A couple of weeks ago I posted on the trend of mainstream grocery stores shifting their focus from the general public to focus on Latino customers. This trend seems to be picking up a lot of momentum, because there is a new story on this topic at least twice a week. The latest story is from rural Arkansas, where a former "Food Town" is transforming itself into "El Ranchito" (read the story here).

In addition to these mainstream supermarket makeovers,we are also seeing a lot of mom and pop Latino-focused grocery stores popping up in once exclusively angloareas where new Latino immigrants are starting to lay down routes. In these areas, this mini market is ripe for picking and competition is non-existent. Here’s a story from a distant place I must say I’ve never even heard of: Lima, Ohio.

And another from Fairmont, Minnesota.
And another from Sarasota, Florida.
And a feature story on the trend in general from the Dallas Morning News.

All of this buzz begs the question: why aren’t the major supermarket players in Mexico, like Comercial Mexicana, Gigante or even Wal-Mart-owned Superama getting a piece of this? They know the market better than anyone and are huge enough to snatch up these dying grocery store chains and convert them to their model, plus they have brand recognition that none of these new guys could ever compete with. Maybe it’s just a matter of time.