Murray’s Cheese, continuing to expand its store-within-a-store arrangement with Cincinnati-based Kroger Co., will hit California soon with Murray’s Cheese Shops in Ralphs Grocery Co., a Kroger subsidiary.
“By late summer or early fall, we’ll go into Ralphs in Los Angeles, in more than one store, actually a handful of stores,” Deena Siegelbaum, marketing director, Murray’s Cheese, told SN. “We’re excited that we’re going to be on the West Coast. Right now we have 73 stores in Kroger stores across the country.”
Murray’s, the legendary, New York-based cheese company, with three retail stores in New York City and a wholesale business, struck up a contract with Cincinnati-based Kroger Co. nearly five years ago to put Murray’s shops inside Kroger banner stores and other banner stores that are Kroger subsidiaries. Kroger associates staff all the shops, on a dedicated basis, but only after having received intensive training from Murray’s.
Siegelbaum said Murray’s expects to have 100 of its Cheese Shops in Kroger stores and subsidiaries by the end of this calendar year. One opened in Houston this past weekend, and a QFC store in Seattle is set to get a Murray’s Cheese Shop on May 15.
