Hispanic Boom

Hispanics accounted for 77.8 percent of the overall 24-percent population growth of Utah between 2000 and 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That trend is reflective of changes throughout the United States, as well as in Maverik's 10-state western U.S. market territory that spans from Idaho to Arizona and from Nevada to Wyoming.

Brian Sullenger is the segment manager of Maverik's "Working with Hands" customer segment. This includes blue collar workers and Hispanics, and his major product categories are alcoholic beverages, tobacco and salty snacks. Sullenger served as director of merchandising for Maverik before the reorganization to three Customer Segment Teams.

He noted that the push to incorporate more products designed for Hispanic customers started about four or five years ago with Frito-Lay. "Before that, we never had any special products for Latinos," Sullenger told CSNews. "It started with a couple of stores in Arizona and spread out."

After salty snacks, Hispanic products were added in packaged beverages. "Jumex products are being shipped to stores this week," said Sullenger, who grew up in southern California, just 30 miles from the Mexico border.

Hispanic merchandising presents a special challenge, though, because of the lack of good research data. "We depend a lot on feedback from the stores," he said. "We've found that some stores that are not in particularly high Latino neighborhoods are nevertheless shopped predominantly by Hispanics. That's why information from the stores is critical."

Another challenge is incorporating Hispanic merchandising and marketing elements into the stores without alienating the core customer. "We would never do a Spanish-language only sign," he said. "If we did anything in Spanish, it would have to be bilingual."