Store Profile: Harvest Urban Market, San Francisco

Gilles Desaulniers built San Francisco’s Harvest Urban Market as an oasis in the urban food desert.

Several hundred people live in the units above his 12,000 sq. ft. corner market which is a model of sustainability. Andrea Mangan, his partner who manages the kitchen, has created a hub of healthy foodservice offerings from a hearty vegan breakfast through late-night snacks. He stocks thousands of items, many natural and organic.

	Harvest Urban Market, San Francisco
	Gilles Desaulniers and Andrea Mangan.

“I wanted a neighborhood store where people can buy what they need throughout the day, not just what the big supermarket chains can get cheap,” says Desaulniers, who has lived in the city’s SOMA (South of Market) neighborhood for 26 years.

Unlike suburban strip mall supermarkets, Harvest Urban Market is a place where customers visit two or three times a day. “They purchase small quantities, get what they want and just what they want,” says Desaulniers.

“I know this neighborhood. I know what it likes and it needs,” he says, explaining that parking is limited, tickets are $80 per violation, traffic races by on one-way streets and screeches to a halt at congested intersections. “All that leads to frustration. No one in these apartments and condos wants to get in a car and lose two hours driving outside the city to shop. They are tired of cars by the end of the day. And when they are hungry, the area’s rough looking convenience stores and fast-food outlets “never sell what you need for a healthy meal.”

Desaulniers is “a food freak about stuff. I notice the subtle difference in quality and I try to buy direct from local suppliers.” He illustrates with a quick walk to produce, returning with a handful of slightly misshapen bright red “dry-farmed” tomatoes that he slices.

The flesh is firm, its intense sweetness bursts in the mouth and there is no acidity… these tomatoes are truly fruit of the vine.

Smiling at the effect, he says that in marketing organics “I use all the senses, I let them feel, touch, and smell. To connect to people, I say: “ ‘Try this.’ I don’t explain the difference until later.”

These tomatoes are certified organic, he says, grown without irrigation since 2001 within sight of the Pacific Ocean by a couple and their two teenage children. Each Wednesday Mark and Nibby Bartle leave their Two Dog Farm to drive 70 miles north from Davenport, in Santa Cruz County, to San Francisco’s Heart of the City farmer’s market. They leave with a full truck and they always return home empty no matter how high they stack their boxes of tomatoes, squash and greens. Whatever they don’t sell at the farmer’s market they deliver to Desaulniers and downtown grocers Bi-Rite Market and Buffalo Foods. No food miles are wasted and from August to November there seems no limit on what the public will consume.

“I like to share good things. I try to promote the fresh side. Feeding you well is a joy,” says Desaulniers “it makes you healthy and helps you stay well.” But moderation is equally important: “We don’t promote foods to make you buy more than you need,” he says.

Harvest Urban Market occupies a downtown block where a factory once shrink-wrapped software. It was razed in 2004 and four-stories of apartments were erected on the four-acre lot. The 74 one- to three-bedroom apartments and 88 studios are low-income units, run by Citizens Housing Corp. They house several hundred residents at rents from $600 to $1,500 per month. Non-subsidized apartments rent for twice that amount. A typical two-bedroom loft is $3,500 a month.The 176,874 sq. ft. complex was designed by architect David Baker and includes semi-public courtyards, a day-care center, 19,000 sq. ft. of retail, a garage with space for car-share pods and six community rooms. It was completed in 2005 for $24 million.

“The core is gentrifying and that’s a good thing,” says Desaulniers, who has lived within walking distance of the corner of 8^th & Howard St. since 1983.

His first store, located on Market Street, was smaller, a typical 3,000 sq. ft. storefront opened in 1990. The Canadian native envisioned a European-style fresh market with morning breakfast of eggs Benedict and salmon at 7:30 a.m. to eat-in or take to the office. He serves Café con Panna and Machiato espresso drinks and cold beverages, juice and just-baked pastries and breads delivered daily from Acme Bakery. At lunch the 36-bin salad bar is stocked with selections like Spicy Snap Pea Carrot Salad, a Russian potato salad and artichoke pasta salad that draw a crowd. Sandwiches and Panini are made to order for $7.79. Soups made in-house from scratch ingredients, and there are cut vegetables and fruit to appeal to grab-n-go customers. Chefs prepare a full line of vegan and traditional hot dishes at the deli counter including Tuna Nicoise, Eggplant and Butternut Squash Lasagna ($7.99 a slice) and Tarragon Beef Barley Stew. There is free Wi-Fi in the three dining areas seat 95, including street-side tables near the entrance.

Food manager Andrea Mangan began the store’s offerings with a salad bar and a soup of the day and a personal commitment “to create fit, healthy food and not waste anything.”

Surrounded by fresh vegetables, grains and fruit and with an aversion to eggs, butter, fats and cream, the Melbourne, Australia native soon began experimenting with prepared meals. Today Harvest Urban offers a full menu and is known for vegan and vegetarian cuisine. Mangan prides herself on her creations of roasted corn salad and zucchini with multi-colored bell peppers and onions. The crowd stopper is vegan barbeque rack of veggie burger ribs smothered in a thick sauce of her own. The soy ribs are sold singly in sandwiches and by the box, says Mangan.

Now a co-owner, Mangan was a high school teacher for many years before immigrating in 1993. She is largely self-taught in the culinary arts, inspired as a 12-year-old by a summer cooking course taught at the local gas company offices.

The store offers 22 hot dishes daily of which a third are vegan. The kitchen serves a hundred meals a day and many more grab-and-go dishes. The 15 or 20 a day who prefer vegan dishes are generally in their mid 20s to late 30s and often travel miles, says Mangan. The majority of meals are served to folks living in the neighborhood and those working in nearby offices where catered dishes are popular, she says. These include plates of fruit, cheese, antipasto or Mediterranean platters for 15 at $90 to $100 or mini Foccacia sandwiches for $120.

Dinner is served until 9pm. The market is open until 11 p.m. or late snacks and every day but Christmas. The average customer count is 900. The average ring is $25.

Desaulniers’ in-store buyer, Luis Yanez, orders daily from many distributors including Nature’s Best and The Good Stuff Distributing and many others. He does not stock private label offerings.

“You know, for the longest time I wouldn’t sell Coke, but I’d watch customers order here, walk across the street to buy it and bring it to their table. So I brought in Coke, but I display it with non-syrupy alternatives and I talk up the fresh and crisp flavor of brands like Santa Cruz Organics.

Salsa began outselling catsup in America in 1991. Harvest Urban stocks 34 varieties including several organic salsas. What catches the eye, however, is this store also stocks six kinds of catsup and both Ketchapeno and Ketchipotle, crossovers from New Taste LLC in Palm Springs.

There are 800 organic SKUs in the store.

He could stock more but “it’s hard to justify organic on a budget,” says Desaulniers. Pricing is always a challenge. “Mostly I do my own thing. Some items are cheaper, some more expensive than the competition. I’ve walked their stores a few times to see how far off I might be and generally it’s not that far.”

Desaulniers experiments with enthusiasm. “I always carry new stuff. You have to, but everything is about price point,” he explains. He hedges his choice of new products with a requirement that manufacturers buy it back if it doesn’t sell. Trial lengths vary by product but “I don’t wait six months. In time you can sell just about anything, but you can’t carry everything. There is just not enough room.”

Manufacturers sample weekly. “Sampling always works,” he says, but at an inner city store panhandlers can be a problem. The homeless want everything for free, driving away paying customers, he says. Customers are encouraged to linger but not freeload.

The neighborhood still has a high concentration of church and other non-profit alcohol and drug rehabilitation centers. Condos and lofts co-exist with low-income housing units.

“I try to be fair and see the human side of all of us,” he says, but he is relieved that “it’s changing. Every day we see more regular people.”

“I had to get in early to afford this property,” he reflects. “I knew this store would be good for the neighborhood.”