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Outstanding Retailers of 2011

Olives Gourmet Grocer

by Eva Meszaros

Drawing on experience working at Whole Foods Market, Olives’ founders sought to create their own specialty foods niche in Long Beach, Calif., with high-quality goods from lesser-known producers. Seven years later, with a second location bustling and plans for a third, these women prove they know a thing or two about offering premium products with a welcoming, neighborhood feel.

History

With 25 years of prepared food experience under her belt, Erin O’Hagan teamed up with her chef colleague Laurie Semon to open a New York City–style deli. They came across a storefront with a “for lease” sign on a quiet, mixed commercial-residential street in the East Broadway neighborhood of Long Beach, Calif., in late 2004. Days later, Olives Gourmet Grocer was born.

With their first location a growing success, O’Hagan and Semon opened a second store in the summer of 2008, a mile down the road on Second Street, in a strip mall with heavier foot traffic and a wider array of customers. Today, the two stores draw average weekly transactions of about 1,850 per week (East Broadway store) and 2,400 (Second Street location).

★★STORE STATS★★

Year Opened: 2004

Type of Business: Specialty food store and deli

Outstanding Features: Focus on small producers; gourmet deli; pizza oven at second location; donation program with local schools

Contact: Erin O’Hagan

olivesgourmetgrocer.com

Points of Distinction

Locals instantly took to the original store’s distinctive selection, and the skillful use of its 1,500-square-foot sales area. “It’s an intimate feel,” O’Hagan says. Shelves don’t tower high overhead; lighting doesn’t blind shoppers. Displays are stocked elegantly, and the emphasis throughout is quality.

For O’Hagan, this means filling shelves with hand-picked, high-quality foods, rather than stocking top-selling brands just to move product. “I think we’re always on a mission to be a supporter or advocate for the small producers,” she says.

The second location is nearly double the size of the first, at 2,700 square feet of sales area (3,300 square feet total), and has a very different atmosphere from the original. “It’s night and day,” O’Hagan says. While both stores offer staple groceries, specialty products and prepared foods, the Second Street floor area allows for a pizza oven and indoor seating, as well as room for an additional 200 items (totaling 3,240 SKUs). It sees more traffic in the form of tourism and hungry customers dropping in from shopping the chain stores that fill the strip.

“You get a lot of people that are in for the day, or here for a week,” O’Hagan says of the Second Street store. “The other location is our neighborhood, where you know everybody’s name. They walk in, they know you, you know their order.”

But overall, loyalty has been key to Olives’ success. “We have the same customers that have been with us for almost seven years,” O’Hagan asserts. “They’re a part of us. They’re entrenched.”

How Olives Gourmet Grocer Keeps Innovating

”I think one of the challenges—especially for a small entrepreneur—is always trying to keep yourself groovin’,” O’Hagan shares. The owners plan to add one or two additional locations eventually but they never want the original stores to suffer due to expansion. “We both just want to make sure these are the best two stores we can possibly have in Long Beach.” —E.M.

See all of the 2011 Award Winners by visiting the following link: 2011 Outstanding Retailer Awards

Eva Meszaros is associate editor of Specialty Food Magazine.
Kristen Seymour is a freelance writer for Paw Nation, That’s Fit,
BlogHer and Pet Home Magazine.