{"id":130,"date":"2013-07-03T08:45:55","date_gmt":"2013-07-03T15:45:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdprairiewriter.com\/?p=130"},"modified":"2013-07-03T08:47:35","modified_gmt":"2013-07-03T15:47:35","slug":"a-south-dakota-couple-promotes-beef-gains-marketing-insight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sdprairiewriter.com\/?p=130","title":{"rendered":"A South Dakota couple promotes beef, gains marketing insight"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Chad and Mary Blair, Vale, S.D. were among several ranch couples that had the chance to visit Stew Leonard\u2019s grocery chain to promote beef recently. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Codi Vallery-Mills<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

For most of us, going to the local grocery store for a few hours isn\u2019t our idea of leisurely weekend entertainment, but for customers of Stew Leonard\u2019s grocery it is.<\/div>\n
A retail grocery store chain in Connecticut and New York, Stew Leonard\u2019s has pushed food marketing to the next level. The chain doesn\u2019t just provide you with your daily meals; it provides you with an experience.<\/div>\n
Vale, S.D. ranchers, Chad and Mary Blair, witnessed what they deem \u201cdestination shopping\u201d over Memorial Day weekend at two of Leonard\u2019s stores. They were there on invitation because of their involvement with U.S. Premium Beef, which is part owner of National Beef Packing Company.<\/div>\n
The pair, along with other ranch couples from Missouri and Kansas, spent two days visiting with Stew Leonard\u2019s customers about beef \u2013 handing out steak samples and helping shoppers pickout meat cuts for future meals.<\/div>\n
Chad and Mary say it was a great chance to talk one-on-one with customers about beef. They helped dispel a few myths and along the way had a few of their own debunked.<\/div>\n
\u201cI think the TV media has us [the ag community] believing that consumers don\u2019t trust us or our product,\u201d says Mary. \u201cThat isn\u2019t the case. We met tons of people that love and eat beef daily.\u201d<\/div>\n
Chad agrees but cautions that the ag industry still has work to do. \u201cI don\u2019t think that means we can ignore any issues, but I do think consumers are more accepting of beef then we have been led to believe.\u201d<\/div>\n
The beef promotion event aside, what stood out to the couple while at Leonard\u2019s was the marketing prowess that seemed to be on display everywhere they looked.<\/div>\n
Unlike traditional Midwest stores where the aisles run in rows, this grocery chain instead casually winds customers along a maze through every department. \u00a0The objective is to get you to spend more time in the store. So between perusing the pineapples and salivating over the baked goods you can stop and grab a coffee at the in-house caf\u00e9.<\/div>\n
Don\u2019t know what to do with the kids? Check out the on-site petting zoo created just for little ones. Or settle them down with an ice cream cone also available in the store.<\/div>\n
It\u2019s a stark contrast from the fluorescent lit, get-in-get-out shopping that many middle-of -America residents are accustom to.<\/div>\n
\u201cWhole families shop at Leonard\u2019s and everyone leaves having had a good time,\u201d explains Chad. \u201cIt something for them to do on weekends.\u201d<\/div>\n
Stew Leonard\u2019s is a family-owned company that was built around the family\u2019s dairy in Norwalk, Conn. Its foundation is bringing affordable products to families and doing it with the utmost customer service.<\/div>\n
Mary says it was evident that customer service was very important at the grocery stores they visited. Each department had several people on-hand ready to answer questions and help customers as they shopped.<\/div>\n
The meat and seafood departments at Leonard\u2019s are well staffed with meat cutters and fishmongers. Customers are asked what their price point is. Whatever the price point, an employee helps them select a meat cut that fits that dollar value. Quickly gone then is the intimidation one may feel when looking at an endless meat case of cuts, sizes and prices.<\/div>\n
It\u2019s not only customers that appreciate this hands-on salesmanship. The grocery chain has made Fortune magazine\u2019s top 100 companies to work for each of the last 12 years. Unlike most conventional retail grocery stores, Stew Leonard\u2019s employs more than 2,500 full and part time employees at its four stores in Norwalk, Newington and Danbury, Conn., and Yonkers, NY. Many of them are longtime employees with over 20 years on the job.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Codi Vallery-Mills For most of us, going to the local grocery store for a few hours isn\u2019t our idea of leisurely weekend entertainment, but for customers of Stew Leonard\u2019s grocery it is. A retail grocery store chain in Connecticut and New York, Stew Leonard\u2019s has pushed food marketing to the next level. The chain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7,15,6,5,16],"class_list":["post-130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-httpsdprairiewriter-compage_id58","tag-cattle","tag-grocery-shopping","tag-rancher","tag-south-dakota","tag-stew-leonards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdprairiewriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdprairiewriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdprairiewriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdprairiewriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdprairiewriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=130"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sdprairiewriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134,"href":"https:\/\/sdprairiewriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions\/134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdprairiewriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdprairiewriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdprairiewriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}