-By Bridget Goldschmidt

The Food Emporium’s Trump Palace store is in the East 60s of Manhattan, a posh neighborhood filled with folks that have lots of discretionary income -- as evidenced by the well-kept brownstones and soaring apartment buildings with doormen in their lobbies all around. It's easy to see why The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co. chose this location to showcase its new gourmet format.

As the Montvale, N.J.-based grocer defines it, the "Fine Food" concept "integrates the upscale, urban Food Emporium brand with a remodeled shopping environment that highlights an array of products that reflect imported brands from around the world, as well as select items from domestic markets. At the same time, [the format] retains the feel of a 'neighborhood store.'"

The Trump Palace store is a second-generation upgrade of the format's inaugural flagship, the BridgeMarket Food Emporium under the 59th Street Bridge, which opened in late 2006. Although it has been a fixture for 14 years in the 56-floor, world-famous Trump Palace residential high rise, the second renovated unit, completed in November 2007, effectively turns the one store into two stores on two different levels: A&P took over the entire first floor of the site (it had previously occupied only about half) to embody the Fine Food concept, adding several of the features introduced at the original BridgeMarket flagship, but with upgrades based on lessons learned there. The lower level, meanwhile, contains the produce, center store, meat, seafood, and nonfood departments representative of the conventional Food Emporium offering.

The result could be considered proof that two stores can be better than one: The Trump Palace Food Emporium is now the 29-store chain's top-selling unit.

"Upstairs is the new concept," notes A&P's gourmet concept architect, Hans Heer, a Swiss native who brings over 30 years of experience in international gourmet food and retail management to his role as corporate s.v.p. and g.m., The Food Emporium.

The renovated upper level features separate entrances for a chocolate shop, an Asian tea shop, and an Illy-branded coffee bar with seating for 40 -- all of which are also accessible from within the store proper.

This is a subtle yet important shift from the flagship. The layout at BridgeMarket, which A&P says was inspired by European food halls, is marked by distinct areas, including the chocolate shop, Asian tea shop, and coffee bar, as well as a pasta shop, a charcuterie and ham station, and a juice bar. In the case of the Trump Palace location, however, no doubt due in large part to the need to deal with the available space, each department on the upper level seems to flow more seamlessly into the next. The effect is of modules that also work together as a whole.

First stop on this floor is the relocated floral shop, which, in addition to a host of fragrant blooms, offers such items as upscale vases and Vance Kitira gift candles.

After floral comes a new bulk candy section, with colorful confections seeming to burst from the wall in transparent bubbles. Gummi bears are the best sellers, notes Heer. Also lining the walls are shelves of premium cookies and other gourmet items from such brands as Fauchon, an iconic French gourmet food retailer known for its range of quality food products. Food Emporium imports the line directly from Paris, notes Heer.

Adventures in chocolate and tea

Employing subdued lighting, the elegant chocolate shop, which is next in the traffic flow, has the feel of a small boutique in a quiet corner of the city, rather than within a busy supermarket. Besides having its own entrance, the shop features a separate checkout and video monitors to display short films about its mouthwatering products, which are merchandised everywhere. In addition to packaged chocolate adorning the shelves, glass cases full of fresh chocolates available for up to a substantial $65 per pound entice discriminating shoppers.

According to Heer, at between 600 and 700 square feet, the Trump Palace chocolate shop is the largest in The Food Emporium chain -- the BridgeMarket location's shop "is only a third of the space that we have here," he says. The extra room is a good idea, since the shop carries about 100 brands of extremely high-end chocolate, many organic and/or Fair Trade, from all over the United States and Europe. There are even more than 50 brands of hot chocolate.
Outside of the section, The Food Emporium stocks another 100 or so brands of chocolate.

Among the exclusive brands on display are Olivier from France, Coppeneur from Germany, and Läderach and Tschirren from Switzerland.

Close by the chocolate shop is a gift basket station, where elaborate ready-made baskets wait on shelves, and custom orders are also taken. Business is particularly brisk during the winter holidays, notes Heer.

The bakery, located just beyond the gift basket station, now features more artisan products, including ACE breads from Canada in Rosemary Foccaccia and other gourmet varieties. The store additionally sources as many local bakery items as possible, such as Fat Witch Brownies and Amy’s Bread, which are both made in Manhattan. Also on hand are store-baked Jacqueline's All Natural Cookies. Available in six scrumptious flavors, the trans-fat-free treats were selling for $4.99 at the time of the store visit.

Next in line is the bijou tea shop, a 200-square-foot oasis of Zen-like serenity in midst of the city. The shop's product is displayed on a unique new system: "Flexible Asian-style" bamboo shelving holds mainly loose tea in decorative containers, explains Heer. The reason for this? Loose tea offers a better-quality product, drawing in tea connoisseurs -- or those who would like to be. Customers in search of quality gifts will also find plenty of suitable items.

In addition to offering over 150 mostly organic tea varieties, including some that can be purchased by the pound and are sourced mainly from China and India, the shop carries such complementary items as gourmet honey and high-end tea equipment. "They're all upscale quality -- nothing cheap here," quips Heer with disarming honesty, adding that shoppers at both the chocolate and tea shops are invited to sample the merchandise before buying.

A new kind of fast food

A great deal of the upper floor is given over to the new "Food to Go" prepared food section, which caters expressly to time-starved shoppers looking for quick and easy lunch and dinner solutions -- that is to say, most New Yorkers.

Encompassing a refurbished sushi bar with adjacent seating, a deli counter offering ready-made sandwiches as well as ones made to order, stations providing heat-and-eat and ready-to-serve entrees; a salad bar; refrigerated cases housing a variety of freshly made salads, dressings, and heat-and-eat soups; and a hot soup bar, the section was a hive of activity during the tour, as a steady stream of shoppers stopped by to fuel up for lunch. A separate cashier awaited their purchases.

Among the items available at the time of the tour were Food Emporium brand low-sodium ham for $8.99 a pound; Guss' Pickles from the Lower East Side for $2.99 a pound; store-prepared Tossed, Chicken, Caesar, Greek, and Chef’s salads going for $5.99 to $6.99; and locally made lightly salted Lioni Fresh Mozzarella for $7.99.

Additionally, Food to Go offers chilled shelves of such items as bottled waters (including its private label brand, also known as FE, for 99 cents a bottle at the time of the store visit) and flavored beverages, yogurt, fresh-cut fruit, and parfait cups for customers to grab as they swing through, along with stacked packages of nuts and nearly overflowing baskets of apples, oranges, and bananas, among other fruits, for a healthy snack or a finishing touch to a meal.

Shoppers who wish to pause long enough to eat before they leave can go over to the Illy coffee bar, which features café-style seating as well as its own convenient entrance/exit. Behind a counter two associates specially trained by Illy, an Italian purveyor of premium coffee, work cutting-edge coffee-making equipment and tend the register, while patrons place orders, sip their beverages, munch on an assortment of tempting baked goods, and simply drink in the bracing atmosphere.

Come on down

An escalator ride down from the new upper level, the below-ground level, at first glance, looks much like any New York City grocery store faced with the constraints of available real estate -- but looks can be deceiving.

The real difference here is in the products offered. Produce is currently 10 percent to 20 percent organic, depending on the time of year -- 60 percent higher than before the renovation, according to Heer. Along with such specialty items as Splendido grape tomatoes packed in clamshells, however, are everyday bargains like Chiquita bananas for 79 cents a pound.

Meanwhile the seafood section is a gourmand's paradise, with a tank full of live lobsters, as well as such hard-to-find items as whole red snapper and whole trout attractively displayed on beds of ice, for $10.99 and $6.99 per pound, respectively.

The neighboring meat section boasts USDA Choice beef selections, in addition to fairly exotic proteins like two bison steak medallions for $9.99 and a D’Artagnan duck breast for $21.99. Also on hand are such prepared items as chicken kabobs, going for $6.99 a pound the day of the visit.

Among the upscale nonfood items on offer recently was a cheery array of Cuisinart kitchen implements on pegs suspended over the frozen cookie and biscuit case in the dairy section, including bright-red soup ladles, lemon zesters, and can and bottle openers.

Always evolving

While enjoying a cappuccino at the coffee bar, Heer says that there's been a 20 percent increase in new customers to the upper level, with a corresponding sales lift of 30 percent, since the renovation. He attributes this success to the exciting and convenient new features, including a rejiggered product mix of 10 percent to 15 percent upscale items, with a stress on organic and local, as well as the fresh new look, with its emphasis on eye-catching colors.

Another big reason for the Trump Plaza unit's performance is its high accessibility and heavy foot traffic, compared with the somewhat remoter BridgeMarket location. Heer says that the banner's target shoppers are 90 percent community residents, and 10 percent "tourists" of the food variety, from different areas of the city. "They come from all over New York to go to a more upscale store," he notes.

Asked how the Trump Palace store’s customer demographics have changed since the rollout of the new concept, Heer notes that the location is now attracting a "younger, more sophisticated" crowd with more defined gourmet tastes. They're also overwhelmingly female: According to Heer, fully 80 percent of the tea shop, chocolate shop, and floral shop customers are women.

Among the best-performing departments at the revamped store are bakery, deli, and the coffee bar, says Heer. Although chocolate is also doing well, he adds, it's more of a seasonal business, and tends to slow down in summer.

Despite the success the Trump Palace store has already seen, the tweaking of the concept goes on at the location, particularly in the area of product selection. For instance, every few months, the 250-odd recipes used to create the prepared foods offered in the Food to Go section are looked at to determine what items can be added to, or removed from, the mix. "We’re constantly working [at it]," notes Heer.


Food Emporium mulls expansion of 'Food to Go' Concept

Buoyed by the potential of the "Food to Go" prepared food section at its top-selling Trump Palace location, The Food Emporium is working on plans to roll the prepared food concept out to other units operating under the A&P-owned gourmet banner, and is even considering a standalone version of the concept, according to Hans Heer, Food Emporium general manager and a corporate s.v.p. at Montvale, N.J.-based A&P.

Any rollout would have to take into account that real estate in densely populated Manhattan, where the chain operates 16 stores, is at a premium, says Heer. "You have to have the space [to expand]," he explains.

Still, the company so far has "two locations in mind this year" where it could introduce the Food to Go concept, notes Heer, declining to specify where those locations are, as the project is still in the early planning stages.

Heer says that one of those locations could even be a separate spin-off concept. The banner is developing the idea of standalone Food to Go locations, he explained, with a tentative target this year of two to three stores, and an additional two to five next year, depending, again, on the availability of real estate.

The Food Emporium would operate the locations, but they would run under "a separate name [and] a separate logo," adds Heer.

At present, the Food to Go concept features a variety of ready-to-eat and heat-and-eat prepared foods, including entrees, soups, and sushi, with organic and healthier options available.


EXCLUSIVE WEB CONTENT

A matter of Taste

During Progressive Grocer’s recent tour of the Trump Palace Food Emporium store, the latest edition of the banner's official publication, Taste, was prominently on display.

The self-published magazine, which comes out twice a year, in Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter, "was launched in the fall of 2007 as a means of communicating and informing our customers about exceptional products, inspiring ideas for elegant entertaining, household goods, and gourmet gifts," the 29-store A&P banner explains.

Featuring a combination of original articles, vendor marketing materials, and additional supplementary content, Taste showcases The Food Emporium's most valuable asset: its people. "Photographs include store associates, buyers, and other internal staff, as well as models," the chain notes.

And ever since the free publication became a fixture at the upscale grocer's locations, shoppers have been snapping it up. According to The Food Emporium, "The response has been overwhelming from our customers, so much so that many eagerly await the next issue."