US: Familiar foods fill Hispanic groceries

Alberto and Belkis Hernández had grown accustomed to pushing carts down the aisles of American grocery stores that didn't carry their favorite Cuban foods.

Tres leches and other Spanish desserts were what the Lake Worth couple missed the most. "If you were in Miami, you could get them, but not here," Alberto Hernández, 65, said last week.

But the Hernándezes' palates perked up in 2001, when Sedano's, a Hispanic grocery chain based in Hialeah, opened its first Palm Beach County store in an old Winn-Dixie in Lake Worth.

Other Hispanic chains also have discovered the south-central part of the county, where many Latinos live. El Bodegón and President Supermarket each has two stores here, with big plans to tap the burgeoning Hispanic community — which is expected to become the county's largest ethnic group by 2025.

"Having an operation that is reminiscent of a Hispanic's home country is critical," said Mike Duff, editor of Food Retailing Today, a New York-based trade journal. "After language, the second most important element in a person's ethnic identity is food."

Nationwide, the Hispanic population exceeds 40 million people. And in the past five years, Hispanic buying power has increased from $504 billion to $686 billion, according to research conducted for the Food Marketing Institute, a Washington-based trade group.

That figure could approach $1 trillion by 2009.

Hispanics enjoy cooking and visit the grocery store three times more often than the rest of the population, according to the institute. And shopping in a store that carries their native beans, spices and fruits is important, particularly to first-generation Hispanics, retail experts say.

"We feel identified because we find our products that as Hispanics we consume," Dioselina Nájera said while shopping last week at yet another Hispanic supermarket: La Reina, which opened recently at 10th Avenue North and Congress Avenue in Palm Springs.

"People are moving here from other states, other countries," said Carlos Ortiz, who owns the two El Bodegón supermarkets in Palm Beach County and one in Margate. "Argentinians, Colombians and Venezuelans. They're all coming. It's growing, big-time."

Long lines force expansion

That demand caused Ortiz to open a second store west of Lantana in 2002. Still, at the original El Bodegón on Forest Hill Boulevard near Palm Springs, the store is packed on weekends, Ortiz said.

To help alleviate that, El Bodegón has signed a contract to expand into the adjacent T.J. Maxx, which is closing in January, Ortiz said.

He believes the 42,000-square-foot store would be the largest Hispanic grocery in the area.

"We just don't have enough room," he said. "The wait in the meat department on Friday, Saturday, Sunday is 45 minutes to an hour. We can't have that. We had to do something."

Miami-based President Supermarket, which has seven stores in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, opened on 10th Avenue North in Lake Worth in 2003. It opened a second store here this month on Gun Club Road after buying bankrupt Winn-Dixie's lease for $140,000.

Besides food products geared to different nationalities, the stores feature cafeterias, delis and bakeries.

"We look to see an area that has a mix of people, but we cater to everybody," said Fausto Alvarez, the chain's controller. "Everybody's welcome."

Sedano's opened in the Arbor shopping plaza on Dixie Highway in Lake Worth five years ago last week.

The chain has 27 stores in Miami-Dade and Broward, and many Hispanics here drove to one of those outlets before Sedano's entered Palm Beach County.

The Lake Worth store, which plays Latin music, sells an array of Hispanic products such as Malta Hatuey, a non-alcoholic drink, chicken croquettes and Pilon brand coffee. It stocks items for Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Brazilians, Guatemalans, Cubans and Haitians.

The Hispanic marketing blitz extends to a 24-ounce box of Kellogg's Corn Flakes, which features photos of Hispanic celebrities Celia Cruz and Cesar Chavez.

Manager Orestes Jimenez said he sees the same faces shopping in the store every week. "They are very loyal," he said. "If they go to Publix, it's because they just ran out of something and Publix is a little closer."

Publix wants a taste

In fact, Lakeland-based Publix Super Markets, Florida's dominant grocery chain, also realizes the importance of catering to the Hispanic market.

The company launched its own private label for Hispanic products in April. The house-brand products aren't displayed separately and generally are cheaper than those of Hispanic brands Goya and Badía.

In addition, Publix opened a Hispanic-themed market in Hialeah in May called Sabor, which is Spanish for "flavor." The first Publix Sabor opened in April in Kissimmee.

Each of the Sabor stores has a cafe serving Cuban sandwiches, cafe con leche (coffee with milk) and other specialties. The bakeries have more than 100 different kinds of pastries.

Publix has not announced when or whether more Sabor stores will open, although the concept seems to have won over customers, spokeswoman Anne Hendricks said.

"I've been there on days when it's just packed," she said. "We've gotten a lot of positive feedback. The demand is great. It came from shoppers telling us what they would like, and it's turned out to be successful."

Shoppers last week at the President store in Lake Worth said they were drawn there mostly because of finances. "The prices are much better here," said Antonio Santos, 34, a Lake Worth resident who was buying pork legs. "Publix and Winn-Dixie are for rich people."

Maribel Barroso, 34, originally from Puerto Rico, said the store stocks the meats and crackers that she prefers. "There is more variety in what we, as Latinos, look for," she said. Milagros Hernández, 59, of West Palm Beach agrees that price and variety are important.

But for all the headway that local Latin supermarkets have made in the past several years, they still need to pay more attention to how the foods are displayed, some shoppers say.

"For example, at Publix, things are presented much better," Hernández said. "It's all about the presentation."

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