The Anchovy Paste Syndrome

Most supermarkets, including ours, stock between thirty and forty thousand items depending upon the store size. And each year, food manufacturers and processors present between twenty and twenty five thousand new items to food retailers. . .that’s about two thousand new items every month, two thousand items that the grocer must evaluate as potential products for his customers. It’s a tricky process, because only about 10% of these new products are on the grocer’s shelves 24 months later.

The introduction of the UPC code, that group of varied sized black bars on product labels introduced around 40 years ago, gave supermarkets a new tool to instantly measure the number of individual products sold and profits realized. For some food retailers UPC reports became the single deciding factor of whether a product remained on the shelves or not. In effect, if not enough of your neighbors bought the product, you did not have the opportunity to buy it yourself. Many grocers switched the emphasis from customer service to volume and profit. I like to call it the Anchovy Paste Syndrome.

Anchovy Paste is possibly the slowest moving item in the grocery industry, and the most difficult product to find anywhere. Even the big-box stores with food, clothing and hardware under one roof do not offer it to their customers. You might find anchovies in a little tin in these super-stores, but real Spanish Anchovy Paste in small jars or tubes are impossible to find.

Of course, we have Anchovy Paste at Hillers. We always have, and we always will. It falls into our must-have category. In fact we have eight different kinds.

And just like hundreds of other very special foods and additives, you CAN find it at Hillers. If you wish to mix up a batch Caesar Potato Salad or any of the hundreds of other great dishes that cry out for the special salty-sweet light fish flavor of Anchovy Paste, visit the spice section, the canned fish and meat section, look atop the fresh meat and fish coolers, or the gourmet food department near the Italian foods.

Well, maybe we over did it, but we pride ourselves in putting specialty products right where you think they ought to be.

Jim Hiller