A Growing Appetite for Specialty Foods

(page 2 of 2)

The personal touch, something that was once as common as Starbucks stores today, is making a comeback at small shops across the country. "I was always a chain shopper, until I moved here and I began going to local farmers markets. [After that] I was turned off by the mass production and tastelessness of produce," says Leslie McGrath, a Connecticut poet from Fairfield County who now lives in the small seaside town of Noank.

While McGrath hasn't been able to completely wean herself from chains, she says she makes a point of patronizing small local specialty shops. She buys most of her meat from a local farmer, and her fish from a local monger. "I know where it's coming from, and I know who's doing it," she says.

Taste Test

The trend toward organic, fresh, and artisanal products also has helped spur the move toward shopping small. Mike Gingrich, a Xerox veteran, left the corporate world and bought a small dairy farm in Dodgeville, Wisc., in 1978. In 2000, Gingrich, his wife, and another couple decided to pool their cow herds and produce artisanal cheese made from raw cow's milk.

The result is Uplands Cheese. "I was convinced there was a real opportunity to sell to different shops and restaurants and gourmet markets that were looking for interesting products," says Gingrich. "Because we graze in the summer, we have a flavor advantage in the milk that doesn't exist with conventionally milked cows that use machines to harvest feed. Our product is unique."

Indeed, Uplands, which makes only one type of cheese, started its first year producing only 6,000 pounds. The following year it produced twice that amount, and now it makes 60,000 pounds a year of its specialty cheese and sells it across the country. "People are moving away from the chains," says Gingrich. "Things sold directly from the farm have an advantage of perceived quality and flavor. Making something small-scale by hand can make it so much better than anything you can find in a supermarket. People are seeing that."

In other words, independents that make or grow food are finding that small just might be the new big.

Perman is a staff writer for BusinessWeek.com in New York.