The few growers still operating at the market have been moved to another space during the rebuilding process. “The new owners are very passionate about the Market,” Leahy says. “They’re going to turn it into an attraction for shoppers.”
Retail Roundup
While the Farmer’s Market gets a makeover, the retail grocery presence in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area has been growing by leaps and bounds.
Kroger, the world’s fifth largest grocery retailer, renovated and expanded several locations around the metroplex and planned five new Marketplace stores for 2013 and 2014. The company’s ‘growth initiative’ was slated to bring as many as 1,700 new jobs to the region.
Austin-based Whole Foods Market announced plans to increase its North Texas presence to 12 stores over the next year or so, while Albertsons, Inc., free from former parent company Supervalu Inc.’s centralized empire, may be better positioned to take advantage of the Dallas area’s surging growth.
Albertson’s recently purchased 98-year-old retailer The United Family (formerly known as United Supermarkets, Inc.), acquiring 57 Texas stores operating under the United Supermarket, Market Street, Amigos, and United Express banners. Albertson’s was reportedly looking to grow the more sophisticated, pricey Market Fresh brand in the Dallas area, though a merger with Safeway could curtail such plans.
Longtime Texas chain H-E-B (H.E. Butt Grocery Company), dubbed “the Smartest Supermarket You Never Heard of” by Forbes magazine, has only a few stores in Dallas, but denied rumors of a swift expansion in the region. Company officials of the 109-year-old grocer did confirm they had been purchasing land in North Texas and were looking to open new stores in the future, including the popular Central Market concept, but would not deliver any numbers or a timetable.
“If you look at powerhouse regional and national chains, Dallas is probably one of the top markets for retail exposure in the United States,” says Dan’l Mackey Almy, president and CEO of DMA Solutions, Inc., an Irving, TX-based marketing and advertising agency specializing in the fresh produce industry.
“If you look at where we are, how we’ve done economically, and at our demographics,” Mackey Almy explains, “that all plays into why Dallas is a thriving food market. It’s also indicative of the retail banners already in this marketplace and of those who want to get in.”
Another unique aspect of the Dallas market is its Hispanic retail presence. National and regional chains like Fiesta Mart, Supermercado El Rancho, Terry’s El Mariachi Supermarkets, Amigos, and La Michoacana—the latter is the largest independent U.S. Hispanic grocery store chain—all have locations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and provide a wide range of specialty products, including fruits and vegetables, to shoppers.
