"The first rule," Justo Frias was saying: "You always enter the store by the fresh produce department. Latino shoppers want very fresh produce, and a lot of variety."
There were tomatoes and peppers, and vast bulk bins of beans and rice. Along the nearest wall, a dozen types of fresh chili peppers were arranged beneath a chart showing each one's heat content on a scale of 1 to 10. (Habaneros, the hottest chilis known, earn a 10+.)
A few other signs showed that we were standing not in a conventional Albertsons, Ralphs or Vons, but rather in the new Grupo Gigante supermarket in inner-city Los Angeles, the day before its formal grand opening. Among them were signs proclaiming Gigante's policy of everyday low prices: "Precios Bajos, SIEMPRE!" But as Frias, the president of the Mexican company's Gigante USA division, puts it, the company's goal is for its stores to meet the design standards of the major American supermarket chains, while casting aside the chains' insensitivity to their shoppers' regional tastes.
"We try to be very similar to Albertsons or Vons or Ralphs," Frias says, "as far as appearance and look and lighting." Escorting me toward the rear of the store, he shows where 11 bakers staff a full-service panaderia. At the other corner is the store's full-service meat department, with about a dozen butchers working behind plate glass. The display here similarly reflects neighborhood appetites; the top-selling cut of meat is beef tripe for menudo soup, so the store offers three varieties.
Is this a sustainable business model? Gigante, which opened its first U.S. store in 1999 in Pico Rivera, now has six outlets in the area and will be up to eight by the end of the year. Those who have seen its master plan say it calls for 55 stores, and Frias is thinking ahead to when he might have the critical mass locally to expand out of Southern California.
It's worth studying how Gigante and other independent grocers such as Santa Fe Springs-based Superior Super Warehouse manage to thrive in the inner city because the big supermarket chains place them high on the list of competitors threatening their survival. Independent markets, the chains complain, are cutting into their revenues in ethnic communities. Combined with the looming threat from Wal-Mart Stores Inc., this is supposed to explain why they have to shave the cost of their own union contracts.
