For LaBonne’s, planning for a tough future

SALISBURY — His family-owned business has not joined the Article 78 lawsuit against the town of North East, N.Y., Planning Board over a planned supermarket on Route 44. But Bob LaBonne joined one of the individuals filing the suit, Sharon Kroeger, at a meeting here at the offices of The Lakeville Journal to express his concerns about the impact the store could have on his business and other independently owned retailers in the Tri-state region. LaBonne is the owner and CEO of the 50-year-old LaBonne’s Markets, which has four stores (in Salisbury, Watertown, Woodbury and Southbury). He is the great-great-grandson of George LaBonne, who sold fish and meat from a wagon in the early 1900s, according to the store’s history. The first brick-and-mortar location was opened in 1962. The Salisbury location opened in 1989.The grocery business is tough these days, LaBonne said, noting that the store keeps less than a dollar on every hundred dollars that it earns.The cost of everything has gone up, he said, especially the cost of fuel (it costs $10,000 to bring a truckload of lettuce from California, he said) to the cost of utilities for the store.“Consumers are paying the same retail prices but my costs have gone up 40 to 50 percent,” he said.He has done market studies on various retail scenarios in the area, moving into the future, and one thing is clear to him: The presence of a superstore in North East could have a crushing effect on smaller, independently owned stores such as Sharon Farm Market and LaBonne’s.Because LaBonne’s has the three other stores to support it, it’s possible it could bounce back — eventually. But it’s likely that would take 20 years, he said. There are already significant strains on the smaller stores, he said, with the big box outlets nearby in Torrington and with the easy availability of merchandise from the Internet. Around the country, he said, independent grocers “are being squashed at a record pace. When a superstore opens, you typically get a 30 percent hit in the first year and a 10 percent hit in the second year. Not too many independent stores can survive that.”The impact wasn’t quite that bad from the Super Stop & Shop in North Canaan, he said.“When it opened we expected a 7 percent decrease. Within six months after that 7 percent hit, we got most of that back.”The Stop & Shop is a 60,000-square-foot store with a pharmacy, bakery and florist shop. The proposed supermarket in North East would be 36,000 square feet. LaBonne’s is a 12,000-square-foot store.When the Freshtown opened in Amenia (taking over what had been a Grand Union), LaBonne’s experienced a 2 percent hit.LaBonne’s is continuing to make efforts to solidify its local connections and protect itself from the impact of a megastore. “One of the nice things we push as a little store is the unique product lines, the local products, and service.”The stores are working now with the Connecticut Farmland Trust on a program where LaBonne’s would not only buy products from local farmers but would also freeze and Cryovac farm products, so they can continue to be sold more than a day or two after they have been delivered.LaBonne said another goal is to cut back on some of the breadth of varieties offered by national brands.“We don’t really need to sell 12 scents of Tide. Tropicana juices now come in seven or eight sizes and 17 varieties. I’d rather get back to basics and have more room for local products. We don’t think the push to buy local is a fad.”A correction has been made to this story online. The print edition said, "There are already significant strains on the smaller stores, he said, with the big box outlets nearby in Millerton and with the easy availability of merchandise from the Internet." It should have said Torrington, not Millerton.