“Retailing American-style”

Cheese Talk with

Juliet Harbutt

• How one cheese shop supported locals in lockdown
• Rory Mellis, IJ Mellis: “Local businesses have a chance to flourish”
• Why we should be proud of the cheese industry’s response to Covid
• The joy of cheese grading
• “Keeping the faith”

On a recent visit to Santa Barbara – a highly recommended detour if you’re stuck in LA for a few days – I checked out the various shops, supermarkets and delis, and was as always amazed at how different the shopping experience is from the UK

Firstly in terms of service – the staff were helpful, friendly, charming (even flirtatious), and often knowledgeable. I was struck by the number who were foodies, home chefs and older than 40. Some wore uniform, but others were dressed in saggy jeans and weird t-shirts with hair longer and more matted than the dreadlock on a Laxa sheep, but still. Like a good waiter they are constantly on the look out to see if you need help. You don’t have to wave or cough to get their attention, and they don’t care how many questions you ask. Well, the exception was a grumpy lad who told me, “Poke is tuna, what else would it be”? It looked like mushy watermelon with sesame seeds to me rather than chunks of tuna marinated in soya, ginger and chillies, but it tasted wonderful.

Secondly, they have lots of things to pick up for free – impressive glossy magazines, local newspapers, maps of the area, info on the local farmers markets, what’s in season – less about recipes and more about the food. And many seem to offer classes, courses, tutored tastings or visits to producers. Some offer free coffee and made-on-the-premise falafel, chicken dishes, pizza, burritos – why don’t we do more Mexican food? It’s delicious and healthy! – so I could do my shopping, pick up the hot ready-to-go main and take it to the beach then listen to the seals bark while the pelicans gave me the evil eye.

Their seafood sections are quite small compared with the meat, but they include freshly-made seafood salads and dressed crabs. The meat counter I found totally off-putting, and contained minced, mashed and mangled meat in all forms and colours. And there were so many interesting vegetables, part of the Mexican influence, including loads of tomato varieties which were all sweet and ripe thanks to the warm winter, superbly ripe avocados and deep green sweet hot peppers – all things I love to buy when travelling local, together with in-season foods and non-heavily processed dressings. Something the USA does far too well.

So where are we better? Well, our shops are cleaner, the signage on the shelves very clear if clinical and regimented, the shelves a lot less cluttered and crowded, and there is less choice of the same product. I had to choose my milk from a dairy case 12 feet long and 4 shelves high, and many of their products have significantly higher than necessary sugar or salt content. Olives and antipasto are presented better, and pre-packed cheese in the UK is in much better condition. 

Overall, the experience of shopping in the USA is generally more fun – grinding my own cashew butter and seeing it squiggle and squirm into my plastic pot was worth every cent; less stressful – their parking spaces are almost 2 feet wider than ours as they have bigger cars and bigger people; and the shops are designed for smaller, more regular shopping expeditions, which are perfect for the traveller.