The Food Scout

Orlando and Tampa are shaping up to be the new playground for innovative food retailing. If you live in the Southeast, you know Publix supermarkets. And if you live in north Florida, you know that Publix is leveraging several sub-brands into new retail units and merchandising opportunities.

Its Aprons brand, originally a cooking school, is now a meal-assembly concept, cooking demo kiosk, and a catering business.

Greenwise is a brand Publix is using on its new tony Whole Foods-style units, BUT it’s also a brand merchandised in most of its stores around natural foods including meats, cereals, and juices.

And Sabor is a brand name used for a few Latino-focused stores in the Orlando area. What’s admirable is that the stores are still distinctly Publix but have a much richer product mix that is fun for anyone to shop (e.g., amazing little jars of dulce de leche at the checkout that you can’t find in any gringo store).

Rather than wait for other retailers with a unique-but-niche-oriented consumer proposition to come along and eat into Publix’s share, the company is taking these nichers head on and testing serious answers to the natural foods, meal solutions and ethnic marketing trends. And then they are taking pieces of these and incorporating them into their mainline stores.