PLACERVILLE . INFO

For the grocery industry as a whole, the recession has an upside: As consumers spend less at restaurants, they're buying more at supermarkets.

But that doesn't mean every grocer is thriving.

"What we're seeing is maybe a growing spread between the winners and the losers," said Jim Hertel, managing partner at Willard Bishop LLC, a Chicago-area retail consultant.

That trend seems to hold for the Sacramento region's small independent grocers. They're inherently niche players whose success is tied to the economic conditions in their local neighborhood or the demand for their specialized products.

In recent interviews with a half-dozen local grocery owners and managers, some reported strong sales. Others said they're getting clobbered.

At Bing's Market in Rio Linda, sales are down 25 percent, said co-owner Victor Ung.

"We have a lot of loyal customers, and even though they're in a crunch, we still see them every day," he said. "People just aren't buying as much."

Many of Ung's regulars are tradespeople hit hard by the drop in construction. "I talk to people all the time who say they haven't worked in three months," he said.

In Georgetown, in rural El Dorado County, sales are also down at the local Mar-Val market, said Mark Kidd, who owns the four-store chain based in Lodi. Like Ung, Kidd isn't losing customers, but shoppers at the Georgetown store are avoiding impulse purchases and buying less expensive cuts of meat, he said.

"Instead of buying the filet, they're buying the hamburger."

At Taylor's Market on Freeport Boulevard in Land Park, manager David Hunter said sales are roughly flat compared with a year ago. He's also noticed customers trading down – buying cheaper bottles of wine, for instance – but that trend hasn't been enough to drag down overall sales.

"I think we're happy to be where we're at now, (given) the economy," he said.

The brightest news came from the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-Op on Alhambra Boulevard, where General Manager Paul Cultrera reported sales are up 5 percent over a year ago. That's because prices are higher due to inflation, he said, and customer traffic has risen.

Through most of 2008, he said, sales were up an average of 7 percent, despite the worsening economy.

"We weren't feeling any effect until November," he said.

– Jim Downing