From The Fall 2004 Issue of Natural Grocery Buyer

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Stores need to make the case for natural and organic eating

Kevin Coupe

Would someone please tell me why I should buy and eat natural and/or organic foods?

I speak as a consumer, not as someone who has been writing about the food business for almost two decades. I’m nearing 50, and have decided to live to 100—at least.

That means eating better and exercising more. I’m training for my second marathon, running close to 40 miles per week. But I’m still about 20 pounds heavier than I’d like to be.

Now, some people might switch to a low-carb diet, but I don’t trust it, and besides, it’s hard to run 40 miles a week without lots of carbs. So I’m looking for a more holistic approach, something that doesn’t just change the amounts of food I put in my mouth, but the very nature of those foods.

The natural assumption (pun intended) is that I shift my diet into the natural and organic arena. It follows that I might turn to the supermarket to decide how to make such an enormous dietary change.

This would be a mistake.

Out of curiosity, I visited some of my local supermarkets in southwestern Connecticut to see if they would be willing or able to answer my questions.

I went to the local Super Stop & Shop, for example, and found that although the store has a nice, segregated natural foods department adjacent to the produce department—complete with chilled, frozen and packaged items—nobody there could answer my questions. I saw no source of information about the basic benefits of a diet that emphasizes natural and/or organic foods. Uninspiring.

Across the street, at the independently owned Super Grade A ShopRite, I found even less evidence of organics and natural foods—mostly just a case in the produce department that featured organic salad mixes, vegetables and even some organic hot dogs that seemed to have been placed there by default. Sloppy.

A few miles away, at the legendary Stew Leonard’s store in Norwalk, the approach was neither sloppy nor uninspiring—but it didn’t exactly set the world on fire, either. Stew’s has less room for a complete selection of organics, since it only carries about 1,200 SKUs (and does about $2 million a week in sales with them). I did find some nicely displayed organic salad mixes, but, again, no explanation of their benefits or advantages.

However, at the local Trader Joe’s, I discovered at least the beginnings of an answer to my question. First of all, it was easy to find organic versions of the store’s nonorganic products—berries, pastas, salsas, eggs, whatever. The organic and conventional were usually side-by-side and labeled clearly. And the store offered a brochure at the front end that defines what organic food is, how it is certified, why it sometimes is more expensive and how Trader Joe’s chooses its organic products. Customers also are referred to the company’s Web site.

The goldmine of organic information for Trader Joe’s shoppers is the regular “Fearless Flyer,” which has charming, idiosyncratic descriptions of many of the just 2,000 or so SKUs stocked in-store. Whether it is organic yogurt or organic mango lemonade, the fact that it is organic is part of the sales pitch.

Could Trader Joe’s do a better job of selling organics? Of course. I’m still not sure what my best course of action would be (if you have some ideas, just shoot me an e-mail), and don’t know that I’ve had my basic “why” question answered. But Trader Joe’s goes a long way toward integrating natural and organic foods into my diet simply by weaving them into the store’s selection and then embracing these products in a number of venues.

What this does for Trader Joe’s: It creates a differential advantage for the store, and then communicates that advantage clearly and attractively.

It is a strong first step.

Writer and speaker Kevin Coupe covers the retail business on his Web site, www.morningnewsbeat.com. Contact him at kc@morningnewsbeat.com.