instore - August 2017 - COMM - 2

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high-quality sushi. The retailer provides
the space for storage and preparation.
"Genji is 100-percent corporate owned,"
Onishi says. "So all the chefs are our
chefs. We take care of training them and
they're on our payroll."
More than 1,000 Genji chefs work at
more than 170 Whole Foods locations
every day. They are trained in cuttingedge techniques for preparing vegetables, slicing fish, rolling maki, making
nigiri, plating and more. Just as importantly, Onishi says, they are trained in
every detail of foodservice operation.
"Food safety is such a key issue,"
Onishi says. "We make sure all of our
chefs are highly training in that area.
Our model makes it much easier for
retailers to offer sushi like this as safely as possible."

STAYING ON TOP OF TRENDS LIKE RAMEN IS ALSO KEY FOR PEACE DINING.
PHOTO: PEACE DINING CORPORATION

mat of supermarket sushi," Onishi says.
"With the focus on the deli and fresh
food sections of the supermarket, sushi
is only getting better and it's only going
to get more popular."

Quality is king
Onishi says quality is the differentiator
that has emerged over the past decade
and pushed supermarket sushi to where
it is now.
"I would say 15 or 20 years ago, everybody wanted to have sushi, but they
didn't need to have the high-quality sushi yet," he says. "The high-end supermarkets realized that to differentiate
they needed restaurant-quality sushi.
They needed to upgrade and that's why
you see new trends."
The quality of in-store sushi has been
directly impacted by the rise of the rest
of the fresh perimeter. Sushi has joined
the rest of retail foodservice in the
sense that consumers are looking for

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the same type of quality they would find
at a decent restaurant.
"I think that plays a big part in the evolution of supermarket sushi," Onishi says.
"That trend has been going on the last
five to eight years and it has made the
quality of the sushi inside the supermarket much better. The quality is now required to be much more sophisticated.
The consumer is willing to pay $15 or
$18 for sushi in the supermarket if you
give them very good quality.
"I think the perception that all prepared
food in the supermarket is bad is long
gone thanks to Whole Foods and other
high-end supermarkets. Customers now
want to pay for high-end items and sushi has adjusted to that trend."
Genji's answer to the challenge of getting that high-end sushi into a supermarket is its corporate-owned model.
Genji supplies the chefs, the sushi, the
ingredients, the distribution and everything else that is needed to produce

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Peace Dining operates a central production kitchen and a main warehouse
in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The company purchases all of the seafood and
other ingredients and ships it directly
to its facilities, where product goes
through some processing and packaging before it is shipped out to stores
on a daily basis.
The company uses its own logistics
wing, GHG Logistics, for its warehouse
and distribution needs. The main warehouse covers 35,000 square feet of dry
goods storage space, 3,000 square feet
of racked refrigeration and 2,000 square
feet of racked freezing. A satellite warehouse is located in Long Island City,
New York. Orders are shipped daily to
more than 150 locations in 19 states.
"From there, our chefs receive the products at the store, where they have designated space assigned by Whole Foods,"
Onishi says. "They have storage space,
refrigeration space and dry space. The

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