Zupan’s Markets is celebrating its 50th anniversary all year long.
“We’re proud of our family’s legacy and deeply grateful for the customers, associates and partners who’ve supported us over the years,” said Mike Zupan, president and CEO. “This milestone is as much theirs to celebrate as it is ours.”
Zupan’s, operating three gourmet markets in the Portland, Oregon, area, is drawing customers into the celebration in a variety of ways, from monthly hot buys to local artisan product collaborations to a signature cookie in new forms.
The “5 on the 5th” deals come out on the fifth of each month, sent out to customers in the form of a “Z-blast,” as Zupan’s calls it. It could be steelhead, halibut, marinated spatchcock chickens or a locally produced grocery item, for example.
“It has five items that are a super-hot price – a while-they-last type of deal,” Zupan said. “The response has been fantastic on those promotions.”
Anniversary product collaborations include an extra virgin olive oil produced by Durant Olive Mill in Dayton, Oregon. The mill produced 500 commemorative bottles that retail for $25 each.
“It’s a great product; I think we’ve already sold half of it,” he said.
The grocer’s signature Z Cookie already has been rolled out in one new form – crumbled into vanilla bean ice cream. In September, customers will be able to buy a six-pack of Z Cookies to bake at home.
A collaboration with Portland’s Bluebird Bakers, the big cookies are made with Belgian chocolate chunks – with or without walnuts – and a sea salt sprinkle on top. The take-and-bake option has long been a customer request, Zupan said.
Another anniversary collaboration is in the works with Bergstrom Wines in Dundee on an anniversary rosé, but because of the duration of the wine-making process, it will be delayed until 2026.
A couple of other wine-focused events will take place in 2025. “Cellar Dinners with Mike” will be held in stores’ Cellar Z private event spaces, and “BubbleZ” tasting events for champagne and other sparkling wines will return in November.
American success story
Mike Zupan’s grandparents immigrated to the U.S. from Croatia (then Yugoslavia) in 1945 amid the turmoil of World War II. His grandfather found work hauling fresh produce on the West Coast.
Then Mike’s father, John Zupan, carried on the produce tradition, working as a courtesy clerk at Sheridan Fruit as a teenager and then in a Fred Meyer produce department as a college student in Portland.
John Zupan spent 11 years in produce operations at Fred Meyer before he and a colleague from the grocery department decided to partner in a store in 1975. They bought Zim’s in Gresham, outside Portland.
A couple of years later, he decided to go out on his own, opening a Thriftway. During the 1980s and into the ’90s, he continued to expand the business, operating conventional stores under several banners.
Mike Zupan, who has a business degree from Pepperdine University in Southern California, worked for a local independent grocer while there. He returned to the family business in 1994, as the idea for a fresh-focused, gourmet store was taking shape.
That first store, the Zupan’s Market on Burnside in Portland, remains the company’s flagship store today.
The other Portland store is at 722 S. Macadam in south Portland; the newest store is on Boones Ferry in Lake Oswego, south of Portland.
“It’s evolved, obviously, since the ’90s, but basically the format that we have today started then,” Mike Zupan said.
The conventional stores the company operated were all sold off or closed as leases expired.
He became president in early 2000, and his father remained active in the company until his death in 2011.
European market model
The stores, which average 20,000 square feet, are based on a European-style market, “where the customer is coming in on a daily basis and looking at what’s fresh today, whether it’s fresh produce, local fresh French bread, baked goods, cheeses, fresh seafood. “I think that’s the inspiring part behind our stores – it’s about that discovery for today,” Zupan said.
“I’m a big believer that people want to see, touch, taste their food – they want that experience. Our stores are also about community,” he continued. “There’s something about going out to your local store, seeing your local butcher, your local produce person. There are certainly people who will want to buy their groceries online and have them delivered to their house, but I think that takes away … a piece of the community that we build.”
Prepared food is big at Zupan’s, with choices including ready-to-go meals, sandwiches and salads. Lobster Roll Friday, which Zupan’s has done every summer for the past few years, always creates buzz.
“It’s something that people look forward to, and they will drive from all over the city to get our lobster rolls,” he said. “We sell out of them every Friday.”
Wine is an important category at Zupan’s but so is beer. Portland is known for its craft breweries, and Zupan’s capitalizes on that proximity, collaborating with them on “farm-to-market” beers. A certain number of cases are produced, “and when it’s gone, it’s gone,” Zupan said.
Together, beer and wine make up a significant percentage of the stores’ business.
Zupan’s was among the first, or maybe even the first, grocery store in Oregon to have a wine steward, according to Zupan. They educate customers on how wine enhances the food and the meal, he said, noting that a steward is on duty at each store at all times.
Team members need two ‘likes’
“Whenever I talk to people about coming to work for our company, I say if you like two things – you like people and you like food – we’re a great place to work, because that’s what we’re about,” Zupan said.
“Our success over the last 50 years comes from a multitude of things – certainly from our customers who continue to come back on an everyday/week/month basis, but also from our people. Our people are the ones that make us successful – their passion day to day to service the customer and share our love of food with them.”
He credits his grandparents and parents with inspiring the love of food (and wine) that he carries with him.
“Growing up, it was about food and being in the kitchen, about sharing and always having others coming over,” Zupan said. “I love to cook and I love to share. That’s what makes the business fun, because the grocery business is hard. … If you don’t have that love, I think it’s even more difficult.”
Zupan has two kids, ages 12 and 17. The latter is working in the stores. That is “really fun to see, but time will tell whether they have the same love for the business that I ended up having,” Zupan said.
In the meantime, he believes the company is in great shape with its three stores, but growth is always on his radar.
“We’re constantly exploring how to grow our brand and looking for additional locations, so … I’m always intrigued to listen and learn about other opportunities,” Zupan said.
“I think opportunities are going to come about within Portland and possibly other cities within Oregon and the state of Washington. We’ve had stores in the state of Washington before, in Vancouver, which is right across the bridge, so that’s a potential market for us as well. We’re continuing to explore those.”
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