Fabienne Christenson of Mount Lookout wanted to sell her Possets Perfume in grocery stores two years ago. It was an unusual strategy. Perfumes, usually sold at department stores, rarely made it to a grocery alongside food and household cleaners.

But Christenson was not dissuaded and approached managers at the bigg’s store in Hyde Park Plaza because she knew the company was on the prowl for local vendors.

“I talked to a number of people in the store, and one of them knew a person who was doing an organics section, and they brought my name up to them,” Christenson said.

Her fledgling perfume company, founded only months before, was on its way.

The fragrances, created in a studio in Pendleton Arts Center, sold well and today are on shelves in three bigg’s stores.

Surrounded by dozens of homegrown Kroger Co. stores and fending off grocery discounters Wal-Mart, Target, Meijer’s and others, the 11 bigg’s stores in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky have managed to survive, in part, because the grocery chain has been willing to take a chance on stocking goods from local providers and vendors – even those with no track record of success.

“We always go for the highest quality products that we can find. When we talk about food and products at bigg’s, it’s all about quality,” says Jimmy Nichols, vice president of merchandising and marketing for bigg’s.

With Kroger the dominant player in the grocery store sector in Southwest Ohio, bigg’s has managed to carve out a niche here in part because of that buy-local initiative.

Full Story: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20081102/BIZ01/811020350