In 1952, the first Save Mart opened in Modesto, California, with the aim to offer Central Valley families the freshest food at the greatest value, according to the company’s website.
“It was the foundation for Save Mart’s service-oriented grocery store experience. Since then, Save Mart has grown to 83 stores from Tehachapi to Chico and everywhere in between. Save Mart is proud of its Central Valley roots and to this day is still headquartered in Modesto.”
The Shelby Report’s Bob Reeves recently joined company executives for a tour of Save Mart’s flagship store, which also serves as an innovation lab.
One of the first differences customers will notice when entering is a restaurant with more than 24 beers and some wine on draft.
“It’s fast and casual. We have a limited menu,” said Jerald Smith, store director. “But the thought process behind that was instead of being mediocre at a lot of things, let’s try to really be good at things that we know we’re good at – tri-tip and flame grilled chicken.”
As customers walk through the store, they’ll come across a full-service department that combines convenience and produce.
“The customer can come in, have their guacamole custom made for them. They can do some shopping and come back around and pick it up,” Smith said. “You can also pick out all your fruits and veggies and have the produce cutting specialists custom cut them…we have a menu of smoothies, we have vitality waters, we have a lot of cold press juice.”
The store has a bakery staffed with world-class bakers and offers a front-end concierge for a more personalized shopping experience.
Entering the produce department, the fruits and vegetables are framed around a farmstand-style theme. Shoppers will notice the lobby brimming with authentic farmer’s bins, which are stocked with fresh and often locally-grown produce.
“We try to really pay tribute to the local partnerships that we’ve created…there are over 170 organic options for the produce department,” Smith said.
Rebecca Calvin, chief merchandising officer, spoke to some of the unique ways Save Mart merchandises its center store.
“I would say that we have brought categories together in a different way in this store,” Calvin said. “In other conventional stores, you’d see an Asian set that would include marinating sauces that are specific to an Asian flavor profile. In this store, we have all of those sauces together. We’ve tried to offer all of the solutions for a category or a way of cooking or preparing in one spot.”
Serving as an innovation lab presents the opportunity to experiment with prepared food dishes.
“That’s where we work on the innovation for the future stores,” said Kevin Cabrera, executive chef at The Save Mart Companies. “Those specific stores are used when we try recipes and get the employees and consumers to try them.”
While dietitians focus on nutritional balances, Cabrera said he uses data as guidelines to formulate balanced or healthy dishes.
“For example, we have a pretty big following on our fried chicken. But how do we convert that to healthier offerings, less calories for consumers that would enjoy that, but want some alternatives,” he said.
“As we progress in our company into food offerings, there’s definitely more of a blend of balanced diet and thinking about what consumers eat on different days.”
Cabrera enjoys going to events such as the San Joaquin Asparagus Festival, which The Save Mart Companies has sponsored in the past. These gatherings present the opportunity to do cooking demonstrations, which make their way onto the company’s social media channels and help promote its food culture.
“Our focus is on engagement. We’re continually working to kind of figure out ways to tap into the different demographics of our consumers,” he said.
For more information, visit thesavemartcompanies.com.
