The Southeast 14th Street Hy-Vee supermarket has half an aisle filled with Hispanic goods, including brands such as Suavitel fabric softener and Churritos snacks, along with Hispanic-oriented American brands such as hot and spicy Jolly Ranchers and papaya-flavored Gerber baby food.

In the produce section are tomatillos (small green tomatoes), jalapenos, mangos and specialty spices mixed in with the rest of the fruit and vegetable products. Soon these items will become a special section in the produce area, said Andy Streit, the store’s manager.

Although the presence of Hispanic products has been growing in some stores around Des Moines for about the last five years, other stores have not jumped on board with the trend. In addition, some stores that offer a greater Hispanic selection have been slow to take off in part because attracting Latino shoppers involves making products consistently available, creating a comfortable environment and marketing the products that are available. Because some Hispanics may assume that a specialty product isn’t available at a larger grocery store, may not be fluent in English or live near a large supermarket, they are more prone to go to smaller Hispanic markets.

This may explain why 58 percent of the general market feels satisfied with their shopping experience but only 35 percent of Hispanics are satisfied, according to Jack Neff’s “Study: Habits and Preferences of Hispanic Shoppers.” Featured in June’s issue of La Voz, Vivamedia Inc.’s newsletter, the study led to the publication’s conclusion that on the local level, grocery stores could learn from these figures and improve their “ethnic” sections to offer a greater variety of produce, meats and brands in more stores throughout Greater Des Moines.

“The Hispanic trend is to buy what they need day to day that they find at any mainstream supermarket or convenient store,” said Nannette Rodriguez, president of Vivamedia, “and then make special trips to any other local supermarket, because the produce variety isn’t there in the mainstream market.”

La Voz’s suggestion may be important to grocery stores, given that Hispanics constituted 5.5 percent Polk County’s population in 2004, making them the largest minority group in the region. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Iowa’s Hispanic population reached 108,968 by July 1, 2005, up from 82,473 in 2000, a 32 percent increase.

“They stand to gain some new clientele, because Latinos spend more time cooking from less processed foods than shopping in the aisle with pre-made tortillas,” said Rodriguez, who often cooks Puerto Rican dishes, which sometimes require special ingredients.

Both Hy-Vee Inc. and Dahl’s Foods’ corporate offices said that tapping into the Hispanic market is a priority for them. Right now the stores that focus on this segment of the population have a high concentration of Hispanics living nearby.

“We have a geographic circle that we use as a barometer,” said Chris Friesleben, spokesperson for Hy-Vee’s corporate office. “[Store managers] study the concentration two to three miles around the store and try to stock products that meet those customers’ needs.”

“Demographic-wise, it’s not good for every store,” said Mark Brasy, vice president of marketing for Dahl’s. “We have a limited number in every store as far as authentic Hispanic lines, and probably four stores that really stand out demographic-wise.”

More than American brands

There are two generations of Hispanics that Andy Streit said his store must focus on when bringing in products. The first generation, who are often natives of Latin America, are familiar with certain brands from their home countries, so they look for those brands when they shop. The second and third generations still look for food with a slightly different flavor profile, but will buy American products created for the Hispanic consumer.

More wholesalers have specialists available who focus on Hispanic products and can influence the product decisions store managers make.

“We have a tremendous base of products from which stores can order for the Hispanic population,” Friesleben said, “so maybe they’ll just order based on that and watch their sales and see which is popular and try to stock more of that brand.”

Joe McDonald, manager of the Dahl’s store on East 33rd Street, said the 300-foot area of dried goods the store added when it opened two years ago is “worth the footage allotted to it,” but that he has several other products to focus on carrying as well because of a diverse customer base around his store. Yet he is working with a Hispanic-product specialist from SuperValue Inc., Dahl’s main supplier, to see if the store could make any changes.

Lena Avila-Robison, head of Latinos Unidos of Iowa and a second-generation Mexican-American, said she is pleased with the progress so far. “When first shopping at the Merle Hay and Aurora store, Dahl’s used to have a small selection of tortillas. Now they have a huge array… Hy-Vee also has a wider selection and different brands.”

Rodriquez, however, notices that more options are being made available at only a few store locations, making it more an issue of “decentralizing these goods to make them more widespread and available.”

La Michuacana, a Hispanic grocery store, opened in the West Des Moines Valley Junction area just over a year ago; Laura Castro said her father, Jesus, the store’s owner, saw a need in the area.

“People who live here don’t want to go to Des Moines to get [these products]” she said.

With a farmers market in the area every Thursday, the store has had to carry very little fresh produce, but instead focuses on specialty meats and other products Jesus Castro makes fresh each day, in addition to dried goods and spices. Items such as yucca, a root plant native to Latin America, goat meat with mole sauce and homemade hot sauce are things you won’t find in a standard grocery store.

A lot of Michuacana’s customers, said Castro, live in apartments on Second and Third streets and can walk to the store. McDonald noticed the same thing when he toured a local Hispanic market near his store, which may explain why, although McDonald felt his store carried many of the same products as the local Hispanic markets, he hasn’t attracted as many customers. Produce items, such as avocados and plantains, said McDonald’s produce manager, Jim Pepper, were hard to carry because they would spoil before the store could sell them.

Consistency in fresh specialty produce items is one of the areas of service Rodriguez says many grocery stores are not providing.

“I can’t tell you that plantains will be guaranteed on my weekly shopping trip to Hy Vee or Dahl’s,” she said.

Hy-Vee manager Streit realizes that when his newly renovated produce section is up and running, he may have several Hispanic produce items that don’t sell very well at first. But, he said, “I think if we want to be on the marketplace, we have to do it consistently. It’s not fair to any consumer that today you have it, tomorrow you don’t.”

The whole nine yards

Attracting Hispanic shoppers may entail more than just supplying the products.

“When we talk about serving the Latino community, we talk about how do you create comfort,” Streit said. “Someone comes in our store and we don’t understand their culture, we don’t understand their language, how are we going to serve them to a point where they feel comfortable?”

In redesigning the new produce aisle, the goal, said Streit, is to create “a destination, so the Latino customer can come in and feel very comfortable going to one spot and having some of the items they’re looking for.”

His store also strives to hire bilingual employees. Currently there are 15 on staff, including two Hispanic assistant managers who don’t just speak Spanish but also understand the culture. Having that perspective on staff helps Streit make many of his decisions regarding the Hispanic section. For example, he enlisted one assistant manager’s mother to look at the store’s catalog and select the products she’d like to see in the store.

The other challenge is making Hispanics more aware that these products are available, which Rodriguez and Avila-Robison agree is lacking right now.

“Hy-Vee and Dahl’s make huge investment in marketing efforts day to day,” said Rodriguez. “We have something like 10 different Spanish language papers distributed in Des Moines and surrounding areas and not one of them has an ad from Hy-Vee or Dahl’s that’s in Spanish talking about those sections in those stores.”

Streit said at one time Hy-Vee printed its advertising circulars in English and Spanish and had them available in his store, but that didn’t do very well. The company’s direct mailings have remained in English because Streit said you couldn’t tell by an address whether the people who live there speak Spanish or English.

His and McDonald’s approach so far has been by word-of-mouth. Streit also occasionally hosts events directed at the Latino community such as fund-raisers for scholarships.

“I think a lot of our marketing is more at the grassroots level,” Streit said. “Things like working with Latinos Unidos and going to the job fairs.”

To be competitive, Streit also is intentionally lowering the prices on some of his store’s Hispanic products, especially produce “We are very price aggressive in those sections and the reason for that is I don’t want it just to sit on my shelf,” he said.

Rodriguez says more competition in prices from the Latino market could also force the Hispanic markets to lower their prices on some specialty items.

Friesleben believes the trend toward providing more Hispanic products and trying to reach that segment of the population will continue, especially as non-Latinos continue to become more interested in ethnic food.

“You will find that the number of products in that area are increasing because the non-Hispanic customer is becoming very interested in that type of foods,” she said. “It’s not focusing on one type of customer; it’s a broader thing.”