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it comes down to what sells,” he says, noting customer anticipation each year in Virginia during the holidays, when families come to Kroger to pick out their locally grown Christmas trees from eye-catching displays. “Virginia cus- tomers remember that.”
“When we do customer surveys, we get high marks for buying local,” says Gary Hud- dleston, public affairs leader in Dallas, TX, for Kroger’s Southwest marketing area, including Texas and Louisiana. “Our customers embrace it and realize product is fresher because it gets to the store quicker and should improve the price as well,” he contends.
“Especially for a large company like Kroger, we make sure that we’re more local- ized in the community,” Huddleston says, noting that partnering with state agriculture departments on promotional programs is a great way for Kroger to show that it supports local growers and farmers.
In Texas, for example, “we have a relation- ship with Texas Department of Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples, who has a staff that travels the state visiting retailers encourag- ing them to buy Texas produce and then providing marketing materials, camera-ready art and logos,” he explains. Kroger obliges, fill- ing shelves with Texas produce based on availability, including grapefruit, cantaloupe, onions, mushrooms and blueberries, he says, pointing out that the Buy Texas program has expanded dramatically throughout the state, in no small part due to Kroger’s participation.
“Our customers love local and we love local, but it’s a challenge when you operate hundreds of stores to make sure that you’ve got all the systems and the execution right,” says Marmer. Kroger capitalizes on balancing centralized pro- curement while enabling both store-level and regional buying.
“Store-level buying does exist; it’s just not something that can be done in isolation,” she emphasizes. “We’ve got expert merchandisers in local markets, who are able to say, ‘Hey, there’s a great beet farmer here,’ or ‘This local tomato grower will have enough supply.’”
In some instances, Kroger collaborates with farmers to build a program, which could involve training on growing practices and help in meet- ing the food safety prerequisites and certifications. Regardless of size or circum- stances, “you can’t be exempted from any food safety requirements,” Marmer emphasizes.
Consumers clamor for Olathe corn from Col- orado. “We work with those suppliers and do our best to try to have enough Olathe corn to sell not only inside of Colorado, but also in other markets,” she says.
38 PRODUCE BUSINESS • MAY 2012