STEW LEONARD'S Customers' 50 Favorite Items

As part of a year-long salute to its 50th anniversary, Stew Leonard's, the Tri-State Region's farm fresh food store, conducted its first customer survey to determine shoppers' 50 favorite items. The more than 7,000 Stew Leonard's customers who completed the survey declared their passion for items in seven categories: bakery; dairy; deli; meat; prepared foods; produce; and seafood. Filet mignon at 24%, shrimp at 23%, and Stew Leonard's milk at 22% garnered top favorite honors for the meat, seafood and dairy categories, but it was Stew's signature soft serve ice cream that swept the general category with an impressive 54%, some 22% more than the second place kettle chips with 32%. The fact that two of the four most favored items that are milk-centric is fitting given Stew Leonard's started in 1969 as a dairy store.

For the bakery, deli, produce and prepared foods the Stew Leonard's customers can't leave the store without: apple cider donut holes at (17%), mozzarella (16%), jumbo cherries (17%)* and at least one selection from the hot/cold bar (18 %). And when it comes to proteins, they lean toward the luxurious with porterhouse steak at 20%,coming in second to the filet's 24% in the meat category, and lobster also scoring 20% as the runner-up to the seafood-favorite shrimp at 23%, while tomahawk steak beat bacon and chicken burgers and sea scallops ranked above salmon, which is the second most consumed seafood in the US (tied with tuna) after shrimp. (Complete list of Stew Leonard's Shoppers 50 Favorites for the 50th Anniversary is below.)

The survey's 50 favorites will be anointed by various promotions through the remainder of the year as a series of 50th anniversary gifts to Stew Leonard's customers.

*Survey was issued at peak cherry season, which may have had some bearing on the results

Stew Leonard's Shoppers' 50 Favorites for the 50th Anniversary:

Bakery:

Apple Cider Donut Holes - 17%

Bagels - 15%

Chocolate Chip Cookies - 11%

Snowball Rolls - 6.2%

French Baguette - 5.5%

Country Hearth Bread - 5.12%

Dairy:

Stew Leonard's Milk - 22%

Butter - 17%

Chocolate Milk - 9%

Naked Eggs - 8%

Stew Leonard's Organic Milk - 6.4%

Organic Eggs - 4.7%

Meat:

Filet Mignon - 24%

Porterhouse - 20%

Stew's Naked Chicken - 11.5%

Tomahawk Steak - 6%

Stew Leonard's Bacon - 4.9%

Gourmet Chicken Burgers - 4.7%

Seafood:

Shrimp - 23%

Lobster - 20%

Sea Scallops - 14%

Naked Salmon - 12%

Lobster Rolls - 9%

Swordfish - 5%

Deli:

Mozzarella - 16%

Specialty Cheeses - 14%

Sliced Turkey - 13%

Olive Bar - 13%

Chicken Salad - 12%

Sliced Ham - 9%

Produce

Jumbo Cherries - 17%

Corn - 15%

Local Apples - 13%

California Pistachios - 8%

Salad Bowls - 8%

Pineapple Chunks - 6.4%

Prepared Foods:

Hot/Cold Bar - 18%

Rotisserie Chicken - 14%

Wing Bar - 12%

Soups - 11%

Clam Chowder - 7%

Pizza - 5%

Other Favorites - We asked them to choose up to 5

Soft Serve - 57%

Kettle Chips - 32%

Chunky Guac - 26%

Olive Oil - 24%

Ice Cream - 15.72%

Rice Cakes - 15.72%

Tortilla Chips - 15.67%

Fresh Pasta - 15.44%

About Stew Leonard's
Stew Leonard's, a family-owned and operated fresh food store founded in 1969, has stores in Norwalk, Danbury, and Newington, Conn.; in East Meadow, Farmingdale and Yonkers, N.Y.; and in Paramus, N.J. Stew's earned its nickname, the "Disneyland of Dairy Stores" because of its country-fair atmosphere, with costumed characters and animated entertainment throughout the store that keep children entertained while parents shop. Stew Leonard's legion of loyal shoppers is largely due to the stores' passionate approach to customer service: "Rule #1 -- The Customer is Always Right"; Rule #2 - If the Customer is Ever Wrong, Re-Read Rule #1." This principle is so essential to the foundation of the company that it is etched in a three-ton granite rock at each store's entrance. The company's culture is built around an acronym for S.T.E.W.: Satisfy the customer; Teamwork gets it done; Excellence makes it better; WOW makes it fun. For more information, visit Stew Leonard's website at www.stewleonards.com.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Stew Leonard's