How a commissary/deli works for this natural retail store

“My philosophy is that you have to keep growing it. If it’s stagnant, it’s going to die …The latest venture is focusing on the food, the convenience. Everybody’s busy.”

— Susie Farbin, MaMa Jean’s Natural Market

Part 1: Location, location, location

Highlights:

• MaMa Jean’s Natural Market found a way to maintain consistency, mitigate waste and streamline efficiency by using a commissary kitchen with a market deli up front.
• A location with foot traffic is ideal for the market deli concept.
• Sell the customers on new food items by having samplers in the sandwich lines of the deli.
• MaMa Jean’s Natural Market expanded their customer base by removing “natural” from the name.

This session—Deep Dive: Making Moves Toward Convenience and Foodservice—was recorded at Natural Products Expo West 2018.

This piece originally appeared on New Hope Network, a Supermarket News sister website.