Pete’s Fresh Market is yet another classic expression of an “American Dream”. An independent chain ready to undermine the leadership of Whole Foods Market.
So writes Daniele Tirelli, President of Popai Italia, in the latest number of inStore, now available in the online browsable version, presenting an independent American retailer, Pete’s Fresh Market, operating in the Chicago area and which is going against the tide, setting up its stall in the suburbs of the great American city, looking for a target “snubbed” by the large retailers and focusing, however, on the quality and variety of the range, in particular fresh produce.
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“The need for a healthy, varied, appetising, genuine and fresh diet is an increasingly essential and basic value now down to the first level of the Maslov hierarchy. As can be seen from the layout – writes Tirelli – Pete’s proposes an elliptical perimeter path for the fresh produce departments that begins with fruit and vegetables and ends with the long counter of ready-to-eat in-store or take-away hot dishes. The grocery section which occupies just over 40% of the area is situated in the middle. The management of Pete’s has thus defined its positioning, focusing on quality and variety of the “perishable” offer as illustrated on the very well-designed website. So, for example, Kenny, the fruit and vegetable buyer skilled in the search for specialties such as nopales, bok choy, daikon, methi leaf, dragonfruit and quenepas, is full of advice on choosing and preserving fruit and vegetables, in synergy with the juice bar corner with the most advanced proposals in this field.
In short, one aspect of Pete’s strategy is communication. In addition to the website and the house organ, it focuses on in-store communication and, above all, on the constant practice of “demos”. In essence, the presentation of new products, specialties, seasonal products, etc. is part of building a superior consumption culture in order to get out of the doldrums of the pure price war. Pete’s Fresh Market also presents itself as one of the “greenest” supermarket chains in the United States, thanks to the use of recycled materials and the adoption of advanced heating, air conditioning and dehumidification technologies, ceiling energy recovery systems, controlled lighting and attention to hygiene, such as, for example, the use of air curtains to expel flying insects in the various departments. In conclusion, Pete’s Fresh Market represents another very interesting case-history of that world of local independent chains that takes consumer goods retailing innovation to the highest quality standards and from which there is much to be learned”.
Read the entire article here (in Italian)
