The transparent jars of peanut butter are lined up along the walls of the Bossche shop with military precision. With pieces of stroopwafel and cinnamon, garlic and fried onion or, around Easter time, a whole Easter egg. The Peanut Butter Shop is a so-called super specialty store: it doesn’t sell much more than jars of peanut butter, except for some printed T-shirts (‘Pindabaas’) and socks (‘peanut stockings’).
The offer may be a bit monotonous and pricey – a pot costs almost 7 euros – but the formula works, says founder Michiel Vos. He does not share turnover and profit figures, but in his own words his company (about 160 employees, 50 FTEs) has had ‘a very good year’. “It also went well during the pandemic. I often heard from customers that they had a greater focus on tasty food for home, because nothing was possible outside the door.”
Vos says he has made an annual profit since the establishment of his retail chain in 2016. He does this through physical sales in 21 of his own stores and 800 to 900 delicatessens where his pots are on the shelf, and through his webshop. Sales in delicatessens and online in particular went very well during the pandemic, says Vos.
Like supermarkets, specialty stores — for example, delis, cheesemongers and butchers — did well during the pandemic. In 2020, the sector’s turnover increased by 6.4 percent, according to figures from knowledge platform Retail Insiders† By comparison, the turnover of stores that did not sell food fell by 0.3 percent that same year. The platform does not yet have figures for 2021.
growth rate
Specialty shops had a difficult time before corona, says Norman Buysse of market researcher GfK. “Fewer and fewer people went to those kinds of stores, especially young people stayed away.” This was partly because supermarkets also started to sell more fresh products, making people less inclined to go to butchers or greengrocers. “Specialty stores could not keep up with the growth rate of supermarkets,” says Buysse. In 2019, the industry grew slightly, but not as fast as supermarkets.
The fact that specialty stores were allowed to remain open during the lockdowns – they were labeled ‘essential’ – of course explains a lot, says director Patricia Hoogstraaten of trade association Vakcentrum. Especially because many other sectors did close.
Like entrepreneur Vos, Hoogstraten sees that many people spend money that they could not spend in bars and restaurants during lockdowns on luxury products for the home. “People wanted to keep celebrating their birthdays or do a little extra every now and then.”
Also read this piece about the impact of the pandemic on the retail sector: If you don’t have a webshop yet, it will be difficult after corona
According to Buysse of GfK, the advice to work from home also had a pleasant side effect for specialist shops. These stores usually have limited opening hours and are therefore difficult to visit for those who work from nine to five. “Supermarkets have been very successful for a long time in extending their opening hours. Now that people were working from home, they could easily stop by the cheese farmer during their lunch break.”
outing
“Specialty stores had a hard time years ago,” says Diane Roerink, founder of dairy chain Zuivelhoeve. “But the pandemic made consumers more loyal. ‘Be loyal, buy local’ suddenly became a common slogan.” These and similar cries to get people to support local entrepreneurs made it easier for customers to swap supermarkets for specialists. “We also noticed that going to the specialty store became an outing for people, because the rest of society was closed.”
Zuivelhoeve sells yogurt in supermarkets and, under its own name, forms one of the largest chains of specialty stores in the Netherlands. Roerink also does not share financial figures, but says that turnover and profit have “definitely” grown during the pandemic. According to the founder, her company’s figures are comparable to those of the rest of the industry. She even sees room for expansion: in the week she NRC speaks, Roerink opens the 78th Zuivelhoeve specialty store.
Does the corona boost that specialty shops received last? Buysse of GfK thinks not. He conducted research into the turnover figures of the sector, broken down by type of store. Where all types of specialty stores together grew considerably in 2020, the tables he made show the first red numbers as of 2021.
Daily bread
“The greengrocer was the first kind of specialty store to hand in. Subsequently, cheese farmers, butchers and fishmongers also declined,” says Buysse. Bakers continue to do well, as do open-air markets. The researcher does not have an unambiguous explanation for this. “Perhaps that is due to the fact that consumers eat luxury fish and meat again at the catering industry, but that bread is consumed daily at home.”
In addition, Buysse thinks that the enormous rise in consumer prices since last autumn could become problematic for specialist shops. The Netherlands is struggling with historically high inflation rates – as much as 11.2% in April. “We see that groceries have become about 11 percent more expensive in the past six months. That’s big. It is not inconceivable that consumers will make different choices and visit supermarkets more often instead of specialist shops. That is a threat to those stores.”
Vos van de Pindakaaswinkel is happy that his business has been going well in recent years, but agrees: “Now it’s going to be exciting.” He feels inflation very clearly, he says. “Every week we get a significant price increase for our raw materials.” Previously, this happened once a year, with an increase of about 2 or 3 percent. Nowadays he adds up to 10.15 percent monthly on his main purchase: peanuts, glass, metal lids, cardboard boxes. Ultimately, the price of his jars of peanut butter will have to go up.
“Now it will be interesting to see: to what extent can specialty stores get away with prices that consumers are not used to?” Vos wonders. He himself does not have the answer – he calls the practical consideration of raising prices a “thin rope” to balance on. “Everyone knows that products are becoming more expensive, but we are already at a higher price level than supermarkets. Where is the psychological limit that people give up?”
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of May 10, 2022