Chock full o' fun: from store-roasted coffee to the finest prime butcher meats, gourmet groceries, perishables and housewares, there's excitement brewing at every turn in Straub's flagship store.WHAT CAN YOU SAY ABOUT A SUPERMARKET CHAIN THAT TOOK 42 YEARS TO GO FROM ITS FOURTH TO ITS FIFTH LOCATION? If it's Straub's, only "well worth the wait" will do. Straub's flagship unit is located in a new lifestyle center in the upscale St. Louis suburb of Ellisville, Mo. At 40,000 square feet, this store is about three times the size of its next largest location, but it is still just a fraction of the typical 70,000-square-foot marketplaces of competitors Schnucks and Dierbergs. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] SALES BREAKDOWN EVENTS 1.2% GROCERY 17.1% HBC/GM 2.4% FROZEN 3.6% DAIRY 4.9% MAGAZINES 0.7% TOBACCO 0.1% NON-FOOD 1.0% MEAT 12.8% DELI/PREPRED FOODS 21.8% SEAFOOD 4.7% PRODUCE 10.1% FLORAL 1.6% LIQUOR/WINE/BEER 7.9% BAKERY 7.0% CHOCOLATE 1.3% CAFE 1.8% Note: Table made from pie chart. But the compact size hasn't stopped Straub's from stocking a ton of exclusives not found anywhere else in the metro area This article is about the music production team. For the article about population centers, see metropolitan area. Metro Area are a Brooklyn-based dance music production team composed of Morgan Geist and Darshan Jesrani. . Straub's is the only supermarket in town, for instance, to roast its own coffee on the selling floor; sell Riedel glassware, Wusthof knives and Culinary Institute of America cookware; have a Bissinger's service candy counter; feature the locally famous Miss Hulling's cakes; stock $1,500.00 bottles of '05 Chateau Margaux in its wine cellar; and--perhaps most intriguing--hold a nightly happy hour at its full-service bar. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "We got to spread our wings a little bit and do some of the fun stuff," Trip Straub, vice president of William A. Straub, Inc. and the third generation family member involved with the company, tells Grocery Headquarters. He explains why it took the company 42 years to open its newest store. Until December, it was a distinction held by its 12,000-square-foot (8,500-square feet of selling space) Town & Country store, which opened in August 1966. "I think our family has been very conservative and focused on our niche. We don't have deep pockets and so we couldn't guess wrong," Straub says. "So we really had to be patient and wait for the right location to show up." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Given Straub's genteel gen·teel adj. 1. Refined in manner; well-bred and polite. 2. Free from vulgarity or rudeness. 3. Elegantly stylish: genteel manners and appearance. 4. a. operating philosophy, that strategy is understandable. After all, Straub's is the type of store that still offers a house charge. "You can sign your name at the front end and we'll send you a bill once a month," Straub says, adding that house charges make up about 20% of sales. The company has shied away from offering an actual charge plate. "Our fear is that someone is going to have to carry something, vs. Miss Smith who is out jogging, runs in and gets a Gatorade, signs her name and is off." Straub says about 15 years ago he and his father, Jack Straub II, started thinking about expanding the business. "We figured we could open more stores, but decided to start by fixing our current stores," he says. Once the existing stores were remodeled, the family decided to open a new Straub's flagship. (A Price Chopper Price Chopper may refer to:
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Ellisville store has several unique features, including Ellie's Cafe, named after Trip's 13-year-old daughter, where shoppers can buy ice cream, sandwiches and other foods. Customers can enjoy their treats downstairs or walk up the spiral staircase spiral staircase n → escalera de caracol spiral staircase n → escalier m en colimaçon spiral staircase spiral n to Ellie's Loft on the mezzanine. Keen observers will also find the names of Trip's other three children in the store. The J&B Candy Shoppe candy department, featuring every flavor of Jelly Belly For the disease informally called jelly belly, see . The Jelly Belly Candy Company is a prominent maker of gourmet jelly beans and other candy. It was formerly known as The Herman Goelitz Candy Company jelly beans jelly beans traditional treat for children on Easter Sunday; symbolize eggs. [Pop. Culture: Misc.] See : Easter and individual colors of M&Ms, is named after middle son Ben and youngest son Jack IV. Eldest son William Andrew Straub, named after his great-grandfather and company founder, can find his name spelled out above the William A. Straub Fine Meats service meat department. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] SHOP AROUND THE CLOCK The shopping pattern at most supermarkets in St. Louis flows counterclockwise, Straub explains, but at the Ellisville store shoppers enter the store on the left and shop in a clockwise pattern. "The right side of the store has a corner feature and is coming off Clayton Road, so we wanted to have an outdoor cafe there as a focal point focal point n. See focus. , which is why we're starting on the left and ending at the cafe," Straub says, adding that the outdoor cafe parking area houses the Ellisville Farmers' Market on Thursdays through the fall. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Passing through the front doors, shoppers emerge in the middle of The Produce Stand, where produce is artfully arranged on a series of bins, waterfall shelf fixtures and refrigerated cases. A 16-foot glass garage door at the front of the department adds natural light. "We can raise it up on nice days," Straub says, "and these tables are movable so we can move stuff outside." To the right, the floral department specializes in plants, bouquets and special arrangements. "Our floral is phenomenal. We have trained designers in each store," Straub says. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Also toward the right, the bulk foods wall houses some 104 different items, including nuts, snacks and trail mixes. "Bulk foods is new for us. We've never done that type of bulk foods. It has always been the prepackaged pre·pack·age tr.v. pre·pack·aged, pre·pack·ag·ing, pre·pack·ag·es To wrap or package (a product) before marketing. Adj. 1. stuff," Straub says. After getting their produce, flowers and bulk foods, shoppers pass through a fieldstone field·stone n. A stone occurring naturally in fields, often used as a building material. Noun 1. fieldstone - stone that occurs naturally in fields; often used as building material and wood-framed arch into the main body of the store. To the left is the dairy case and to the right are nine aisles of grocery. "We've got a lot of your traditional stuff in the grocery aisles, but a lot of specialty stuff as well and it is all integrated," Straub says. The selection runs deep. Take cooking oils, for example. A foodie could sample a different oil just about every day of the year and never tire because Straub's stocks 318 of them. There's rice bran oil Rice bran oil is the oil extracted from the germ and inner husk of rice. It is notable for its very high smoke point of 490° F (254° C) and its mild flavor, making it suitable for high-temperature cooking methods such as stir frying and deep frying. , walnut oil Noun 1. walnut oil - oil from walnuts vegetable oil, oil - any of a group of liquid edible fats that are obtained from plants English walnut - nut with a wrinkled two-lobed seed and hard but relatively thin shell; widely used in cooking , hazelnut oil, and dozens of kinds of olive oils, including dipping olive oil olive oil, pale yellow to greenish oil obtained from the pulp of olives by separating the liquids from solids. Olive oil was used in the ancient world for lighting, in the preparation of food, and as an anointing oil for both ritual and cosmetic purposes. with garlic, and chili (language) CHILI - D.L. Abt. A language for systems programming, based on ALGOL 60 with extensions for structures and type declarations. ["CHILI, An Algorithmic Language for Systems Programming", CHI-1014, Chi Corp, Sep 1975] with sundried tomato-flavored olive oil. But the biggest showstopper showstopper - A hardware or (especially) software bug that makes an implementation effectively unusable; one that absolutely has to be fixed before development can go on. Opposite in connotation from its original theatrical use, which refers to something stunningly *good*. in grocery is the coffee grinder. It's toward the back of the store, across from housewares house·wares pl.n. Cooking utensils, dishes, and other small articles used in a household, especially in the kitchen. and opposite cheese, surrounded by canvas sacks of green beans green beans Noun, pl long narrow green beans that are cooked and eaten as a vegetable . "We have the green beans right here so customers can see what they look like before they are roasted," Straub says. "And each one is different. Different varieties have different characteristics." Because the machine has to be vented, the aroma of freshly roasted coffee wafting through the store is not as strong as one might expect, he explains. Two different lines are featured: Ellie's Cafe, for Fair Trade and organic beans and Straub's Coffee Co. for all of the others. Beans roasted in Ellisville are sent to other Straub's stores. "We have partnered with several local roasters in the past and then [a competitor] would get a hold of them and it was hard for us to differentiate," Straub says. "But Straub's Coffee Co. Coffee will not be sold at any other store." Neither will the Riedel glassware, Wusthof knives and Culinary Institute of America cook-ware and utensils sold in housewares. "We wanted to create a bigger housewares section and never had room for it in our other stores," Straub says, motioning to the dark-wood show-case that looks straight out of Dillard's or Macy's Cellar. "This is our little Williams-Sonoma store," he says, adding he's especially proud to snare snare (snar) a wire loop for removing polyps and tumors by encircling them at the base and closing the loop. snare n. the Culinary Institute of America line. "We're the exclusive seller of this line in this market, really in the Midwest," Straub says. "It's in Dean & DeLuca in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , Draeger's in San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden and really nobody else. We're really excited about that." Straub is also excited about his 48-foot service meat department. It is 100% full-service and the hallmark of the company. Among the best sellers are the Kobe steak burgers. "We grind up Kobe chucks, patty them up and sell a ton of them at $4.49 each," Straub says. "If you have one of those you won't go back to regular hamburgers." "These rib eyes and prime meats, that is what Straub's is really known for," says butcher Donny O'Brien. He adds that the pot roast in a bag ($4.79 lb.) is another strong seller. "It is basically a whole meal ready-to-go. It's a chuck pot roast with all the vegetables in a Reynolds roasting bag. All the consumer has to do is add some wine or a can of cream soup and put it in the oven," O'Brien says. Twenty-one types of homemade sausage can also be found in the meat case, including apple cinnamon pork, lamb, Yankee cranberry cranberry, low creeping evergreen bog plant of the genus Oxycoccus of the family Ericaceae (heath family). Cranberries are considered by some botanists to belong to the blueberry genus Vaccinium. chicken and Picklewurst, which "tastes a little bit like a White Castle burger," O'Brien says. Of course, what goes better with a nice roast than a good bottle of vino? "We wanted to put the wine and cheese [departments] right after the meat lineup," Straub says. "This is our first store that has a service cheese counter and we have an olive bar in there." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The department counts 155 varieties of cheese and growing, says Denise Carr, cheese manager. "We're always trying to get new varieties in, both domestics and imports," she says. Wines are merchandised off traditional wooden shelves and library stacks, complete with a rolling ladder. A key component of the department is the 1,100-bottle wine cellar, which is accessible to shoppers. "This would be the standard size cellar in a nice home in this area," says Wade Sherman, wine specialist. Wines in the cellar run the gamut from about $40 up to that $1,500 bottle of Chateau Margaux. "As we were buying some of this higher-end stuff we were consciously aware that we needed to think of them more as fixtures rather than as inventory," Straub says. "You are buying cellar shelves, but you are also buying props to go on the shelves that cost more than the shelves." But Straub feels the expense is necessary to help set the pace for his department. "There are a lot of good wine shops out here and we want to carry a lot of top quality wines," he says. Adjacent to and accessible from the wine cellar is The 1901 Room, a mahogany-paneled masterpiece featuring matching mahogany furniture, a widescreen TV and wall art, including pictures of early Straub's stores. "The 1901 Room was designed so we could do private dinners," Straub says. "We have an access door back to the kitchen so we can do plated dinners." CHICKEN SALAD The store is designed so that the traffic flow draws shoppers from the wine department to the Charcuterie, aka the deli. In addition to Boar's Head and some local luncheon meats brands, the Charcuterie specializes in store-made roast beefs, hams and turkey. "One of the most common compliments I get is "Trip, when I buy turkey in your deli, it actually tastes like turkey.'" The Charcuterie also specializes in made-to-order sandwiches, rotisserie chickens, slabs of ribs and made-to-order pizzas. Then there is the chicken salad. It is such a strong seller that in addition to being featured in the service case, there are one-and two-pound containers in the self-serve case. Straub's began putting kitchens in its stores about 15 years ago and the chicken and other salads are made at the Clayton location. "Each store will do a lot for their own department, but different stores will do different items that they specialize in for all of the stores," Straub says. Pointing to a bowl of ham salad, he says, "No. 1, we can control the quality, so it is not one color here and different color there, especially with ham salad, where you can get different shades of Noun 1. shades of - something that reminds you of someone or something; "aren't there shades of 1948 here?" reminder - an experience that causes you to remember something red. If we're screaming about quality and we want consistency, that ham salad looks the same at this store as it does at my other one." The Charcuterie leads into the bakery. "We do the same thing with our bakery that we do in our kitchens in that different stores will make different things," Straub says. "This store is going to be our scratch bread baking house; most of our scratch sweets are done at our Central West End store." Placing the Bissinger's Chocolatier choc·o·la·tier n. 1. One who makes or sells chocolate. 2. A place where chocolate is made or sold. [French, from chocolat, chocolate, from Spanish chocolate service candy counter adjacent to bakery allows it to be staffed by bakery personnel. "Bissinger's is a local chocolatier and they've been in St. Louis forever," Straub says. "I'm really good friends with the owner and I helped him get into the wholesale business over the last few years and come up with the packaging to go into retail." He adds that Central Market and Whole Foods are among the stores carrying Bissinger's. "He also has stores in shopping malls. In this store we have room for a bulk counter and we can pack any assortment for you." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] After checking out at the bank of curved registers, shoppers can visit Ellie's Cafe and Wine Bar, where in addition to gelato ge·la·to n. pl. ge·la·ti An Italian ice cream or ice. [Italian, from past participle of gelare, to freeze; see gelatin.] and ice cream they can also savor beer on tap. "You'll see people wandering around shopping with a beer and everybody goes nuts--'Oh, my God! Where did you get that?' So that's been really fun," Straub says. Eight beers, mostly local microbrews, are on tap, and wine by the glass is also featured, along with hand-shaken margaritas, Bloody Marys, and Bissinger's Flights, Bissinger's chocolate cups filled with liqueurs that are $2.50 each, three for $7.00. Happy hour is daily from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and features $2 pints. A bar menu features items such as chips and salsa ($4.95), hummus hum·mus also hum·us or hom·mos n. A smooth thick mixture of mashed chickpeas, tahini, oil, lemon juice, and garlic, used especially as a dip for pita. and pita bread ($4.95), an antipasto platter ($10.99) and assorted Belgium waffles. Getting a license for a bar wasn't really difficult, Straub says. "I had to go in front of the city committee and they asked what we were using it for. We already had a wine tasting Noun 1. wine tasting - a gathering of people to taste and compare different wines assemblage, gathering - a group of persons together in one place wine tasting n → degustación f de vinos license and we have the Cafe, so people can eat. We've had live music in here and that will happen more. We have the Ellisville Farmers' Market out in the parking lot in front of the bar on Thursday afternoons from 4 to 7. We would love for this center to be the town center and for people to come and congregate con·gre·gate tr. & intr.v. con·gre·gat·ed, con·gre·gat·ing, con·gre·gates To bring or come together in a group, crowd, or assembly. See Synonyms at gather. adj. 1. Gathered; assembled. 2. ," Straub says. Looks like Straub's has created enough fun in little Ellisville to give downtown St. Louis a run for its money. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
STORE STATS
Grand opening data December 3, 2008
Total area 40,000 square feet, plus 5,000 square-foot
mezzanine
Selling area 29,000 square feet
Number of SKUs 25,000
Number of checkouts 29,000 square feet
Number of SKUs 25.000
Number of Checkouts 14 (including 4 self-checkouts)
Number of Aisles 9
Weekly sales * $225,000
Number of associates 85
Store hours 6.00AM to 10.00PM, Mon-Sat; 7.00 AM to 10:00 PM
Sunday
Store Designer Robert Groski, Robert Groski & Associates, Minn.
Wholesaler AWG, Kansas City
* Grocery Headquarters estimate.
THE COMPETITORS
Number of retailers within a 5-mile radius.
RETAILER #OF LOCATIONS
Schnucks 4
Dierbergs 3
Target 1
Whole Foods 1
Shop 'n Save 1
Wal-mart Supercenter 1
Trader Joe's 1
PRICE CHECK
Item Straub's Dierbergs Schnucks
Asparagus (lb.) $3.99 $2.99 $2.29
Cucumber 69-cents 99-cents 10/$10.00
California $1.99 $2.99 $2.99
strawberries (lb.)
Yoplait 10/$5.00 95-cents 10/$7.00
Yogurt (6-oz.) [dagger]
Extra Large $1.89 $1.89 $1.85
Eggs (dozen)
Super Smokers $3.49 $3.229 $3.19
BBQ sauce (19-oz.)
Hellmann's $5.29 $4.99[+ or -] 2/$7.00
mayonnaise (30-oz.) [dagger]
Ocean Spray $1.79 99-cents[+ or -] $1.38
Cranberry
Sauce (16-oz.)
Campbell's tomato $1.19 99-cents 95-cents
soup (10 3/4-oz.)
The Pasta House spag. $3.99 3/$10.00[+ or -] 3/$10.0 0[+ or -]
sauce (26-oz.)
R&F Spaghetti (1-lb.) $1.75 $1.19 99-cents [ohm]
Clean Shower (qt.) $2.19 $2.99 $3.19
Milk-Bone (26-oz.) $4.19 $3.49 $3.27
Whiskas $1.69 2/$3.00[+ or -] 3/$4.0 0[+ or -]
Temptations (3-oz.)
Bertolli $9.39 $8.49 $8.49
dinners (24-oz.)
White castle $4.49 $3.69[+ or -] $3.69
hamburgers (6-count) [dagger]
TOTAL $48.51 $44.75 $42.14
[dagger] Price Break * Sale item [+ or -] Price Cut [ohm] Close Out
Price check conducted April 15, 2009 at Straub's 15830 Fountain
Plaza, Ellisville, Mo.; Dierbergs Ma\rket Place, 1730 Clarkson Road,
Chestefield, Mo.; Schnucks, 141 Hilltown Village, Chesterfield, Mo.
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