Diversify the Offering
Reading Terminal Market, Philadelphia
Colorful stall signage of Beck’s Cajun Café,
one of the more famous stalls in the market
“… the grocery stalls still offer fresh produce and meat direct from Lancaster County farms, fish, seafood, and a wide array of fruits and vegetables; these stalls are interspersed with others selling flowers, health supplements, tea, coffee, spices, books, and crafts… Amish farm families are a strong presence… while their high-quality, homegrown meats and vegetables are affordable as well as delectable … Delilah’s provides delicious African American cuisine, or “soul food.” Among the other eateries are a Thai place, an oyster bar, a French bakery, a Jewish bakery, a juice bar, a beer garden, and a cookie company…”
-Reading Terminal Market
The Cosmopolitan Canopy [1] pages 32-33
Most literature on food halls and public markets support the recommendation to diversify the offering [5, 6, 10, 11, 16]. However, there are different dimensions to their definition of diversity. Cushman and Wakefield defined a modern food hall as a “permanent market building that features a mix of food-inspired retail (everything from cooking supplies to cookbook stores), artisanal food vendors (upscale chocolatiers, premium cheeses, bakers, butchers, etc.) and a mix of restaurateurs serving authentically prepared foods (anything from street foods to chef-driven concepts, typically with an emphasis on “farm-to-fork” fresh ingredients)” [5]. Donald and Blay-Palmer defined elements of diversity for the urban food economy in terms of whether the place offers ethnic, organic, fusion, and local food items [4]. The Culinary Visions consumer market study confirmed that people prefer variety in their food [17]. 54% of the study respondents indicated a preference for a food hall because there were choices for everyone [17]. Among millennials, 40% responded that they would order something different whenever they visit the same food place [5].
DIVERSITY OF FOOD OFFERING
FOOD STALLS AROUND THE WORLD
“The Quest for World Flavors
Consumers are expanding their appetites to encompass global flavors and international ingredients. Embarking on a deeper exploration of Latin American, Asian and Mediterranean foods means using food ingredients and flavor profiles from Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Korea, Philippines, and Morocco. Flavors that were once considered exotic are now being sold in dry and paste formats optimal for high volume kitchens.”
— Culinary Visions Panel
Trend Forecast 2019 [3]
“ETHNIC” SPICES, SALADS, AND PREPARED FOOD ITEMS
FOOD HALLS AROUND THE WORLD
Successful food halls provide a variety of meal options and shopping opportunities to its visitors. The diversity of a food hall’s offering is a function of its physical size, its history, the size of the market it is serving, and the planning process which accompanied its set-up [7, 10, 12].
The Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia and the Granville Market in Vancouver benefit from all of these factors, allowing them to provide for a more extensive variety of food stalls. In the Reading Terminal Market, there are several stalls owned and operated by Amish families, because of their geographical presence in Pennsylvania and their historical presence in the old market [14]. Several stalls serve variations of the original Philly cheesesteaks, reflective of the area’s traditional cuisine. Because of the size of the market, several stalls offer similar merchandise, allowing for greater choice and variety for the diners. The market also provides opportunities for shopping, by offering food items to take home, like cheese, charcuterie, local jam and jellies, honey, mushroom, and oils. Further expanding on the food concept, the market encourages other specialty stores dedicated to food preparation, such as bookstores, kitchen gadgets, herbs, tea and coffee, and linens for the dining table.
READING TERMINAL MARKET, PHILADELPHIA
VARIETY OF OFFERINGS
Reading Terminal Market, List of Merchants [15]
Reading Terminal Market, List of Merchants [15]
Bakeries – Beiler’s Bakery, Beiler’s Donuts and Salads, Famous 4th Street Cookie Company, Flying Monkey Bakery, Market Bakery, Metropolitan Bakery, Termini Brothers Bakery
Beverages - Boardroom Spirits, Eight Oaks Craft Distillers, Four Seasons Juice Bar, Lancaster County Dairy, Molly Malloy’s, New Liberty Distillery, Old City Coffee, Original 13 Ciderworks, Pennsylvania Pour Collective, Pezone Row Home Grown Cello, Stateside Urbancraft Vodka, Tea Leaf
Dairy & Cheese - Bassetts Ice Cream, Downtown Cheese, Riehl Deli & Cheese Shop, Valley Shepherd Creamery & Meltkraft
Ethnic Groceries - Hershel’s East Side Deli, Jonathan Best Gourmet Grocer, Kamal’s Middle Eastern Specialties, Little Thai Market
Flowers & Plants – Market Blooms
Houseware, Books, Crafts, & Gifts – Amazulu (silver jewelry), Amy’s Place (kitchen items), Bassetts Ice Cream, Bee Natural, Condiment, Contessa’s French Linens, various Day Stall merchants, De’Village, Herbiary, Mueller Chocolate Co., Pennsylvania General Store, Sweet as Fudge Candy Shoppe, Tea Leaf, The Head Nut, The Tubby Olive
Meat & Poultry – Giunta’s Prime Shop, Godshall’s Poultry, L. Halteman Family Country Foods, Martin’s Quality Meats and Sausages, Smucker’s Quality Meats & Grill
Pennsylvania Dutch – Dienner’s Bar-B-Q Chicken, Dutch Eating Place, Hatville Deli, Kaufman’s Lancaster Country Produce, L. Halteman Family Country Foods, Lancaster County Dairy, Miller’s Twist (pretzels), Riehl Deli & Cheese Shop, Smucker’s Quality Meats & Grill, Sweet as Fudge Candy Shoppe, The Rib Stand
Produce - Iovine Brothers Produce, Kauffman’s Lancaster Country Produce, OK Produce, Shibumi Mushrooms
Restaurants - Beck’s Cajun Café, By George! Pizza, Pasta & Cheesesteaks, Carmen’s Famous Italian Hoagies & Cheesesteaks, Dienner’s Bar-B-Q Chicken, DiNic’s, Down Home Diner, Dutch Eating Place, Fox & Son Fancy Corndogs, Franks-A-Lot!, Hatville Deli, Hershel’s East Side Deli, Hunger Burger, Kamal’s Middle Eastern Specialties, Keven Parker’s Soul Food Café, Little Thai Market, Loco Lucho’s Latino Kitchen, Molly Malloy’s, Nanee’s Kitchen, Olympia Gyro, Pearl’s Oyster Bar, Profi’s Creperie, Sang Kee Peking Duck, Shanghai Gourmet, Smucker’s Quality Meats & Grill, Spataro’s Cheesesteaks, The Original Turkey, The Rib Stand, Tootsie’s Hot and Cold Buffet, Valley Shepherd Creamery & Meltkraft
Seafood – Golden Fish Market, John Yi Fish Market
In increasing the diversity of the food offering, there is however a risk that the authenticity of a food hall is reduced [2, 7, 8]. In successful food halls, tourists usually overwhelm the market in terms of numbers. Vendors are sometimes tempted to change their product offering, to be able to improve their stall’s economic viability [2, 8].
“If only the madness stopped at herb-crusted fuet. At Boket, the largest seller of red meat in the Boqueria, a good portion of the stand is dedicated to selling mini burgers, beef empanadas, burritos—whatever beef byproducts they can cook up. Two stands over, Puerto Latino offers what must be the Boqueria’s most outrageous selection of takeaway food: chicken nuggets, calzones, ribs slathered with barbecue sauce. Like many of the vendors today, the owners operate a prep kitchen just on the outskirts of the Boqueria, and every few weeks, a new Frankenfood joins the high-calorie roster behind the glass casing—hot dogs coated in an armor of crushed potato chips, say, or falafel cones stuffed with French fries. Tourists crowd around the bright stand—adorned with phrases like “Organic Orgasmic”—and shell out euros for trays of nachos and cups of guac and bottles of cold beer.”
BOQUERIA MARKET, BARCELONA
FRUIT SHAKES AND READY TO EAT FRUIT, FOR SALE TO TOURISTS
Increasing the diversity of a food hall means also planning for a range of food offering which encompasses different times of the day, from breakfast to mid-day meals, afternoon snacks, early evening drinks, and late-night meals. The Reading Terminal market is only open from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm and one can feel a palpable disappointment among the customers when the vendors start closing their stalls at 5:45 pm. There may be some costs associated with expanding the market’s operating hours, but there is seemingly an unmet demand to service residents and visitors after 6:00 pm. This demand, however, has to be balanced with the needs of vendors to rest, given that they usually get up and prepare their stalls quite early in the morning.
Reading Terminal Market, Philadelphia
“Torrades smiles. There is a constant battle to stop the market traders closing at lunchtime and going home to bed — which would leave the supermarkets as the only supplier. This is not tolerated. “It is anti-commercial,” he says with feeling, “and remember, above everything else this has to be profitable.”
— Barcelona’s Market Forca [9]
The Financial Times
Regardless of the dimensions of diversity, however, what is more important is that the variety of offering for a food hall must match the needs of the community [7, 13, 16]. This entails a lot of planning before the food hall is opened. It also means constantly reaching out to the community, for any possible changes which they may need, once the food hall is operating. These initiatives can come in the form of medium-term reviews of market vision and strategies, annual goal setting in coordination with the merchant association and the community, and ad-hoc committees which are set up to address particular concerns or issues.
Sources:
Elijah Anderson, The Cosmopolitan Canopy: Race and Civility in Everyday Life (New York, New York, W.W. Norton & Co., c 2011. 1st ed.).
Montserrat Crespi-Vallbona and Darko Dimitrovski, 'Urban Food Markets in the Context of a Tourist Attraction: La Boqueria Market in Barcelona Spain', Tourism Geographies, 20 (2018), 397-417.
'Culinary Visions 2019 Trend Forecast', (Culinary Visions Panel 2019).
Betsy Donald and Alison Blay-Palmer, 'The Urban Creative-Food Economy: Producing Food for the Urban Elite or Social Inclusion Opportunity?', Environment and Planning A, 38 (2006), 1901-20.
'Food Halls of North America', (Cushman & Wakefield, 2018).
Karen Franck, 'The City as Dining Room, Market, and Farm', Architecture Design May/June 2005.
———, 'Food for the City, Food in the City', Architecture Design May/June 2005.
Matt Goulding, 'The Battle for the Boqueria', in Roads & Kingdoms (2018).
Tim Hayward, 'Barcelona's Market Forca', in Financial Times (London, United Kingdom, 2015).
Edwin Heathcote, 'How Cities Can Harness the Power of the Market', in Financial Times (London, United Kingdom, 2018).
Peter Jones, David Hillier, and Daphne Comfort, 'Changing Times and Changing Places for Market Halls and Covered Markets.', International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 35 Issue: 3, (2007) pp.200-209.
Alfonso Morales, 'Planning and the Self-Organization of Marketplaces', Journal of Planning Education & Research, 30 (2010), 182-97.
———, 'Public Markets as Community Development Tools', Journal of Planning Education and Research, 28 (2008), 426-40.
'Reading Terminal Market History', 2019 <https://readingterminalmarket.org/about-us/history/>.
'Reading Terminal Market: Merchants ', 2019 <https://readingterminalmarket.org/merchants/>.
David Studdert and Sophie Watson, Markets as Sites for Social Interaction: Spaces of Diversity, Public Spaces Series (Bristol, UK, Published for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation by Policy Press, 2006).
Tad Wilkes, 'Food Halls and Markets Still on-Trend', in Hotel F&B (2017).