Family grocer turns 50

On a recent Monday afternoon, the family-owned grocery store in Cape St. Claire bustled with customers.

These shoppers are just a sampling of hundreds of Broadneck Peninsula residents who frequent Graul's, which is as much apart of the neighborhood as the local ball park.

Graul's is also the only place to pick up groceries in the community.

This week the store celebrates its 50th anniversary, and plans to give away a 50-inch TV and $150 gift certificates to celebrate.

Fred Graul, who runs the store established on Cape St. Claire Road in 1958, called the anniversary a "great feeling." The Cape St. Claire location is one of six family-owned Graul's stores in areas including Annapolis, Baltimore and the Eastern Shore. It is the second store established in the Graul's network and has been at the same location for half a century.

"I'm glad to be a part of it. I grew up in the business," said Mr. Graul, who also serves on the board of directors for the local SPCA chapter and Hospice of the Chesapeake Foundation. "Our entire family is in the grocery business - no one has gone out to do anything else."

Graul's is celebrating at a time when the local grocery store industry has become more competitive, with several stores undergoing renovations including Giant and Shoppers Food Warehouse. And Safeway is rebuilding its store on Route 2 in Arnold, complete with a protected parking area underneath.

View slide show

http://media.hometownannapolis.com/flash/2008/08/19sshta/index.html

Smaller grocers like Graul's can't compete with large chains like Safeway on price, so they must find ways to differentiate themselves by offering unique products and providing excellent customer service, a path that Graul's has taken, said Bridget Goldschmidt, manager editor of Progressive Grocer magazine in New York.

To differentiate itself, Graul's employees stock shelves with local and organic products such as asparagus from Godfrey's Farm on the Eastern Shore and McCutcheon's apple butter out of Frederick.

The meat department is stocked with everything from London Broil to boneless chuck roast and certified Angus beef - no coarse low-grade versions here. To appeal to environmentally conscious shoppers, the store began providing biodegradable grocery bags this spring, said Mr. Graul's son Bryan Graul, store vice president.

The store also is active in philanthropic initiatives, including "Graul's Fights Cancer Days" to raise money for the American Cancer Society, he said. This past May, all six Graul's stores raised $52,000 for this year's cancer day event, Bryan Graul said, adding that the store also sponsors the Polar Bear Plunge to benefit the Special Olympics.

He declined to comment on sales revenue for the store. The store has been able to combat high costs with a food distributor that allows Graul's to buy products at wholesale prices, he said.

The company also has close relationships with area vendors providing locally grown products at a time when that trend is taking off, he said.

Despite competition from nearby chains and two fires that gutted the store in the late 1960s and 1970s, the Cape St. Claire has maintained its location, expanding and remodeling several times over the past five years, he said. The 15,000-square-foot store staffs about 85 full- and part-time workers to provide personal customer service, said Bryan Graul, who serves on the board of trustees for Chesapeake Academy school in Arnold.

"That's our niche," he said.

Customer Frank Stanbro said he enjoys that level of customer service. While shopping at the store, he said Graul's is a convenient place to shop where employees will go out of their way to help, recalling when he asked for a large roast "and they got it for me."

Longtime employees said working for Graul's means being more than just a cog in a wheel.

Store Manager and Eastern Shore resident Bob Fitzpatrick said he's so close to customers and employees that they invited him to spend the night after Sunday's Bay Bridge accident that sent a tractor-trailer off the bridge.

The store's commitment to customer service keeps shoppers coming back, he said.

"You can go anywhere and shop," he said. "But you can't go everywhere and get customer service."