January 2025

Around The Store With Stew

Here are Five Things that Could Affect Food Prices

• 25% tariffs. What’s gonna happen? Certain products may be affected more than others. You can only buy tequila from Mexico. Main source of avocados is Mexico also. We’re doing some of our own panic buying right now. I promise full shelves.

• Dock Strike. It’s looming. Increased costs will affect imported goods. We get our marina sauce from Italy. We’re stocking up!

• Eggs. We’re in the middle of a national egg shortage due to an unprecedented bird flu. It’s like the hens are in the middle of their own pandemic. There are no health risks associated with buying eggs right now. The challenge is getting them, but we have a 30 to 40-year relationship with our egg farmers and they promised us consistent supply.

• Meat. Our ranchers are mainly in Kansas. They have been affected by severe weather (zero degrees in Kansas), and supply has been limited. Meat prices were stable over the holidays but seem to be creeping up again. I’m not compromising on quality and you can count on us for the best beef at the best price.

• California wildfires. It’s mostly affected our strawberry fields that are closest to LA. There is so much sky cover from the smoke that the strawberries are not getting enough sunlight. They even had to evacuate one farm. We’re sourcing some great veggies from Arizona and the citrus from California is okay. We’ll get you the best fruit. Don’t worry.

Wildfire Donations

My wife is a third generation Californian, and my daughter currently lives in Santa Monica. She has been evacuated twice and, luckily, could move in with relatives in the LA area. Others were less fortunate. At Stew’s, we’ve partnered with the American Red Cross and are raising money for the victims. If you want to help, we’ve installed a “Round Up” option at the registers or you can throw some money in our Wishing Well. With all our customers, we’re hoping to raise $100,000.

Our Norwalk, CT Swim School Had
A Strong Year!

Not only were we able to teach thousands of children to swim, but we were able to give away 35,000 free swim lessons to kids in need. We’ve funded over 40 YMCAs and Boys & Girls Clubs. It’s like Robin Hood. We’re charging for lessons at the swim school and then, through our 501c3 charity, we’re giving away 100% of profits to provide free lessons. Paul Newman would be proud!

Family Business. I Love It and…I Hate It.

My father did a great job and prepared my sisters Beth and Jill, my brother Tommy, and myself to learn the business. Now, we have five members of the next generation who have entered the business. We have requirements for them, and they must have a college degree and work outside the business for two years prior to joining Stew’s (learn what the real world is like).

Then, IF there’s a job opening at Stews, they can apply. It’s worked really well so far, and the five members of the next generation all have their master’s degrees to boot. I’m 70 years old and love love love the business and our customers. I have to be turning over the reigns in the future. I showed a ShopRite family around our new Clifton store (they own a number of stores in the New Jersey area). I asked the owner if he had any family business members in his company and he replied, “Yes, do you want to trade?” Funny.

Here’s What People Buy for the
Super Bowl

Chicken Wings: We sell them every day but, for the Super Bowl we’ll sell 40,000 lbs. Don’t get me into a sauce discussion.
Guacamole: We make it fresh in the stores everyday (tricky peeling all those avocadoes)
Cheese platters

What Should You Be Buying Right Now?

I just ate some grapes this morning, which we’re getting from Peru. They are big, sweet, and crunchy. I feel like I could use one of them to play basketball. We’re not going for the extra large size…we’re going for the double jumbo size. We’re asking our farmers to give us the best of their crop. Same with blueberries from Peru.

Delicious. We’re also getting citrus (oranges and clementines) from California right now and the cherries are coming in from Chile. I love something sweet at night (usually ice cream or chocolate drizzled rice cakes) but, I’m replacing that with some of this sweet fruit. Hope that helps my waistline in January! P.S. I might add a little whipped cream. Shhhh.

Dry January is For Real and Growing.

I was just in one of our wine stores today and our non-alcoholic beers have increased 25% over last January (Athletic Brewing is my favorite!). The customer I was talking to is also loading up on the CBD/THC infused sparkling water. That’s been increasing rapidly also.

Watch The Video

Can You Believe Someone Paid $28,000 for Six Bottles of Wine?

DRC wines from France are small production and highly allocated in the US. One customer came in and bought 6! Can I come over for a tasting?

This Product Shocked Me!

I was walking through the store and noticed they were grinding up sugar canes and selling bottles of the juice. So many people are looking at sugar content these days that I thought it was a stupid idea. I was then talking to our manager, Charlie, and asked him how they were selling.

He said, “Stew it’s a homerun. We sold hundreds of bottles today!” That’s why I encourage our buyers to always say, “Stew who?“ Don’t bring in a product because you think “Stew will like it.” Bring it in because our customers would love it. In this case…. I just love sugarcane juice!

A Few Surprises at the Holidays

Our customers don’t have time to cook! We noticed more and more customers asking for their food prepared. Our catering orders were up for both Christmas and Hanukkah. Most popular was the Filet Mignon Dinner for 8.

Alaskan King Crab legs at $46.99 a pound? We couldn’t get them last year, but we’re able to source them for the holidays. Too expensive? That’s what I thought too but, we sold more than 6,000 lbs!

Stew’s cookie milk. 100 years ago my great-grandfather sold milk in glass bottles. We brought this back with seasonal flavored milk. This year we sold over 16,000 bottles!

Super Bowl Prediction

After a discussion with our 6 foot 4, 250 lb. ranchers in Kansas, I’m rooting for the Chiefs.

Speaking To Our Ranchers

I asked our ranchers how their cattle were doing during the cold weather in the Midwest, and they said Angus cattle are very hardy. The wind is a bigger concern than the freezing temperatures! But the ranchers keep a close eye on them, moving them to shelters and putting up wind fences. Snow will build up on the backs of healthy cattle, but it will melt across the backs of sick animals. One of our ranchers in Iowa even puts earmuffs on their calves this time of year!

We Have One Problem…Your Husbands!

We heard this one from a few wives. They would order their filet mignons, shrimp, and all of the sides they desired. But when their husbands came to pick everything up, they would say, “Throw in an extra mashed potatoes and an extra mac and cheese!” It forces us to run around the store and grab these last-minute items. We managed, but heard about it from a few unhappy wives the next day!