America underwent a lot of changes during the 1900s. When you think about space travel, women's rights, civil rights, The Great Depression, World War I, World War II, economic booms, and economic busts, it's hard to imagine a small family business withstanding the changes surrounding them. But the Straub family and their employees did adapt throughout all these world-changing events — sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. These adaptations have led them to their 100th anniversary this year, a redefinition of goals, and another generation at the helm.
Straub's was founded with two primary objectives. The first was to bring the highest-quality meats to consumers in St. Louis and the second was to provide outstanding customer service. The original store in the St. Louis suburb of Webster Groves carried a small selection of dry groceries, along with beef, pork, poultry, and lamb.
William Straub had two sons, Walter and Jack, who joined him in business in 1927 and 1933, respectively. Straub opened a second store in 1933 in Clayton, and a third opened through acquisition in 1936. In 1948, a new Clayton location was built and opened, as well as was a store in the Central West End. The previous two stores were closed, leaving the company with three stores. In 1960, a new store was built in Webster to replace the existing one and shortly thereafter, Jack W. Straub, Jr. joined the company.
In 1966, a fourth store was opened in the Town & Country area. This store was designed with a great deal of foresight considering the rural area was mainly comprised of farms. Through the years, Straub's opened and closed a commissary bakery, a candy plant, restaurants, and a few other smaller stores. Today, Jack Jr. and his son J.W. "Trip" Straub, III operate four stores in Webster, Clayton, Town & Country, and the Central West End.
"One location is in the city and three are in the suburbs. They are all within the central corridor of St. Louis," "Trip" Straub said. "The last store, built in 1966, was constructed in a very sparse farm area. Now, there are huge homes on major lots, which both benefits us and harms us. The harm is that while it has grown, it's not a densely populated area. The benefit is that large supermarkets won't build there because of the density. We are the right size and type of store for the population and we're able to do very well."
Straub's is still well known for its specialty meat department where nothing is prepackaged or previously frozen. Since meat counters are professionally staffed, customers are offered traditional butcher service. It's the success of this department that has provided Straub's with the longevity and reputation it has in the St. Louis market.
The Fourth Generation
Straub's operates four 10,000-foot stores in the best socio-economic areas in St. Louis and its suburbs. Their primary customers are affluent, college-educated, and living within a two-mile radius of the store. Straub's still offers an in-house charge system that represents 30 percent of total sales, with many of these customers having their account open for over 50 years.
But even with loyal customers and an affluent customer base, the Straubs have learned you have to continually redefine yourself to succeed.
"During the 70s and 80s, the company was primarily stagnant, with sales remaining flat and profits slowly eroding. However, in the early 90s, the company was preparing for some major changes," "Trip" Straub said. "I joined the company in 1990 after spending a year working with our primary wholesaler, Wetterau Inc. (now Supervalu), in their retail division. I initially spent some time in the buying office learning from my grandfather and then moved to the Town & Country store as a store manager learning from our customers. I returned to the office in the buying department in 1994."
In 1995, Jack Sr. passed away, leaving "Trip" and his father at the helm of the four stores. Straub's began operating seven days a week and "Trip" Straub began formulating a plan to rejuvenate the business.
"I was 24 at the time and my dad was 50, but in terms of his motivation and mine, they were a little different. My grandfather and father were not very aggressive in terms of sales and programs. I was a little more aggressive. And then we hired our general manager, Paul Poe, who was 40 and helped bridge the gap."
Poe's role as general manager was to redefine Straub's. He had the experience because he grew up in the area and remembered the Straub's of old — homemade ice cream, candy factory, and all.
"He also had the large corporate experience and the blend of his ideas and mine sold my father on the changes," Straub said. "We started taking significant action through store remodels and product selection to raise the bar on the quality of the product we offered our customers. Our meat department has always been our claim to fame because we have always carried the very best USDA Prime beef. Our goal was to bring the quality of our other departments — produce, bakery, wine, and specialty grocery — up to the same standard."
Straub explained, "A lot of past decisions had been based on ease rather than thinking 'Is this really what Straub's is about?' We were carrying the same things as the guy down the street."
The Next Century
The quest to reinvent the company led to an updated branding of the stores as upscale specialty markets. Individual inventory items from produce to dry goods were reviewed and Poe and Straub determined which items should go, stay, or be added.
Straub is charged with buying all grocery, liquor, wine, dairy, and frozen product. He took on this role more than three years ago after his predecessor Mary Paton retired. Paton, 80, worked for the company for 62 years.
"She was still sharp as a tack and very good with numbers," Straub said. "She helped keep the company going. She bought everything that wasn't produce or meat. But as with many things in the store, it got to the point where she wasn't bringing in new lines because it simply meant more work and there was already plenty of work."
When Straub took the position, he set his sights on finding special products that would compel customers to shop at Straub's. His goal was to keep his customers' attention with specialty products and attentive service they wouldn't find elsewhere.
"We have to concentrate on getting them to come here rather than the big stores or even the other specialty markets like Wild Oats down the road," Straub explained. "That means I am not going to shy away from a mustard that will retail for eight dollars, if it's a great mustard."
Straub realized his customer base was economically stable enough to not concentrate solely on shopping cost. He also saw in them a desire for great product, innovative merchandising, and a love of great foods and ingredients.
"We do a lot of passive demos in the store. We put out literature, whether it's from the supplier or the manufacturer. In addition, we have manned demos almost every weekend," he explained. "We have wine stewards in the store who when they open a bottle of wine for tasting, grab items from the deli and grocery that will go with it. This way, we're tying several things together so we're not selling just one item."
Educating employees on new products, an extensive wine department, and other changes were tasks for Poe and Straub that were both pleasant and difficult.
"The vast majority of our employees has been with us over 10 years. There are some that have close to 50 years with Straub's and several others in the 30- and 40-year category," Straub explained. "That presented benefits and negatives to our growth mode. It took a lot of coaxing to get them to grab hold of some of the crazy new ideas. They thought no one would pay eight dollars for a jar of mustard and certainly couldn't understand stocking that mustard at eye level so the customer responds to it."
Straub is pleased with employee response and credits their initiative as a major contributing factor to the success experienced through the transition.
The transition has not only been in reinvesting in specialty inventory, retraining staff, and revamping Straub's goals, it was physical as well. Included in the new goals for the company was a complete remodeling of two of the stores and facelifts for the others.
The Challenge
The architecturally challenging Clayton store was the first to undergo remodeling. The circular store opens up to two stories in the front and has a third level in the rear of the building. During one of Straub's incarnations, the 18-bay garage served as a loading area for the company's delivery service. Now, the frozen foods section blends in there and ovens for the bakery are tucked neatly out of customers' sight.
The produce department itself is rounded as it is designed around a circular staircase. This section of the store was once a restaurant.
"We had to ask ourselves are we making more money in the restaurant business or the produce department. Produce won," Straub said.
At the top of the circular staircase is an area for tastings and special events. The former restaurant's kitchen is now manned by professional chefs creating prepared foods and bakery items.
"We've adapted very well to this odd-shaped building," Straub said.
The new prepared foods team was created five years ago and is charged with creating dishes for the Off The Menu sections in each of the four stores. The sections were designed to offer customers chef-prepared meals, some par-baked, which can be finished off in the microwave or oven at home.
"It provides our customers with a restaurant-quality meal," Straub said. "Since we're focused on high-quality, fresh food with great service, this section was a natural addition to accommodate today's fast-paced lifestyle. If we are providing the highest-quality raw ingredients, we should be providing the highest-quality finished product."
Aside from the Clayton remodel, Straub's has undertaken minor improvements in all four locations. The Central West End location remodeling last year included major expansion.
"The adjoining space was leased out to a nightclub years ago and had been vacant for eight or nine years. Since we owned the property, we decided to expand the deli and kitchen areas and install a full bakery," Straub said.
The majority of the construction was completed in the new section before the separating wall was demolished, allowing business to continue uninterrupted during the renovation.
"At the last minute, we kicked down the wall, reset the grocery aisles, and essentially had a new store," Straub said.
The third remodeling will begin next month. The Webster store will undergo the same remodeling plans as the other stores, resulting in a similar facade and interior decor. While each store will retain its individual style and architecture, Straub is working to create similar designs.
"Our main focus in the remodels is to create a continuity between the products and services we offer with the interior of the store. If we are trying to concentrate on these upscale products, we need to present that image in both interior and exterior designs," Straub said. "In the Webster store, we are leaving the four walls in place, but everything else inside is changing, all the way down to the flooring. So, in the end, it really will be a completely new store."
The $2 million project will begin on the exterior next month, as well as introduce a new state-of-the-art produce department and new meat cases. Work will continue until November when it pauses for the holiday season. In January, work will resume until the project is completed in the spring.
"It gives us a chance to test the customers. If the response is good, we can move forward with confidence. It also helps in the cash flow department," Straub said.
The company has borrowed little money for the construction. No outside funding was needed for the $1.5 million Clayton project. Last year, Straub's financed a portion of the $1.5 million West End remodeling. Straub said that loan is almost paid off and he expects another small amount will be financed for the Webster store project.
"We are very conservative. Our goal is to limit our risks as much as possible without limiting the final product we offer our customers," Straub said.
The Offer
What the new Straub's offers its customers is high-quality product in every department of every store. The new chef-led bakery and prepared foods departments are able to feed all four locations. Three locations have their own bakers, while two have their own full-service kitchens that share the responsibility of stocking all locations with soups, entrees, and lunches.
"We have an extensive boxed lunch program that sells to a lot of the corporate programs in town," Straub said.
The bakers share the same duties, with each having their own specialty items. One baker is known for his breads, another used to own a bakery business.
"He used to supply us with breads," Straub said. "When he closed his store, we hired him. His name still carried a lot of weight in the area, so it's been a good match."
The Fifth Dimension
While "Trip" Straub may have instigated the changes at Straub's with his own career longevity in mind, he now has additional motivation. Those motives are six-year-old Ellie J. Straub, four-year-old William Andrew Straub (named for the founder of the company), and Benjamin B. Straub (whose arrival is expected early next month).
"There is certainly no intention to sell the business," Straub said. "So the potential for the fifth generation working in the store is good."
That potential is even greater when you consider customer reaction to the improvements. Since 1995, overall sales volume has grown 10 million dollars, which represents an 83 percent increase. Gross margins have improved by six percent overall, with profitability increasing by 1,800 percent.
"Our success lies in maximizing our present department strengths and improving the quality of our fresh products and specialty food offerings," Straub said. "The result for the customer is a more enjoyable shopping experience, not only at our stores, but on the home table as well."
New and expanded categories are being researched constantly by Straub. At The Gourmet Products Show this year, he met with wine accessory and cookbook vendors to complement existing inventory.
"We have a great wine department, so the high-end wine accessories are a great fit for us," Straub said. The store also carries pepper mills and kitchen tools in its housewares departments. "We also met with cookbook publishers because a lot of our customers are ingredient shoppers who are really fine home chefs. There is no question that they would go to Barnes & Noble and buy these books. If we have them properly displayed in our store, it will be a natural fit."
There's more on the horizon. In preparation for the fifth generation, "Trip" Straub is looking to the Internet. His desires are basic — to have a good, easy-to-manage site where customers can purchase gift boxes from anywhere in the country. The site, www.straubs.com, exists already and is operational.
"Our Web site right now is kind of embarrassing. We threw something together three years ago. People can send us an order, but we have to call them back and get the credit card information. There are no fancy shopping cart options or anything," Straub said. "I do plan to revamp the site to create a continuity between the remodeled stores and the Web site."
"With the state of the Web world today, we see a much higher return in putting money into the stores and seeing what that produces," Straub said. "We can see and feel the returns immediately when we put in a new produce or bakery department. We need to complete the four stores before we look into other investment areas. We may be way off on that, but that's the way we feel."
Who knows, maybe it's the fifth generation who will discover the need to add more clicks to Straub's new bricks. We'll have to see what Ellie's up to ten years from now.
