Foster’s Food Fair is no more. The friendly, balloon-carrying clown is gone. The “We Care” motto is still there, but better. Welcome to the new Foster’s, a refreshed brand that will see its 60,000-square foot flagship grocery store open in Camana Bay next month. This isn’t the first rebranding the family-owned supermarket chain has experienced since opening its first store near the airport in December 1980, says Marketing Senior Manager Julian Foster. “We started out as just Food Fair, then it was Foster’s Food Fair and then it was Foster’s Food Fair IGA,” he says. “We wanted to make it simpler, so now it’s just “Foster’s.” The new logo will not feature the Foster’s clown, which has been a part of the brand imagery from the early days. “The clown is retiring,” says Julian with a laugh. “It’s been 39 years in December, so it’s time for him to retire.”
The new logo will feature the Foster’s name above the strapline “Better Because We Care.” “We wanted to make sure ‘We Care’ was still there because it’s been a part of our life as a brand and it reflects who we are and what we represent,” says Julian. “But we wanted to expand it.” Although “IGA” will no longer be part of the supermarket chain’s name and logo, Foster’s will continue its association with United States-based Independent Grocers Alliance and will still sell IGA-branded products in all of its stores, the Foster’s colour palette will also change, with a rich, deep blue serving as the brand’s key signifier, supported by two complementary shades of green. A secondary colour palette inspired by tints and shades prevalent in the Cayman Islands landscape will be used to support various functional aspects of the supermarket, such as signifying sale items, denoting the meat department or facilitating store-wide messaging.
Foster's Camana Bay
Foster’s first started talking with the Dart organisation about opening up a store in Camana Bay about 10 years ago, Julian says. Now that it’s opening, the new, larger location gives Foster’s an opportunity to modernise and upgrade its offerings. “The Camana Bay store is a huge location and will have a lot more products,” Julian says, adding that in addition to the kinds of products the Foster’s supermarkets already sell, there will be many more speciality and gourmet products similar to those now sold at its Bay Market store in Camana Bay. For example, Julian says there will be a lot more cheeses at the new store — so many more that it will make the cheese case at Bay Market look small. The new store will feature the “Bay Market Cafe,” an expanded deli and much larger hot deli. It will offer meats roasted and carved daily, freshly made sandwiches to order, salads and soups. It will also have many options for breakfast and dinner in addition to lunch, Julian says, noting that there will be indoor and outdoor seating at which to eat.
There will also be a coffee bar at the new store. “It will be a real coffee bar where you can go and get a barista to make you a cappuccino,” says Julian, adding that freshly made juices and smoothies will also be available at Foster’s Camana Bay. Other features of the new store include an expanded bakery, a florist and a Western Union service. “We’re really excited about this store because we’ll be able to offer so much to so many people,” Julian says. The new store will not have a price structure different from the other Foster’s stores. “If something costs $2.99 at Republix in West Bay, it will cost $2.99 at Camana Bay,” he says, noting however that the speciality and gourmet products will have a higher price because of their inherently higher costs.
Foster’s Managing Director Woody Foster says opening the store in Camana Bay was in keeping with the growth of Grand Cayman. “Camana Bay is a growing and important part of Cayman and its ever-evolving community,” he says. “Opening this store gives us the flexibility to better our approach to general customer offerings and prepared foods, while allowing us to continue to offer service that makes our customers smile.”
The Strand and Bay Market
In the days leading up to next month’s opening of Foster’s Camana Bay, two of the grocer’s other stores — Bay Market in Camana Bay and Foster’s Food Fair at the Strand — will close. Bay Market has been a popular lunch spot for Camana Bay’s visitors and office workers and Julian believes the added variety and seating will encourage customers to walk the little extra distance to get their meals.
“We think the new products will drive them in,” he says, adding that within a few weeks of opening, customers will be able to order meals online and have them ready for pickup when they come over. There will be plenty of parking near the new store, so if Camana Bay office workers don’t want to walk, they will also be able to take a short drive to get their meals.
About the author
Alan Markoff has worked with Dart as the editor for Camana Bay Times for three years and has been writing professionally since 1997. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Alan graduated from the State University of New York at Albany with a degree in English, and first moved to the Cayman Islands in 1982. He has 16 years of experience in the real estate industry and previously worked as a journalist for Cayman Compass before joining Dart to relaunch the Camana Bay Times monthly newspaper. An avid baseball fan, Alan loves travelling but also schedules trips back home around catching a summer game or two with his home team, Cleveland Indians. He is a movie buff who spends many an evening catching a film at Camana Bay Cinema. It was at one of these movies that he met his wife, Lynn!
This article was originally published in the September 2019 edition of Camana Bay Times.