Go inside Lucky's Market, the Kroger-backed specialty grocer opening in St. Pete
Ashley Gurbal Kritzer Jun 4, 2018, 6:04pm
The St. Petersburg Lucky's Market location, ready to open this week in the Tyrone area, is 29,000 square feet.
The glass deli cases at Lucky's Market in St. Petersburg are lined with just about everything but cold cuts: Potato-kale cakes, chicken and black bean quesadillas, vegan kelp noodle pad Thai, smoked turkey.
That's because it's not a deli, store manager Curt Rotrock says. It's a kitchen — which is emblazoned on the wall in illuminated red block letters.
"It is a full-fledged kitchen inside of Lucky's Market," Rotrock said. "Everything here is made from a recipe. It's not poured out of a container. They're assembled in-house."
Colorado-based Lucky's Market will officially open the St. Pete store — the first in the city and the second in the Tampa Bay region — on June 6, on the end of the Tyrone Square Mall that was once home to a Sears department store. The store opens at 7 a.m., and at 10 a.m., the opening is marked with a bacon-cutting ceremony, meant to celebrate the bacon that Lucky's smokes on-site.
It is the 13th Lucky's location in Florida; in the next three years, Lucky's has plans to open 40 more, Rotrock said.
With its eyes on 50-plus locations in the Sunshine State, Lucky's Florida presence would be larger than Whole Foods Market Inc., which has 28 stores here, and much smaller than Lakeland-based Publix Super Markets Inc., which has more than 800 stores in its home state.
But Lucky's financial backing makes it more than a niche player: Grocery powerhouse Kroger Co. entered a "strategic partnership" with Lucky's in 2016.
"Right now, they're basically a vehicle to help us grow, but as far as determining what we do, they leave us to run our organization," Rotrock, an industry veteran who worked for Sweetbay and then Winn-Dixie, said.
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Lucky's aims to bring together the best of a specialty grocer — like the private labels and quirky finds that Trader Joe's offers — with the convenience and wide selection of a mainstream store like Publix. The prepared foods section goes beyond the typical fare like potato salad; there are pre-bagged meals for two, house-made chips and guacamole, chicken tenders, empanadas, mac and cheese and more.
At a time when the grocery market is looking to maximize convenience, rolling out online ordering, curbside pickup and delivery, Lucky's operates at the opposite end of the spectrum. The company — founded by husband-and-wife chefs Bo and Trish Sharon — wants to make grocery shopping an "event," Rotrock says.
The experiential approach to grocery isn't new; New York-based Wegmans Food Markets has created a cult following by building gigantic stores, upward of 100,000 square feet, with massive prepared food sections and, in some stores, full-service restaurants.
Lucky's has taken that model and shrunken it to fit a real estate print that's much more attainable, with aggressively competitive pricing, billing itself as "organic for the 99 percent." (A sign in the in-store cafe declares that "Good food is not a luxury. It's a right.") Most Lucky's stores are under 30,000 square feet — less than one-third the size of Wegmans — but still manage to offer full produce, meat, dairy and pantry selections alongside in-store prepared foods that include a ramen and sushi bar. An apothecary with essential oils and herbs in glass jars stands alongside the supplement department.
"For most customers, grocery shopping is a chore," Rotrock said. "We try to make it so it isn't a chore, it's fun, and you bring the whole family.
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