Bashas' promotes local products in new partnership

• Grocery-store initiatives are expanding the %22local movement%22 beyond produce and beer/wine
• A new partnership between Bashas%27 and Local First Arizona promotes Arizona-made products

Valley grocery stores are diversifying their local-first initiatives.

Since gaining mainstream momentum during the recession, the "local movement" in the grocery-store realm has historically focused on produce, according to Tim McCabe, president of the Arizona Food Marketing Alliance.

The movement encourages consumers to seek out products from local companies in an effort to keep money flowing back into the local economy, rather than pumping dollars out of the community.

Today, grocery stores are expanding their local focus, first from produce to craft beer and wine, and now to packaged foods and non-food items. The latest Arizona initiative is a new program between Bashas' and Local First Arizona that is shining a spotlight on Arizona-made products ranging from bacon-pecan brittle to handmade soaps.

The program promoting these various products involves an "Arizona-made" end-cap display at a Scottsdale Bashas' store. End-cap displays are those generally featured at the front and back of stores.

The Scottsdale store, near Thompson Peak Parkway and Bell Road, is the grocery-store chain's first to participate in the partnership.

The new end-cap display went up in June and features 50 products from 16 Arizona vendors, said Erica Pederson, spokeswoman for Local First Arizona.

Featured companies include Christopher Creek Spice Co., Big Red's Hot Sauce, Tracy Dempsey Originals, Mrs. Klein's Pickle Co., Hayden Flour Mills, bath and body manufacturer Strawberry Hedgehog, housecleaning-product manufacturer Truce and personal-hygiene manufacturer G.B. Proudfoot's Natural Body Care.

"By convening many local products onto one shelving unit, we hope to increase their sales overall because together they stand out more," said Kimber Lanning, director of Local First Arizona, in a statement.

Cameron Proudfoot, owner of G.B. Proudfoot's Natural Body Care, founded his company in Scottsdale in 2009. Since then, getting the company's name in front of a large audience has been a challenge, he said. Having his products featured in the Bashas' end cap will directly benefit his brand by raising awareness locally, he said.

"When coming out as a new company, unless you have essentially a million dollars to put into advertising, it is really hard to cut through any clutter," he said. "You have to be really clever with grassroots marketing. It's really important to get your name out there locally, and to get across that you are local, because that resonates with people. They want to buy from a neighbor rather than someone overseas or even in a different state."

That visibility is also what excites Tracy Dempsey, owner of dessert company Tracy Dempsey Originals. Dempsey founded her business in Scottsdale in 2009, and said she has tried to get her products into AJ's Fine Foods, also under the Bashas' umbrella of stores, without success "for years."

"This feels like finally getting one foot in the door," she said. "(The bacon-pecan brittle) is just one of my products, but it's a start. I think (the program is) fantastic."

The hope is to expand the pilot program beyond the McDowell Mountain Ranch store and into more Bashas' locations, Pederson said. Bashas' and Local First Arizona will jointly evaluate the pilot's success in September.

"Success will be measured primarily by sales of the products from the rack," Pederson said.

Besides being an Arizona-based grocer and longtime Local First Arizona member, Bashas' has been a "proud supporter of Arizona growers and food producers for generations," making the store an obvious partner for this program, said Dave Vehon, Bashas' manager of merchandising and promotions, in a statement.

Jami Curinga, a Scottsdale resident who picked up a container of Peanut Butter Americano's cinnamon-honey peanut butter from the Bashas' end cap during a recent shopping trip, said is is important to seek out local products to support the community and its economy.

"Also, most of the time local products are healthier and more fresh than what you'd get from the big companies," she said.

'Shop local' a national trend

Supermarket chains across the country have tried making it easier in recent years for grocery shoppers to buy locally grown produce and packaged foods, as well as non-food products, said Laura Strange, spokeswoman for the National Grocers Association.

"The local movement is something we have seen pop up in grocery stores, as well as more of a focus on eating fresh," she said.

Still, many of those programs have room to broaden, said McCabe, of the Arizona Food Marketing Alliance.

"I'm not aware of a program quite as extensive as (the Bashas'/Local First Arizona program), with dozens of products beyond produce on an end cap," he said. "It is very innovative, and I think a lot of customers will be pleasantly surprised when a lot of these brands they didn't know were local turn out to be local."

According to a 2014 Consumer Survey Report conducted on behalf of the National Grocers Association by SupermarketGuru.com, "(s)upermarkets aligned with local food sources can attract shoppers who feel food loses less nutrition and taste by traveling less, and who want to support the local economy and nearby suppliers."

The survey, which consisted of a consumer panel online and included 1,380 household shoppers, found that 87 percent considered local produce and packaged food sources to be "very/somewhat important" to their selection of a primary food store.