DAY 8: Enticing array of ethnic products in stock

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By KEVIN ABOUREZK / Lincoln Journal Star

Raising five boys in Eagle often meant driving to Lincoln each month for Cora Humm.

There, she would buy in bulk at Super Saver.

Recently, Humm stopped at the 27th Street and Cornhusker Highway Super Saver to pick up some ground buffalo for chili and a few other items after doing some Christmas shopping in the area.

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Guadalupe Rojas straightens out tortillas as they come out of the oven at the South 27th Street Super Saver store recently. (Eric Gregory)

Guadalupe Rojas straightens out tortillas as they come out of the oven at the South 27th Street Super Saver store recently. (Eric Gregory)

“I just like their prices,” said Humm, a Potawatomi tribal member originally from Kansas.

That, and it isn’t exactly easy to find buffalo meat, she said.

Up and down 27th Street, from the bustling Pine Lake Road landscape to the mega-car lots near Interstate 80, franchises provide a feeling of consistency to the ever-changing north-south thoroughfare.

Stores and restaurants including Walgreens, McDonald’s, ShopKo and Super Saver long have anchored shopping centers on 27th Street.

Still, on a road that carries traffic through some of the most and least ethnically diverse parts of the community, a particular franchise can reflect the customers it serves.

Providing the products its customers want is a business mantra of sorts for Super Saver.

In north Lincoln, that means stocking shelves for a growing number of Hispanic and Asian customers, store director Matt Kempston said.

“Our demographic is much more diverse,” he said. “Our products reflect that, too.”

The store, for example, features both Asian and Hispanic sections in its produce department, produce manager Nate Christensen said.

Jalapeno peppers, tomatillos and kim chee (pickled Chinese cabbage) are popular, he said.

The store, which has an extensive ethnic foods aisle, also sells more tortillas than any other Super Saver location, Kempston said.

Its meat department, meanwhile, does a healthy business in cuts of meat that appeal to ethnically diverse customers, including pig tails and feet and rump roast.

“The majority of the time what people come in for is our rump roast,” meat manager Mike Orvis said.

The store has offered goat meat, but it’s difficult to acquire because of federal meat inspection requirements, Orvis said.

Nearly eight miles to the south, the Super Saver on Pine Lake Road finds itself on the front line of a relatively affluent, quickly growing part of the community.

“There are different demographics for every store,” store director Nick Kelso said. “We’re blessed to be in a part of Lincoln that is growing like mad.”

Many of the Pine Lake store’s customers, for example, are health-conscious and favor the large selection of vegetarian and gluten-free products, Kelso said.

The store also does a brisk business in wine but lags behind other Super Saver stores in tobacco products it sells, he said.

The Pine Lake store also works to appeal to rural and Hispanic customers who come from as far as Crete to shop.

When the store opened in 1999, 11 years after the Super Saver on Cornhusker, it built a tortilleria to provide fresh tortillas and tortilla chips to all 19 groceries owned by its parent company, B&R Stores.

“The Spanish people love it,” said Angelica Gibilisco, the store’s tortilla manager.

They often grab tortillas fresh off the machine, she said, and will request tortillas for parties and other special events.

Perhaps the biggest difference between the north and south Super Savers is the way the south smokehouse prepares the meat it sells. While other Super Saver stores have smokehouses, few offer such experienced managers as the one on Pine Lake Road, said Dan Caulkins, assistant store director.

A wall of plaques attests to smokehouse manager Bob Voss’ skill at cutting and cooking meat.

While uncooked, unseasoned meats may be popular elsewhere, the Pine Lake store tends to do well selling such prepared meats as chicken sausage with green onion and apricot bratwurst.

“A lot of these items are not going to do well on North 27th Street,” Voss said.

Both focusing on meat mainstays and striving to keep up with meat trends work as long as customers are buying, he said.

“We can be on the forefront or upholding a tradition,” he said.

Reach Kevin Abourezk at 473-7225 or kabourezk@journalstar.com.