every day at A Southern Season. "Even on our quietest day, there is sampling, with passive demos everywhere and at least one active demo, usually with vendor participation," says Barefoot. "As a big store in a small town, we need to be about education and entertainment."
"We'll never be able to compete with supermarkets or club stores on price," adds Wesche. "So our focus is on a totally different level of service. A Southern Season is a total experience—it's not just about the food you leave with."
Product selection, of course, is important. The merchant is mindful of the area's diverse customer base of academics, business people, retirees, and tourists. "We try to have something for everyone, from $400 balsamic vinegar to a $15 gift basket," notes Wesche.
This ability to appeal to a broad range of consumers, to satisfy people who want a tasteful $1 cup of coffee as well as a $500 bottle of Bordeaux, is essential to the success of this impressive market.
from Industry Operations https://ift.tt/3733Zpm
No comments: