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I was afraid of that, but I've mostly seen people talking about their hotdogs. I thought if it wasn't deli that they might put up individual packages.
Can someone there talk to someone at a store and explain that they want the label to send to NC?
My guess is that when Ingles decided to switch to supermarkets that they went up to the Philadelphia area & checked out supermarkets there & to the Midwest & checked out Meijer. This is just a guess, but they are carrying some brands & items that are from both areas.
They do test market new items. At the Kings Mountain store,they ran a test on some Herr's potato chips. They sold well enough, & now they have made room in the chip/pretzel aisle & have added some additional flavors. Locals are buying the Herr's.
IF you could get a label for Thuman I would take it to Ingles & explain that others besides you will buy it, & if they can get it in, start a thread. That's the point when people can either drive to the Ingles or wait till they go back for a visit. Dallas is a lot closer.
That's been my contention all along, even before Dallas opened. If you want something bad enough, yes these stores are not around the corner for folks in Charlotte, but really, it's a lot closer than going "home", wherever "home" is.
I called Thumanns and they gave me a phone number for their charlotte distributor. I will be calling them soon. My guess is they probably don't sell to any stores in my area but it doesn't hurt to ask.
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I called Thumanns and they gave me a phone number for their charlotte distributor. I will be calling them soon. My guess is they probably don't sell to any stores in my area but it doesn't hurt to ask.
I agree. Doesn't hurt. If you have the phone number & they don't sell in your area, take the phone number to Ingles. They are extremely accommodating at my store. The chain is family owned & their policy is to accomodate the customers. They do a pretty darned good job of it.
OP can forget about picking up a buttered hardroll at a 7-11 here (breakfast of champions in NJ). There are no 7-11's in NC from what I understand.
Wow, NC was covered in 7-11s when I was growing up ('70s/'80s). Now that you mention it, most of them are now Circle K. But we definitely USED to have them. I guess I had assumed the whole chain switched over.
Here's a few items not mentioned they never heard of down here: Hostess Snow Balls, Zepolli, Hot Open Roast Beef sandwich, Thumann's Bolonia, Cherry 7-Up, chopped veal (for meatballs), a FULL cake/desert aisle in the grocery store.
P.S. Can't wait for those guys to open up the Italian Hot Dog / Sausage shop.
Thanks! That's the kind of info I (OP) was looking for. Maybe I could hook up with the Italian Hot Dog poster and share a store with him, His Italian Hot Dog shop on one side, and my NY/NJ foods on the other side.
Last edited by littlejohnnie; 02-03-2010 at 09:51 AM..
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Originally Posted by littlejohnnie
Thanks! That's the kind of info I (OP) was looking for. Maybe I could hook up with the Italian Hot Dog poster and share a store with him, His Italian Hot Dog shop on one side, and my NJ foods on the other side.
That's not a bad idea, but I strongly suggest that you also search the board for the grocery threads. There are at least 2 or 3, where people are asking about specific products & then other people post where they have found them.
Oddly enough, Ingles & Lowes foods, which are NC chains carry more of these items than Food Lion, which has stores as far north as the middle of Delaware, &, I believe, southcentral PA.
Also, remember that while North Jersey trends to NYC, South Jersey trends to Philly, & that includes foods.
That's not a bad idea, but I strongly suggest that you also search the board for the grocery threads. There are at least 2 or 3, where people are asking about specific products & then other people post where they have found them.
Oddly enough, Ingles & Lowes foods, which are NC chains carry more of these items than Food Lion, which has stores as far north as the middle of Delaware, &, I believe, southcentral PA.
Also, remember that while North Jersey trends to NYC, South Jersey trends to Philly, & that includes foods.
Thanks for the input. I have noticed on other threads that a lot of the items I'm interested in stocking are available in other places, however it seems that if a northern transplant want to fill the cupboards with foods from "home" they have to go here for this, there for that, and it seems like they need to run all over town to get all the items they miss from home. Would it be convenient enough for them to have one place where they know they can get anything they remember from home? Convenient enough for it to be profitable as a business? Just not sure it is. Although my main customer base may start out northern transplants (do you have a name for us? We call people from North of the jersey shore who come to shore on vacations, Bennies. Are we still called Yankees? Or is there another name?) anyway... where was I? Oh yeah, I think once you fine Carolinians get a taste of a good NJ Pork Roll, egg and cheese on a hard roll, the locals may become regular customers as well.
Admittedly, one other reason I was thinking about this venture is that I live in NJ now and want to move to NC or SC but I have 5 grandchildren with a 6th on the way. Running a store with NJ food items is a perfect excuse to make "business trips" back and forth to NJ to stock the shelves, visit the family, and write it all off as a tax deductable business expense.
You're right about South Jersey trending toward the Philly ways. So I guess I'll have to include Philly cheese steaks and hot pretzels.
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Originally Posted by littlejohnnie
Thanks for the input. I have noticed on other threads that a lot of the items I'm interested in stocking are available in other places, however it seems that if a northern transplant want to fill the cupboards with foods from "home" they have to go here for this, there for that, and it seems like they need to run all over town to get all the items they miss from home. Would it be convenient enough for them to have one place where they know they can get anything they remember from home? Convenient enough for it to be profitable as a business? Just not sure it is. Although my main customer base may start out northern transplants (do you have a name for us? We call people from North of the jersey shore who come to shore on vacations, Bennies. Are we still called Yankees? Or is there another name?) anyway... where was I? Oh yeah, I think once you fine Carolinians get a taste of a good NJ Pork Roll, egg and cheese on a hard roll, the locals may become regular customers as well.
Admittedly, one other reason I was thinking about this venture is that I live in NJ now and want to move to NC or SC but I have 5 grandchildren with a 6th on the way. Running a store with NJ food items is a perfect excuse to make "business trips" back and forth to NJ to stock the shelves, visit the family, and write it all off as a tax deductable business expense.
You're right about South Jersey trending toward the Philly ways. So I guess I'll have to include Philly cheese steaks and hot pretzels.
I'm a transplant. Originally from Michigan, but spent most of my life in the South Jersey suburbs, 10 miles from center city Philly. I'm sure you can guess where.
I live west of Charlotte & in this area, natives have taken to some of the Philly foods, here. Years ago, when the mills were closing in Philly & moving down, some of the employees came with them. They brought some of their food & they are well established here now. Some of the local food is also traditional here & in Philly because it came down with early settlers, who had come from PA (like scrapple)
This isn't going anywhere in particular, just tossing it out for thought.
Setting up shop in south Gastonia or the main shopping drag on East Franklin in Gastonia might work better for demographics. Gastonia isn't that far from Charlotte. It's a whole lot closer than NJ. Plus, I've found that there's a fair number of transplants from South Jersey & Philly in the 3 western counties & you will find quite a few natives out here are open to the Philly food. There are also transplants from the NY metro area here, as well. You might have a better audience by mixing the foods from the 2 areas in a centrally located location.
Setting up shop in south Gastonia or the main shopping drag on East Franklin in Gastonia might work better for demographics. Gastonia isn't that far from Charlotte. It's a whole lot closer than NJ. Plus, I've found that there's a fair number of transplants from South Jersey & Philly in the 3 western counties & you will find quite a few natives out here are open to the Philly food. There are also transplants from the NY metro area here, as well. You might have a better audience by mixing the foods from the 2 areas in a centrally located location.
Just a thought. . .
Are the areas you mentioned "strip malls" are are they similar to downtown Greenville in SC? I fell in love with the quaintness of the downtown, where people park once, then spend all day walking from store to store. So unlike the strip malls where I live now where you drive to one store, get what you came for then get back in your car and drive somewhere else, each time knowing exactly where you're going and why. I'm looking to attract "strollers" who just happen to pass by the store as they stroll down "Main Street" during a leasurely day of shopping. If the areas you mention are similar to that, I would definitely be interested due to the demographics that you mentioned. Thanks for your help. I appreciate it. I would definitely need to locate where my customer base is going to be.
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Are the areas you mentioned "strip malls" are are they similar to downtown Greenville in SC? I fell in love with the quaintness of the downtown, where people park once, then spend all day walking from store to store. So unlike the strip malls where I live now where you drive to one store, get what you came for then get back in your car and drive somewhere else, each time knowing exactly where you're going and why. I'm looking to attract "strollers" who just happen to pass by the store as they stroll down "Main Street" during a leasurely day of shopping. If the areas you mention are similar to that, I would definitely be interested due to the demographics that you mentioned. Thanks for your help. I appreciate it. I would definitely need to locate where my customer base is going to be.
South Gastonia would be strip malls. Downtown Gastonia is walkable, but it's suffering from a lot of emptied stores, thanks to the mall in town. Plus a lot of people are afraid of that area (My former county seat was Camden. I'm not afraid of it.) The shopping in east Gastonia is strip malls, but it is multiple strip malls & people tend to park in an area & walk. You'd understand it when you see it.
There are many small towns to the west of Charlotte. They tend to have downtown areas & are walkable. The ones closest to Charlotte would work best for your concept, now. For instance, you can get to the Carolinas Medical Center complex next to uptown Charlotte from Belmont faster than you could get there from South Charlotte, via Wilkenson Blvd.
The downtowns of the towns further west are more distressed, with empty storefronts. I've been told by life-long natives that this is partially a result of the big mall in Gastonia, but also because of the large number of mills that have closed up. If you did well & could open a 2nd store I'd look at the towns further out from Charlotte, but not for a primary store. (there is a hoagie shop in Shelby that makes hoagies that are closer to the real thing than I've seen in northern Delaware. There is definitely a market for these things.
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Here's a few items not mentioned they never heard of down here: Hostess Snow Balls, Zepolli, Hot Open Roast Beef sandwich, Thumann's Bolonia, Cherry 7-Up, chopped veal (for meatballs), a FULL cake/desert aisle in the grocery store.
P.S. Can't wait for those guys to open up the Italian Hot Dog / Sausage shop.
Cherry 7-up is available at Ingles. I saw it today.
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) The shopping in east Gastonia is strip malls, but it is multiple strip malls & people tend to park in an area & walk. You'd understand it when you see it.
