What NYC’s Jefferson Market Forget About its Brand
The grocery store’s been gone a while now –yet walking by the empty space on 6th Avenue and 11th Street, the former site of the once thriving Jefferson Market, I still get a ping It’s hard to imagine how the gourmet market, the pride of the neighborhood and a goldmine in the 70’s and 80’s, could wither away and die.
“The Jeff”, as it was called, brought out celebrities to do their own shopping. You’d see Jane Curtin at the height of her SNL fame standing waiting for someone to help her check-out around the big square counter where customers found a spot and waited to pya.. No one ever jumped the line cause there was no line. It all worked beautifully. Customers here ran tabs in great white books the way your great-grandparents once did. The clerks knew you and they knew what you owed.
People loved it. They gladly paid more for what they could buy cheaper a few blocks away because it was so cool shopping at ‘the Jeff”. What brought the people in was the prime meat showcases but what kept them coming back was the unique feeling of shopping at an old general store. So, what did management do wrong? How did a store that thrived since 1929 go out of business?
Well, management forgot what they did well!
Know your Customer: Just because you can move doesn’t mean you need to move. Maybe there’s another way for the new generation to make their mark on the business instead of moving across the street and homogenizing the business so all the quaint charm goes out the door with the customers. Asking the customers what they want might have helped. Do some market research. Surveying customers is never easier than it is now with Google Notes and SurveyMonkey.com.
Don’t Forget the U.S.P.: At “the Jeff” there were as many workers serving you as customers. They knew their job was to serve you and they would go overboard trying. Once I forgot a package behind that I bought at another store and by the time I called to ask them to hold it for me, they already loaded in the van ready to be delivered. That’s great value added service.
When I was recovering from an operation, the guys at the meat/fish counter wrapped two weeks of individual fish and meat portions in special freezer paper and marked them so I knew what was inside. No extra charge. I came home loving “the Jeff” as I loaded the freezer. Today every small business needs to define what customer service is going to be like at their store and live it. Empower your employees to make some decisions on their own.
Let your team be themselves: Each employee had a unique personality and they were allowed to shine. Some had graying hair and been butchers for years. Others were young, handsome and had their fan followings. My favorite was “the Captain” who manned the prime meat counter for years wearing a yachting cap and when it was slow would give you a recipe that used fewer than 5 ingredients. The team was professional, knew their stuff and a meat counter with 20 guys working behind it is a sight to behold.
Your Customer Will Wait: When your products are the best around people will gladly wait to be served.The meat counter was always packed. So, packed the crowds sat on benches waiting to be called. It was a good way to catch up with friends and neighbors. People enjoyed sitting and looking at the woodcarvings of rabbits and antelope hanging on the walls. You could see so many interesting people ordering - from the men at the local firehouse who would drive up in their red fire truck to lots of celebrities.
Do What You Do Best: Competition came to the Jefferson Market when Balducci’s expanded and added an elaborate prepared foods area. Somehow, the great guys at “the Jeff” felt lacking. They forgot they sold the best prime meats for 50 blocks. They forgot people would walk miles to come to their store. They forgot about their fish store selling only fish in the Village and instead coveted their neighbors prepared foods.
When “the Jeff” expanded across the street half the store became a huge prepared foods area you had to navigate to get around. Only the hot items were made fresh and there was nothing sadder than looking at a lasagna in the showcase you know was made last week. I used to wonder “who buys this stuff” and the answer is – nobody. So, if you have a product that people love, like the prime meats at Jefferson Market, make it the star of your shop.
Stubbornly Stick with What Ain’t Working:
After the Jefferson Market moved across the street to the for rent spot in the picture above - it wasn’t the same. The little market with the big heart transformed into any run-of-the-mill small grocery store. The meat counter was smaller to make room for the prepared foods. The benches where people once sat waiting for service now held bread and other items. Nobody wanted a more efficient shopping experience. People liked the weird old place that was like no other place on earth.
Gone were all the workers that had grown old working at “the Jeff”. In their place, a were folks from neighborhoods far, far, away. Girls who couldn’t make eye contact manned the registers and answered every question with a mumbled, “I don’t know”. If you were buying arugula they would ask you what it was and then not be happy to be told. The cleverest thing that crew ever said was “Next” as they called the next customer forward to check out.
The new system threw the old customers off. Now arguments would now break out among people waiting in line and those who accidently cut ahead not realizing the line continued after a short break. What was once a pocket of happiness, jokes and neighbors greeting neighbors was now a line snaking thru the store filled with disgruntled people wanting to go home.
I approached the new owner after they opened and said, “You made a real mistake here with this change. You cut out the heart and soul of the business” and he said, “Yeah, I know” to quiet me down quickly. He didn’t want to hear the business he went into debt to expand was a shell of itself. He was in denial and he stayed there.
For a while business carried on. There were lines and people buying cheese at the expanded cheese area. But once Citarella moved into the old Balducci’s spot it all dried up.
Now at the Jeff nobody manned the fancy cheese counter any more. Now Citarella’s fish was superb –better than what you can buy at the shore and they were selling meat too. Citarella was the last nail but “the Jeff” had lost the fight long before by forgetting what it did well and not realizing why its customers were so loyal.
The management of Jefferson Market rode the decision to homogenize and pasteurize their one of a kind business all the way to the end. So, now this place that many Villagers loved since 1929, has become another piece of available real estate. Gee maybe if we are lucky we will get another bank!
