Vallarta and Seafood City to participate in MR 360’s Cultural Immersion Tour
Vallarta Supermarkets and Seafood City said they will participate in the Multicultural Retail 360 Summit’s Cultural Immersion Tour, one of the annual event’s most popular attractions. They join Vine Ripe and Northgate Gonzalez Markets for the hands-on educational tour, which takes place August 24 and marks the beginning of the three-day summit in San Diego.
Seafood City caters to the San Diego area’s Filipino population, which is one of the largest in the United States. Vallarta (along with Northgate) is considered a benchmark in ethnic retailing. The tour will visit Vallarta and Seafood City locations in National City.
Vallarta
Fifty-six percent of shoppers who frequent the National City location are Latino. But what makes this store unique is that 9 percent of shoppers are African-American, a demographic that this retailer has not failed to notice. This particular store opened in 2011.
In 1985, Enrique Gonzalez, an immigrant from Jalostotitlan, Jalisco, Mexico, founded Vallarta in a small meat store in Van Nuys, Calif. Vallarta grew to include more locations throughout the San Fernando Valley. In 2011, Vallarta opened stores in National City, as well as in Anaheim and Santa Maria. Today, there are 48 Vallarta stores.
Vallarta is known for its hands-on customer service. The motto in its full-service butcher shop is, "Corte al gusto" (cut to your preference). The seafood department is well known for its fish ceviche, shrimp ceviche, imitation crab ceviche, seafood mix ceviche and "camarones ahogados."
The spirits section in Vallarta has one of the largest tequila selections in the United States. The department also offers wide assortments of whiskey, cognac, brandy, vodka and rum. Vallarta’s distributors specialize in spirits from Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean and other parts of the world.
Vallarta stores also feature La Isla (“The Island”), where juices are made fresh on the spot, along with “aguas frescas.” Both are made with all-natural ingredients. Other items in La Isla include fruit and vegetable smoothies, snow cones, iced coffee, fruit cocktails and salads. Champurrado, cafe de olla and cappuccino are among its hot beverage offerings.
Stores also contain comprehensive produce and tortilla departments along with in-store bakeries, delis and cremerías. The retailer offers private label merchandise in several categories, including bread, tortillas, chips, rice and tostadas.
Seafood City Supermarket
Seafood City Supermarket serves the San Diego area’s Filipino population. San Diego County, along with Los Angeles, has one of the state’s largest Filipino populations. According to the Migration Policy Institute, 45 percent of all Filipino immigrants in the United States live in California.
In 1989, the first Seafood City Supermarket opened in National City, Calif. The retailer now has stores in California, Nevada, Washington and Hawaii. Soon, it will enter Chicago and Canada.
Filipino cuisine, like Filipinos themselves, is a mix of several cultures. Dishes feature recipes, ingredient and cooking styles that trace their roots to Malay, Chinese and Spanish cultures, among many others. Seafood City carries the items necessary to create these unique dishes. In addition to fresh meat, fish, produce and a bakery departments, it offers a health and beauty care section devoted to this demographic, along with two popular Filipino quick-service restaurants, Chowking and Jollibee. Shipping and remittance services are provided as well.
Vine Ripe Farmer’s Market
The addition of Vine Ripe Farmer’s Market, La Mesa, Calif., marks the first time a Middle Eastern supermarket will participate in the tour. California is home to more than 715,000 Arab-Americans, who reside in large communities in Alameda, Fresno, Imperial, Kern, Orange, San Bernardino and San Diego.
About 500,000 Iranian-Americans live in Southern California, in such communities as Beverly Hills, Orange County, San Diego, the Palm Springs area and the San Joaquin Valley. San Diego also has one of the largest populations of Chaldean immigrants in the United States.
Vine Ripe’s Middle Eastern and Mediterranean offerings include grocery and deli products, organic produce, Halal foods and a selection of staple American products.
The dairy department includes favorites such as paneer, sweet cheese, imported cheese, labne, kefir and a number of yogurt drinks. The store also offers a wide assortment of Turkish baked goods and a salad bar offering everyday items, along with favorites such as tabbouleh, tzatziki, baba ghanoush, hummus and dolma.
Recently, Vine Ripe added a made-to-order fresh juice bar. This will soon be joined by a wine room.
Northgate Gonzalez Markets
Northgate Gonzalez Markets was founded in Anaheim, Calif., in January 1980 by a large immigrant family. Its stores offer customers bulk and packaged produce, hand-made tortillas that are made on-site, a cut-to-order butcher shop and an on-site bakery. Northgate, which is participating in the tour for the second consecutive year, will showcase one of its larger-format locations in San Diego.
“Northgate Gonzalez Market looks forward to another year of participating in the Multicultural Retail 360 Show,” said Mike Hendry, executive vice president of marketing and merchandising, Northgate. “In this larger-format store, you will find everything from fresh, authentically prepared foods from Mexico and Latin America to one of the widest varieties of fresh meat and seafood in the county. Bring your wallet as you’ll be sure to find a new salsa or tequila — we offer one of the widest selections in Southern California!”
Northgate also offers financial and other services, including check cashing, bill payment and personal loans. Many customers do not have bank accounts. On the health and wellness front, its Viva la Salud (“Living Healthy”) initiative provides bilingual product labels detailing nutritional benefits. Easy-to-read graphics make labels more understandable to shoppers with low English comprehension and/or limited formal education.
About the Cultural Immersion Tour: The tour involves in-person visits via chartered bus to the retailers mentioned above. While the Multicultural Retail 360 Summit itself provides case studies, valuable data and insights from leading companies and executives, this guided tour allows guests to experience ethnic neighborhoods, retailers and customers on a first-hand basis. In addition to unique product selections, it exposes visitors to shopping habits, consumer expectations, socio economic factors and merchandising strategies inherent to particular cultures.
Please note there is a separate registration fee for the Cultural Immersion Tour. You may register for the tour at the same time you register for the conference at www.multiculturalretail360.com/summit.