HispanicTrending

Grocers meeting needs of Hispanic shoppers

July 02, 2009
By Rob Earnshaw

Joining a national trend, local grocers are expanding their offerings to cater to the Hispanic market.

Over the past two years Wiseway Super Food Center Inc. remodeled its Hobart location and converted its store in Merrillville to a PayLow.

"We have increased the amount of Hispanic foods in the aisles," Wiseway Vice President Michael Zaucha said. "What we did was open up some lines of food we did not previously carry, like La Preferida, El Milagro and Nuevo Leon. We have availabilities of all these companies so if a customer requests a special item we by all means can get it for them."

Strack & Van Til has a dozen locations in Northwest Indiana, all of which have a Hispanic section -- some larger than others depending on the Hispanic population of that community.

"We recognize the needs of the communities we serve," said Mike Nisevich, buyer for Strack & Van Til. "East Chicago is one of our smaller stores, but we've definitely increased the Hispanic item selection in that store."

Jewel-Osco approaches its growing Hispanic shopping base with a variety of in-language communication materials from monthly circulars to seasonal mailers.

Its ethnic marketing department continually meets with store directors to ensure the stores are merchandised correctly, showcasing dedicated Latino endcaps and eye-catching displays throughout the store.

"Jewel-Osco has recognized the importance and significance of the growing Latino community," said Jim Seidler, Jewel-Osco/SUPERVALU category manager. "We have taken a targeted approach to advertise our efforts by showcasing the most relevant products in the most relevant areas, always with a strong focus on the utmost in freshness, quality and overall value."

Alicia Perez, of East Chicago, said most local stores carry a wide range of Hispanic food and she only goes to specialty grocers "if they have a sale." She also said more non-Hispanics are stopping her in the aisles asking about items like husks for making tamales.

Nisevich has also recognized the desire for Hispanic ingredients from the entire population.

"With many Americans tightening their belts during these tougher economic times they are eating at home more often," he said. "They might be seeing a dish on the food channel network or a recipe in the magazine and they're looking for those ingredients at their local grocery stores."

But some shoppers prefer Mexican grocers. Pamela Ruiz Janiszewski, of Calumet City, buys Mexican groceries from La Balanza in Lansing. Janiszewski said a regular store doesn't have the variety of a Mexican grocer.

"If you walk into a Mexican store, you find everything you need and everything is fresh," she said. "I've bought things from a grocery store and tortillas were moldy or chips were stale. I prefer a Mexican store when I need the Mexican ingredients for cooking."

Source: The Times

Bank of America is accused of exploiting Latino immigrant customers

June 30, 2009
By Tom Hamburger

Reporting from Washington -- Gabby Ornelas, a former teller at the giant Bank of America Corp., remembers the training sessions. And she remembers her marching orders: "Sell, sell, sell."

Ornelas was instructed to use her Spanish language skills and Latina heritage to sign up customers for as many kinds of banking services as possible, she said -- services that led to lucrative fees for the bank and financial entanglement for many customers.

"We were coached every day to push multiple checking accounts, credit cards and debit cards even when the customer didn't understand how to use them," said Ornelas, who lives in Landover Hills, Md., a town with a large immigrant population and a per-capita income of less than $19,000.

In one case, she described a Central American mother of three who came back to see her at the bank, distressed about $300 in overdraft fees incurred after Ornelas persuaded the woman to open a second checking account.

Ornelas and eight of her colleagues leveled the accusations in recent interviews. They are being backed in their whistle-blowing by the Service Employees International Union, which is trying to organize BofA, the nation's largest bank.

Bank of America officials flatly rejected the allegations, saying their policies are legal, adhere to industry standards and are helpful to customers, including immigrants seeking a toehold in the United States.

"Bank of America believes the SEIU's claims misrepresent the bank's relationship with its customers and its associates," said Anne Pace, a bank spokeswoman.

The former workers said they were going public to lay out what they saw as a little-known side of BofA's business model: encouraging working-class customers to sign up for high-interest-rate credit and cash advance services and structuring an array of check and debit card services to maximize overdraft fees and other charges.

The campaign will be launched publicly this week, with workers scheduled to tell their stories in news conference calls and meetings with members of Congress. The union is seeking to pressure the bank and to build support for legislation now stalled in the Senate that would make it easier for union members to organize.

Bank of America said that the former employees are a disgruntled minority and that internal surveys show that most employees of the company are overwhelmingly satisfied.

Other critics of SEIU said the union might have a conflict of interest because it has outstanding loans with the bank.

Many of the workers speaking out were fired from the bank, most before they took their complaints public. One worker has said her firing was related to her interest in the union. One worker is still employed at BofA.

BofA's Pace said that all of the bank's activities are not only legal but also useful to consumers, particularly those who have recently arrived in the U.S.

"We believe a checking account is the cornerstone to establishing financial security in this country," Pace said in an e-mail. "We offer innovative financial services to meet the needs of all of our customers, including Hispanic customers."

Pace also said the bank had taken steps to help customers facing "financial challenges." For example, she said, the bank waives certain monthly fees for customers who have lost their jobs and has reduced penalty fees for customers who overdraw their accounts by less than $5.

Although BofA denies wrongdoing, it recently paid $35 million to settle a class-action suit in California that alleged it deliberately ranked customer debits by order of size rather than by the time of day they occurred in order to maximize overdraft charges.

Pace said that the settlement does not include any acknowledgment of wrongdoing or even of the practices alleged in the suit, and that the bank paid the $35 million to avoid excessive legal bills.

Consumer advocates see it differently.

"Bank of America has moved to the top of the charts for fees being charged to consumers by big banks," said Jean Ann Fox, director of financial services for the Consumer Federation of America.

Ornelas and three other former BofA tellers, all Latina women, said they and their co-workers were repeatedly instructed to seek potential new Spanish-speaking customers outside the bank. Some were instructed to go to embassies where recent emigres often wait in queue for visa and passport services.

Other tellers were asked to go to neighborhood stores, clinics and child welfare centers, and several were asked to recruit customers at a religiously oriented Mother's Day celebration, they said.

"We were told to push them to sign up for multiple checking accounts, which they didn't need," said Ambar Sandoval, a former teller at a BofA branch in Central Los Angeles who said she repeatedly resisted efforts to go recruit customers at a center for single mothers in Los Angeles.

The ex-employees provided some documentation for their claims, including internal bank memos showing a schedule of opportunities to solicit accounts among the crowds at Central American embassies and Latino community events. The documents also showed details of the sales goals pressed on branch employees.

Consumer advocate Fox was particularly critical of banks' practice of recording debits by order of magnitude, which half the country's leading banks do. Fox said the practice makes it more likely that even careful consumers will overdraw their account.

BofA defends the practice, saying it assures customers that their largest, most important payments have priority.

Fox said it's a tactic banks use to make sure their fee revenues remain high. She said consumers unwittingly and unfairly incur overdraft fees when using a debit card.

"People think that if they use their debit card, they will only spend money that they have in their accounts. But Bank of America and other big banks have found ways to turn your debit card into a credit instrument with which you can rack up extreme debt," she said.

For example, BofA permits a customer using a debit card to spend, say, $20 at a grocery store even if the bank account is depleted. Without informing the customer, the bank automatically imposes an overdraft fee of $35. An additional $35 fee is imposed less than a week later if the account is still out of balance.

These rates mean that consumers are in effect paying $70 for a $20 extension of credit at the grocery store, Fox said.

Pace said BofA offers overdraft protection and other services to "give our customers more control and flexibility to effectively manage their accounts and prevent fees."

Source: Los Angeles Times

Survey Shows Most Hispanics Lack Life Insurance

June 29, 2009
Press Release
 
A nationwide study conducted by ING and Ipsos found that Hispanics are significantly less likely than the general population to have life insurance (39% vs. 71%). However, Hispanics are more likely than the general population to say that they would need various things taken care of should something happen to them and worry about leaving enough to take care of their families.  In fact, 89% of Hispanics said that someone in their situation should have life insurance and a majority of respondents said they would not do without it.

Although nearly nine in ten Hispanics without life insurance feel they should have it, a majority either does not understand how the coverage works or where to get it.  Among the main obstacles identified by Hispanics was:

    * Less understanding and appreciation of life insurance among Hispanics with lower incomes and no college education.

These results are particularly alarming considering Hispanics over-index (when compared with the general market) in several life-threatening conditions, including obesity, diabetes, and liver disease.

ING, a global financial services company providing banking, investments, life insurance and retirement, sponsored this study to find out how to better understand and serve the Hispanic market. 

Latin flavor: Grocery chains cater to growing Latino presence with selections, store concepts

June 25, 2009
By Sarah Skidmore

After moving to the U.S. 10 years ago, Juana Carabarin still wanted to cook Mexican food for her family but often didn't have time to go to specialty shops for the ingredients.

Now the Publix grocery in Norcross, Ga., near her home carries products used in Mexican cuisine -- including corn husks for tamales, chilis in the spice aisle, chorizo and queso fresco in the refrigerator case and some branded items. And she no longer has to make do with stand-ins.

Several major chains are expanding their specialty offerings to capture business from Latinos, the country's fastest-growing population and already almost one-sixth of the U.S. total in 2008. Other retailers are opening new stores that target Latino shoppers.

Central Ohio Kroger stores recently surveyed the region's growing Latino population to see what changes

the retail giant can make to its stores to meet the group's needs, spokeswoman Amy McCormick said.

The Cincinnati-based company already operates a store targeted to Latinos -- Fry's Mercado in Phoenix -- and said it offers Latino-targeted products in its local stores in neighborhoods with larger Latino communities.

"We're aware of the growing Latino market in Columbus," McCormick said. "We have completed focus groups to help us better understand what our Latino customers are looking for in their shopping experience."

Rival chain Giant Eagle offers more than 400 products aimed at Latino shoppers, including brands such as Herdez Nestle, La Preferida, Goya and Badia, spokesman Mike Duffey said. And in its stores in neighborhoods with large Latino communities, the targeted ethnic-food offerings could increase, he said.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the nation's largest retailer, is in the process of converting two of its stores in Phoenix and Houston to Supermercados -- a test format aimed at Latino shoppers.

Its wholesale subsidiary, Sam's Club, is opening a store in Houston this summer -- called Mas, or "more" -- that targets Latino shoppers and businesses.

Developing new stores or venturing into new markets may seem like a dicey proposition during a recession, but a recent U.S. census report shows the Latino population grew 3.2 percent between 2007 and 2008. Better serving an existing and rapidly growing population could pay off for retailers.

Latino consumers tend to shop for groceries more often than the average U.S. consumer, cook from scratch more often, buy more fresh items and spend an estimated 20 percent more at the store, according to the Food Marketing Institute.

At the institute's last count, in 2005, Latino consumers spent considerably more on groceries than average U.S. consumers: an average of $133 per week per household versus $91. They also estimate that Latinos direct an estimated 34 percent of their grocery shopping outside their primary grocery store, compared with 18 percent among general U.S. shoppers.

It's that 34 percent these retailers aim to recapture.

While some grocers still contain their Latino offerings to an "ethnic" aisle, some experts say the popularity of such products merits more attention.

"I think there is an increase in appetite across the board for more international experiences, particularly in Hispanic grocery," said Stephen Palacios, executive vice president at consulting company Cheskin Added Value.

"The ethnic-specific aisle is eventually going to evolve into everybody's aisle," Palacios said.

A major challenge for retailers will be to accurately understand this diverse and dispersed population.

Felipe Korzenny, director of the Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication at Florida State University, said other retailers who have failed in their attempts to market to Latinos have failed to understand the nuances among its customers.

He said if Wal-Mart and others simply change the sign out front, that won't be enough.

Wal-Mart says its Supermercados are much more. At its recently opened Houston site, the meat department offers sweetbreads, milanesa (a type of veal) and arrachera (similar to skirt steak, for grilling), and the bakery sells fresh corn tortillas.

Source: The Columbus Dispatch

Latino grocery reaching to non-Hispanic customers

June 23, 2009
By ANGELIQUE SOENARIE

Even as more national retailers like WalMart are joining the race to lure Hispanic grocery customers, the chain that opened up the newest Latino grocery in Mesa is reaching the other way.

WalMart just introduced its Supermercado de WalMart concept in metro Phoenix to tap the Hispanic consumer base. About the same time, Pro's Ranch Markets opened its seventh store in Mesa. While the WalMart concept is aimed at a Hispanic only market, Pro's which has traditionally served the Latino customer base, is trying to lure more non-Hispanics.

Rick Provenzano, vice president of operations for California-based Pro's Ranch Markets, recently opened a store. The market is not only serving a growing Hispanic population that is shifting to the east in Mesa, but it is also reaching out to non-Hispanic customers by using bilingual signs and recruiting more non-Hispanic employees.

"Every time we open a store we try new concepts," said Provenzano, whose Italian family founded the current company in 1992 after running a general grocery store for 10 years.

With more consumers eating and entertaining at home in a down economy, all ethnic groups are looking for different foods to buy and prepare, said Provenzano, who makes his home in east Mesa.

The company pulls in an estimated 500,000 customers a week and has opened three stores in the last nine months. More stores are planned for Arizona and Texas, Provenzano said.

"This store doesn't have as high a Hispanic population as our other stores do," said Provenzano, who oversees store operations in California, Arizona and Texas.

"We added more bilingual signs than we did in the past," he said. "If we can get someone in once, we can get them back again."

Inside the 65,000-square-foot-store, colorful signs in English and Spanish, and the store features a food court with specialty vendors.

New customers can find various Hispanic foods such as bolillos, popular oval-shaped breads with a crunchy crust and soft inside. If a non-Hispanic customer is not familiar with an item, don't worry. More than half of the staff is bilingual and non-Hispanic.

A creameria and chorizo "village" boasts different kinds of homemade cheeses, yogurts and spicy Mexican sausages. Nearby, a candy store features various kinds of Mexican and Spanish candies - some of them made at the store. A favorite item is raspados, a popular shaved-iced dessert topped with a ladle of pureed fruit syrup. Next door, a salsa bar, a refrigerated shelf, features different kinds of homemade salsas and guacamole.

The store's centerpiece is the festive food court with music, picnic style tables, fans with flying ribbons and bright colorful signs. Newcomers can find specialty counters of decadent desserts, baked goods, hot deli foods, fresh fruit or vegetable juices, fruit salads, candies, and homemade yogurt.

Many of the offerings are homemade daily. For example, vats of corn are soaked for eight hours before being ground into masa dough for tamales and corn tortillas. Burritos, tacos, enchiladas, chile rellenos are offered all day long. Mexican, rotisserie-style chicken and fresh carne asada are also offered daily.

The store also offers an aisle 16 feet long of various South American foods. That's not including the fresh open seafood case and extensive choice of beef and chicken cuts in the seafood and meat department.

Hispanic consumers represent 9 percent of the all U.S. buying power, up from 5.2 percent in 1990, according to a survey conducted a year ago by the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia. "The Multicultural Economy" study projects that Hispanics buying power will reach $1 trillion this year.

Provenzano attributes the success of his company to "creativity." At every store opening there is at least a two-hour wait to get into the store, he said.

"People find grocery shopping so boring. For us, we try to put the excitement back into grocery shopping," he said, noting the weekend live entertainment, balloons, and flat screen televisions in the food court.

Source: Fox11AZ.com

Hormel, Herdez Del Fuerte form U.S. food venture

June 19, 2009
By Brad Dorfman

U.S. food maker Hormel Foods (HRL.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Mexico's Herdez Del Fuerte are forming a joint venture to sell Mexican foods in the United States, tapping into a fast-growing market.

The new venture, called MegaMex Foods, will bring together brands like Hormel's Chi-Chi's salsa and Herdez's La Victoria Mexican sauces and start off with about $200 million in annual revenue, Hormel Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Ettinger said in an interview with Reuters.

Combining the two companies' Mexican food businesses into a joint venture will help them become more competitive in a U.S. market that has seen a fast-growing Hispanic population and rising popularity of Mexican foods in general.

For instance, sales of salsa, Mexican sauces and seasoning mixes at U.S. food, drug and mass merchandise stores jumped 8.1 percent to $1.51 billion in the 52 weeks ended May 16, according to The Nielsen Co.

By combining resources, the venture will be able to choose employees from both companies and manufacture products in either country, depending on which plant is best suited for a product, Ettinger said.

"We think the combined strengths of the two companies will really leapfrog us ahead of others," Ettinger said.

Hormel, which is better known for its Spam processed meat and Dinty Moore canned stew, will see its earnings boosted by its 50 percent stake in the venture, Ettinger said.

While the venture will initially focus on shelf stable packaged foods, MegaMex could also expand into refrigerated foods like fresh salsa, Ettinger said.

Source: Reuters

Hispanics Taking Control of Their Finances

June 17, 2009
Via PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE

With household budgets getting tighter every day, Hispanics in this country find that saving loose change over time can supplement their daily budget. The Coinstar Hispanic National Currency Poll revealed today that an overwhelming majority (92 percent) of Hispanics currently accumulate coins compared to 77 percent just one year ago*, and most are either using these funds to help pay bills and other expenses, or saving it for a rainy day.

    

"In this economic climate Hispanics are realizing that this is the year of change and are taking this time as an opportunity to rethink their budgets and how they spend their money," said Elianne E. Gonzalez, personal finance columnist and author.

While Hispanics are focused on their finances and making sure they are saving and paying bills, there's a lot more on their minds. For some, the accumulated change is a great way to set an example for their children and teach them the value of saving money. In fact, this year, one in six respondents said their primary reason for accumulating change is to set a good example for their children, up from last year* when just one in 10 said they accumulate change for this reason.

"Hispanic parents, in particular with this new mentality to save more, want to teach their children early on the power of saving. By keeping small change around the house it helps kids to literally see how their effort turns into something powerful that allows them to fulfill a dream, to buy a toy they love, or to engage in activities that they've been planning," added Gonzalez.

When establishing a savings goal, Gonzalez recommends that part of the funds gathered be used for the set goal, and the rest should be saved. This way, you can accomplish a short-term goal, while learning how to work on a long-term accomplishment. "This system doesn't work just with children - adults can use the same strategy of budgeting to save for future goals, while they work to treat themselves, or vice versa," said Gonzalez.

Key survey results on what Hispanic parents are doing to teach their children about the value of money include:

-- 52 percent said their children have a piggy bank or container to save loose change.

-- 38 percent reported their children save their money to buy special gifts for themselves.

-- 37 percent said their children are given money for doing certain chores/housework.

-- 34 percent reported their children have a savings account.

Other key findings from the Coinstar Hispanic National Currency Poll include:

-- In an effort to save money, 94 percent of Hispanics have cut back spending in many areas of their lives in the last 12 months. Topping the list of items that have been cut are dining out at 75 percent, entertainment at 69 percent, and clothes shopping at 67 percent.

-- To help stretch the budget, 69 percent of respondents said they are only buying the necessities, rather than the "extras."

-- 68 percent are clipping coupons to help stretch their budget and 59 percent are buying generic or store-brand products rather than name-brands.

-- Vacation plans will also be affected by the economy. More than three in four (76 percent) who plan on a stay-at-home vacation this summer say they originally wanted to go on a trip elsewhere but decided to remain home for financial reasons.

About the Coinstar Hispanic National Currency Poll
The Coinstar Hispanic National Currency Poll was conducted by Kelton Research between April 29 and May 5, 2009, among 500 nationally representative Hispanic Americans using an email invitation and an online survey. Quotas are set to ensure reliable and accurate representation of the total U.S. population of Hispanic Americans ages 18 and over. The survey has a margin of error of +/- 4.4%. The poll was developed to provide information to better understand coin and currency habits in America, and track trends, behaviors and attitudes towards currency - both traditional and new forms, as well as related topics.

Survey: Hispanic Women Still Spending, Despite Economic Worries

June 17, 2009
By Lucia Moses

Hispanic women report they’re very stressed about the economy and losing their jobs, but far from snapping shut their purses, many of them are still spending, according to a new survey from People en Español.

The Time Inc. magazine’s annual HOT study, which stands for Hispanic Opinion Tracker, found 43 percent of Hispanic women, versus 36 percent of the general market, are very stressed about the economy.

Yet nearly half—47 percent—say they’re spending the same or more, compared with 38 percent of the general market.

“At the core is the staples and their family,” said Lucia Ballas-Traynor, publisher of Español. “They’ve increased their spending on groceries because they’re spending more time cooking at home. They’re inceasing spending on beauty products, because when you’re surrounded by doom and gloom, beauty is at the core of Latina women, and it makes them feel happy.”

Español’s reliance on the auto and retail ad categories has hurt it as the economy has soured. This year through June, ad pages fell 32.7 percent to 266, per the Mediaweek Monitor.

Ballas-Traynor hopes the survey will help her appeal to marketers in those categories where Hispanic women reportedly are still spending. “This market could present an opportunity for brands that haven’t been talking to us before,” she said.

Due out June 17, the study was conducted by phone for People en Español by Cheskin Added Value. Cheskin polled 1,500 women ages 18-54, including 1,000 Hispanic and 500 general market consumers, in March and April.

Source: MediaWeek

Profit in Mexican-American Market

June 18, 2009
By JAMES FLANIGAN

MEXICO’S economy has suffered a series of blows in recent months — drug violence, swine flu and the worldwide economic downturn. Yet some companies on each side of the border with the United States are prospering because they serve the expanding Mexican-American market in the United States.

A new economy is emerging that builds on the economic relationship between the countries. Exports and imports between Mexico and the United States have grown rapidly in the last decade, to close to $400 billion annually. And now trade is taking on new complexity, with operations in Southern California sometimes serving as Mexico’s link to the global economy.

Viz Cattle Corporation, for example, the American division of Mexico’s SuKarne Global, handles exports of Mexican beef to Japan and South Korea, through contracts made in Compton, Calif. The beef originates in SuKarne’s home base in Culiacán, Sinaloa, in northwest Mexico. “Japanese and Korean executives buy here, and they go to inspect the ranches in Mexico, too,” said Jesus Tarriba, manager of Viz Cattle’s warehouse operation in Compton, in southeast Los Angeles County. “Last year we sold $40 million of beef to Japan and Korea and $80 million here in the U.S.”

Viz Cattle has grown rapidly, from less than $10 million in revenue five years ago to $120 million in 2008. And it is doing well this year despite the downturn, Mr. Tarriba said. Its main business is importing beef from Mexico for American restaurants and retailers. “We specialize in smaller cuts of rib-eye and strip steaks because Mexican ranches slaughter livestock at younger ages than American ranches,” Mr. Tarriba said. “Restaurants like those cuts.”

Viz Cattle and other food companies on the border have also capitalized on the expanding Latino population across the United States and the changing tastes of the public.

“Chipotle was unknown here five years ago,” Marcelo Sada, president of Source Logistics Center Corporation, said of the smoked jalapeño pepper in many Mexican foods and sauces. Mr. Sada’s company, based in Montebello, Calif., imports bakery and soft drink products from Mexico.

Martinez Brands/Tequila Holdings Inc., from Pasadena, Calif., has also been a beneficiary of the growing American taste for Mexican products. “Tequila is the fastest growing liquor variety in the United States for the last seven years,” said Javier Martinez, president of Martinez Brands. “And why? Because young Americans vacation in Mexico and associate tequila with fun, freedom and friendship.”

Business is good as well, for Inter-Con Security Systems, a company also based in Pasadena, that protects State Department installations in the United States and abroad as well as private businesses, hospitals and sports arenas, said Carlo Gobelli, who leads Mexican operations. “Security is in very great demand, to guard executives and company operations and also shipments of goods,” Mr. Gobelli said..

Inter-Con employs 6,500 people in Mexico; the company has 30,000 employees over all. “A new concern here,” Mr. Gobelli said, “is that we are getting demands to protect pharmaceutical laboratories against theft of key ingredients that drug gangs can use.”

Still, some companies are seeing a more mixed picture. ICS Group Inc. of Rolling Hills Estates, in southwest Los Angeles County, represents Carlisle Companies’ roofing and building products in Mexico and Latin America, said, “Right now, American companies are holding back from investing in Mexico and are not sending their personnel because of dangers from the drug wars,” said Mark Aston, the president of ICS.

But he credited business in the Caribbean with helping the company’s annual revenues grow to an estimated $15 million this year from $300,000 in 2004. “Mexican business people and investors are confident that when this recession ends, Mexico will do well again,” he said.

Mr. Gobelli and other Mexican executives generally agreed that the economy’s overall outlook was positive. “The businessmen say, ‘This crisis did not start here in Mexico’ as have so many crises in the past. It started in the U.S. and the world,” Mr. Gobelli said. “Therefore, they say, when the U.S. and the world recover, Mexico will too.”

Meanwhile, the slow American economy and moves to control illegal immigration with increased border patrols and raids on domestic job sites have reduced migration from Mexico. So remittances to families in Mexico from people working in the United States have declined sharply in the last year. But the Latino population in the United States has grown as a result of children born to immigrants in recent decades. That Latino population is 45 million, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

This has led to more online commerce with Mexico and other shifts in the marketplace, said Hector Orci, co-founder of La Agencia de Orci, an advertising agency in Los Angeles. “For example, Liverpool department stores in Mexico sell online to people here and the goods can be delivered to their mother living in Mexico,” Mr. Orci said.

Spanish-language media is also shifting to more use of English language commercials and programs, he said. So Mr. Orci is building a new division of his agency, called One Plus Two, for the population that speaks English but enjoys Spanish language programming like telenovelas from Mexico.

“Online use is very high among Latinos, maybe 20 million people using broadband Internet,” said Michele Ruiz, a former television anchorwoman who started the Saber Hacer (to know, to do) Web site in 2007. The site offers advice to Latinos on such subjects as parenting, personal finance, health and medicine and college preparation.

Ms. Ruiz said she had raised $700,000 to start the Web site and investors have now put in “several million more.” The site has close to 200,000 visitors, Ms. Ruiz said, and she is looking to private equity funds and other investors to raise an additional $5 million.

She wants to expand the Web site’s reach and content, which includes presentations in English or Spanish on the importance of annual mammograms, on how to write résumés and apply for positions and how to talk to your doctor or your children about sex. “We understand the culture and how people think,” she said.

Source: New York Times

Walmart opens Hispanic market in Phoenix's West Valley

Jun. 10, 2009
by Max Jarman

Walmart is looking to Valley consumers to help fine-tune its efforts to dive deeper into the $90 billion-a-year U.S. Hispanic grocery market.

The world's largest retailer will open Supermercado de Walmart in west Phoenix Wednesday, one of two stores nationwide that will test the nation's appetite for a possible string of Hispanic supermarkets.

The other store opened in Houston last month and is so far exceeding expectations, according to Jose Antonio Fernandez, the Walmart vice president in charge of the Supermercados.

Both Houston and Phoenix have large multigenerational Hispanic populations with considerable spending power. Arizona has approximately 2 million Hispanic consumers.

Walmart has gained considerable knowledge and experience marketing to consumers in Mexico and Latin America and hopes to leverage it to boost sales to U.S. Hispanics, who have an estimated buying power of about $1 trillion per year.

Fernandez worked for Walmart's 1,000-store operation in Mexico before coming to the U.S. to help develop the Supermercados.

"Supermercado de Walmart is an effort to be more relevant to our Hispanic consumers," he said.

Hispanics already make up a significant portion of Walmart's U.S. customer base. Many of those customers, though, continue to buy food at the growing number of Hispanic-oriented supermarkets, such as Bashas' Food City chain.

A chain of Walmart Latin markets could prove to be formidable competition for chains such Food City and California's Pro's Ranch Market as well as for mainstream supermarkets in Hispanic neighborhoods.

"Competition is good for the customer," said Bashas' spokeswoman Kristy Nied. Chandler-based Bashas' operates 40 Food City stores in metro Phoenix and is considered the market leader.

The 39,000-square-foot Supermercado de Walmart at 8921 W. Thomas Road in Phoenix is a former Walmart Neighborhood Market that has been remodeled and stocked with goods to appeal to Hispanic consumers.

That includes a mix of Spanish and U.S. products. Yoplait yogurt sits next to LaLa dairy products from Mexico. There is an expanded produce section, traditional Latin bakery, a baby section and expanded party aisle with piñatas and other accessories for celebrations.

The store features bright colors, Spanish signage and 120 bilingual employees. There is a pharmacy and a financial-services department for money orders and wire transfers of funds.

The stores reflect the unique characteristics of the Hispanic market. According to demographic research, Hispanics buy significantly more fresh produce, dairy and meat products than non-Hispanics, they have larger families with more children and honor family and public occasions with celebrations.

A study of Hispanic buying power by Oklahoma State University found that Hispanic households spend a larger portion of their household incomes on food - $128.50 per week compared with $91 for non-Hispanics. They also make considerably more trips to the grocery store - 4.7 per week, more than double non-Hispanics. The frequent trips provide retailers with more opportunities to sell.

Walmart plans to use the two Supermercado test stores to tweak its products, services and customer service before launching more of the stores.

"We're in no hurry to move beyond the two stores," Fernandez said. "It's better to do it right than to do it as quickly as possible."

Fernandez noted that products that do well at Supermercado could be quickly added to Walmart Supercenters and Neighborhood Markets.

Source: The Arizona Republic