Big news! Ben’s Chili Bowl Half Smokes and Chili will now be available to Giant customers across Washington, DC, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware
Last month, Giant Food announced the launch of Ben’s Chili Bowl’s world-famous Chili and Half Smokes, which will now be available in the prepared food sections and hot bars in Giant stores throughout their marketing area. This signifies the first chili retail distribution partnership for Ben’s Chili Bowl, a staple in the Washington, DC community.
Giant will offer Ben’s Chili Bowl Original and Spicy Half Smokes, Chili Con Carne, Turkey Chili and the secret Chili Sauce that cannot be purchased anywhere else, so customers can enjoy Washington, DC’s favorite family recipes in their own kitchens.
“Ben’s Chili Bowl has remained a respected business within our community since 1958 and the opportunity to partner with the brand and expand the Ali family’s legacy was a no-brainer,” said Ira Kress, president at Giant Food. “We are proud to introduce Ben’s Chili Bowl’s fan-favorite recipes and menu items into our stores, and we are sure they will be a welcomed addition for our customers.”
As an inter-generational family business and local landmark in the Washington, D.C community, Ben’s Chili Bowl serves up its legendary Half Smokes and Chilis, delighting locals, travelers, celebrities and dignitaries alike. Their secret family recipes have been a staple in the community for over 64 years. For more information on Ben’s, visit www.benschilibowl.com.
“We’ve been blessed to serve our beloved DMV community for nearly 65 years, and in all that time we never expected to sell our products at the retail level,” said Virginia Ali, co-founder of Ben’s Chili Bowl. “When we first met the wonderful team at Giant, we realized that it would be a perfect fit because we all share the same values, including our deep dedication to serving our community. I only wish Ben was still here with us because he would be so proud!”
Kress and Ali announced the big news during last month’s BBQ Battle to cheers from all. Anyone from the DC area knows about Ben’s Chili Bowl, and many from around the country are aware of it because of the many high-profile visitors to the iconic eatery, most notably in recent years when President Obama visited. In 1958, newlyweds Ben and Virginia Ali used $5,000 to begin renovating a building at 1213 U Street in Northwest Washington, DC that now houses Ben’s Original Chili Bowl. Built in 1910, it first housed a silent movie house called the Minnehaha Theater. Later, Harry Beckley, one of D.C.’s first Black police detectives, converted it into a pool hall. After six decades of Washington DC history, the Ben’s brand is red hot and is a must-visit restaurant for anyone visiting the city.
Mrs. Ali, who will turn 90 years old later this year, spoke movingly to the BBQ Battle crowd about the restaurant and running it with her late husband Ben. She talked of the years when she and her husband could not visit many parts of the segregated city, but that they were content to live and work in the U Street Corridor (a.k.a. Cardozo/Shaw neighborhood) of Northwest DC. She said that she met and talked with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. many times when he visited DC and that she joined in the March on Washington and listed to Dr. King speak. Later, after his assassination, she said, the neighborhood around Ben’s was almost destroyed during the riots that besieged the city in 1968. Mrs. Ali spoke of persevering and keeping Ben’s running through the bad times – in fact, it was one of only three businesses in the Shaw neighborhood that survived the difficult period.
It was inspiring to listen to Mrs. Ali talk about those decades and to think about the history she has seen and lived. I’m thrilled that she and her family will now be working with Giant Food, another stalwart in the Nation’s Capital, to spread the Ben’s Chili Bowl love throughout the area. Congratulations to both!
At Food World, we get a lot of press releases, many of which do not make their way onto our pages. One of the oddest releases I’ve seen came across my desk, er – into my email, was from Amazon Fresh, late last month. Now, if you’ve been paying attention to Jeff Metzger’s take on Amazon Fresh lately, what I’m about to report might seem….odd. The release began “Today, Amazon Fresh released its first-ever installment of ‘The Cart Report: Amazon Fresh Summer Grilling,’ which reveals grocery trends from across the country and regional divides on customer preferences using top-selling products and insights from Amazon Fresh.”
In February, we reported on Amazon’s announcement that it is pausing the expansion of its beleaguered Amazon Fresh (AF) brick and mortar grocery store unit, adding that it will also close some of the existing 44 stores that have opened since the debut of the concept. At the time CEO Andy Jassy said he is still bullish on developing new store concepts, but by my read, it sure sounded like Amazon Fresh was no longer a fresh idea with the company. Said Jassy in February: “We’re doing a fair bit of experimentation today in those stores to try to find a format that we think resonates with customers. It’s differentiated in some meaningful fashion and where we like the economics. We’ve decided over the last year or so that we’re not going to expand the physical Amazon Fresh stores until we have that equation with differentiation and economic value that we like. But we’re optimistic that we’re going to find that in 2023.”
So, here’s my question – why is Amazon Fresh doing any installments of reports on grocery trends they’re studying when they can’t even decide if there will be an Amazon Fresh division going forward? On the other hand, the insights from the report were somewhat interesting (not): Mayo is America’s favorite summer condiment in nearly every state where Amazon Fresh delivers. Did you know that “Amazon Fresh customers purchase more than 430,000 gallons of mayo each summer”? Um, the first Amazon Fresh store debuted in Woodland Hills, CA in September 2020. I guess that’s why the report didn’t say every summer since the brand has operated so far during exactly two summers.
I’m still scratching my head, but I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for the 2024 Summer Grilling Cart Report. Good luck with that one.
Last month, the National Grocers Association (NGA) hosted an inaugural meeting to discuss solutions for providing access to healthy benefits cards in high-needs communities being served by independent grocers. About 30 stakeholders from across the healthy benefit card industry, including health insurance companies, payment networks, point-of-sale system providers and independent community grocery attended.
Healthy benefit programs, which have grown quite a bit in recent years, provide eligible customers with a financial boost to help them pay for essential daily needs, including food, medicine and other over-the-counter products. Benefits are administered as cards provided by payment networks who contract with health insurance companies. To receive a healthy benefit card, a customer must be enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan that offers the benefit.
Unfortunately, while these cards provide a value benefit to Americans across the nation, only a handful of retailers are currently set up to accept these cards as payment, which is why NGA spearheaded the recent meeting to discuss the issue, explore possible solutions and urge cooperation among the groups to reach a resolution by the end of the third quarter of this year.
Recently, NGA penned an open letter, signed by 1,695 independent grocers, was sent to healthy benefit card stakeholders, urging that the cards be accepted by a broader variety of retailers. It said, in part:
“Millions of Americans who rely on independent grocers, many of whom are in rural and low-income areas, find themselves struggling to use a benefit that that could change their lives for the better. Many of those same customers are the same people who would benefit most from these Healthy Benefit Cards. Some don’t have the luxury of traveling to the big stores that accept these cards because they’re too far away, and the benefit is wasted. We are hearing daily from independent grocers who are forced to turn away loyal customers of many years with full carts left at the register because they cannot accept these restricted-spend cards.”
This sounds like a great program to me, anything that can be done to help people access healthy food and other benefits is certainly deserving of consideration by all. I hope NGA is successful in its endeavor. If you’re interesting in finding out more, go to https://www.nationalgrocers.org/healthy-benefit-card/.
Thanks for reading. Remember, I’d love to hear from readers who have something interesting to share with the trade – personal or professional. Let me know by calling me at 410.428.1891 or drop me a line at [email protected]. Stay cool!!