CAMPAIGNS

RETAIL PROFILE
DES MOINES
Retail Climate
PHOTOS COURTESY OF GATEWAY MARKET
There are approximately 550 full-service
conventional grocery stores in Iowa,
according to the Iowa Department
of Public Health. This equals
one grocery store for every 5,636
Iowans. In the Des Moines metro area,
which includes the counties of Polk, Warren,
Madison, Dallas and Guthrie, there are a total
of 98 supermarkets.
Years ago, the major players in the retail
arena included Hy-Vee, Fareway, Wal-Mart,
Target and Price Chopper, formerly Dahl’s
Foods, according to the local newspaper, The
Des Moines Register.
This has recently changed, with a number
of national upscale supermarkets entering the
region. In 2015, The Fresh Market opened its
doors in West Des Moines for a brief period,
and this year Fresh Thyme Farmers Market
also opened in West Des Moines.
Large independent, Dahl’s, went bankrupt
in 2015, allowing AWG to enter the Des
Moines market.
“Des Moines is dominated by large,
regional retailers, such as Hy-Vee and
Fareway, and national retailers, such as
Wal-Mart, Costco and Whole Foods,” says
Brendan Comito, chief operations officer at
Capital City Fruit. “There is only a handful of
very small independent retailers.”
This has been challenging for a number
of produce brokers, including Chandler
Metelman, Inc., which did a big business with
Hy-Vee until March of 2015.
“Now, Hy-Vee has taken the business we
used to do in-house,” says Ron Peterson, Chandler
Metelman’s president. “This impacted
many people, since our company doesn’t do
nearly what we did years ago.”
The independent market climate may be
shifting. The Des Moines Register revealed
that Natural Grocers, a Denver-based
company, plans to build a store in Clive, a
Des Moines suburb. These newcomers join
upscale retailers Whole Foods, which opened
an outlet in West Des Moines in 2012, and
Trader Joe’s, which entered the city in 2010.
There also are a few ethnic markets in the
area, mainly Asian and Hispanic, serving the
city’s increasingly diverse population.
To compete with these gourmet outlets,
Hy-Vee reportedly expanded its Health-
Market line, which includes natural, organic
and gluten-free products.
Much of the retail growth for the area’s
produce business has been in the convenience
store channel. For example, distributor,
Loffredo Fresh Produce, does a strong business
with Kwik Trip and Casey’s General Store.
“On the retail side, most of our growth has
been in convenience stores and quick marts,
like Kum & Go,” says Adam Babcock, director
of operations for fresh-cut processor, Produce
Innovations, which is a division of Loffredo.
“More Iowans are eating smartly at lunch and
stopping into these stores.”
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PRODUCE BUSINESS / AUGUST 2016 / 93