-By Thyra Porter

Store Stats
Number of Stores: 1
Year Opened: 1998
Number of Employees: 15 full-time, year-round; 25 part-time, seasonal
Web Site: www.auroraprovisions.com

In Vacationland (yes, that's Maine's official motto), the tourist trade is usually the key target market for retailers. Yet tourism is not on the menu at Portland, Maine-based Aurora Provisions. Rather, they serve up good food to the locals who have made the store a favorite haunt: stopping by for a breakfast burrito in the cafe, picking up supper, or ordering gift baskets packed with specialty delights.

Neighborhood Connection
To understand the way Aurora does business is to first know the store's neighborhood. Located in the West End section of Portland, Aurora, while in one of the most upscale sections of the city, is far from downtown Portland's tourist traffic.

For over the past 10 years, Aurora Provisions has been a landmark in the neighborhood, but sales took off when owner Marika Kuzma bought the business seven years ago and edited the store's mix to highlight local products and tasty prepared meals, as well as products not found anywhere else.

"At Aurora, we look at food from 'outside the box,'" says Kuzma. "Because we are independently and locally operated, we are not restricted by any corporate agendas, allowing us the flexibility to try a myriad of products -- from honey produced down the street to hand-woven dishtowels hailing all the way from Sweden. I look for the uniqueness of a retail item; food must always be tasted and sundries looked at from my customers' perspectives when assessing whether or not to carry them."

While not on Portland's tourist track, Aurora is smack between two hospitals and within walking distance of the state's most tony private school. And the store is a serendipitous mix of gourmet food shop and catering business, offering a way for harried doctors, nurses and parents to serve up a feast with ready-to-go meals and gourmet foods. An assortment of high-end textiles, candles and paper goods also makes it easy for shoppers to pick up a last-minute hostess gift.

In short, there are a lot of good reasons to drop by.

Perhaps the best reason is that the atmosphere is that of all good neighborhood hangouts: cozy, friendly and smelling of fine cooking.

The store is housed in a former industrial building that benefits from a spacious parking lot, a rarity in Portland. Bright color highlights walls both inside and out, reflecting owner Kuzma's background as an artist. (Her paintings are on display as well.)

Floor-to-ceiling windows bring in light even on overcast Maine days. Traffic flow is important to sales, and Aurora's layout is designed so that in-store diners don't interfere with shoppers. Prepared food is sold in displays in the middle of the space. A self-serve coffee bar is kitty-corner from the espresso counter and directly in front of the cash register, giving those lining up for morning caffeine a clear path to their daily fix.

While there is no table service, it is clear that shoppers are welcome to stick around for a while. Round wooden tables line a third of the store for those eating in; bar stools and counters ring the perimeter; and there is plenty of room in the middle for those browsing wine racks and specialty food zones.

Seasonal displays of specialty items are arranged near the prepared food area. Those end-caps cross-merchandise the store's specialty items and the staff's ability to put together an artistic gift basket.

A full restaurant kitchen is located in the back, but it isn't isolated: a window between the main dining area and kitchen gives consumers a peek into the workings of that busy space.

Cooking up a Reputation
The kitchen is certainly busy, preparing food for both the extensive in-store menu and for catering, a side business which has grown to represent at least one-third of Aurora Provisions' annual income stream, according to general manager Leslie Oster.

"Catering has been huge, it is almost a separate entity," says Oster of the foodservice area's growth.

From weddings and dinner parties, to office lunches and beach picnics, the Aurora Provisions kitchen whips up an ever-changing menu that, like the store's retail side, focuses on local providers.

The store's theme of "Beautiful Food for Busy People" rings a bell with the clientele, who have made Aurora one of Portland's most popular caterers.

And by reaching consumers who can afford catering, Aurora is also building a potential customer base of high-end clients.

People who throw parties also buy from the specialty foods and wine aisles at the store. "We have loyal customers," Oster says. That helps the retailer better compete with other, larger stores.

Within the past year, Whole Foods opened its first store in Portland, offering up a challenge that makes it even more important for Aurora's buyers to focus on the practice of finding unique specialty food purveyors.

Whole Foods, while new in town, has a similar high-end demographic and, as Oster says, "has the buying power that none of the smaller retailers has." Such clout also gives the Aurora Provisions buying team another reason to go local.

Local, Locale
With a 1,000-square-foot store, assortment is important, and to that end, Kuzma has made a company policy of highlighting Maine foods both on the catering menu and sold within the store.

Even with one store, "we try to source as much local product as we can," says Oster.

That includes pork bought from a Maine farmer; coffee, which Aurora buys from three Maine providers, including Carpe Diem, which has an exclusive roast for Aurora; even apple butter, bought from Pastor Chuck, a local reverend turned entrepreneur. (Pastor Chuck is featured on the shelves, in part because of the tempting promise: "One taste and you will know the difference between good and evil.")

Thanks to the catering business, shoppers also have the chance to try local products in the ready-to-eat meals sold at the store.

It is a tasty cross-merchandising ploy: Guzman's Peach Salsa, a Maine favorite, tops smoked turkey sandwiches at the cafe. Once you are addicted, you can buy the salsa in the store.

It's a happy scheme, and it works: Maine Chefs Sauces makes the delicious Keylime Tartar Sauce that tops the store-made crab cakes; Nervous Nellie's Hot Tomato Chutney gets billing as an ingredient in many hors d'oeuvres; and W.O. Hesperus Co.'s addictive Canceaux sauce "is in just about everything spicy," says Oster.

All are from Maine companies, and all are found on the shelves as well as in the prepared foods. Local cheeses and chutneys round out platters on the catering menu, and are found in the cheese case in the store's fridge.

Shopping for new items also means moving beyond the usual sources. In addition to attending trade shows, for example, Oster says she increasingly searches for new specialty items on Web sites like www.dailycandy.com.

Cross-Merchandising With Flavor
Editing assortment is as important as finding the right products and, for Aurora, that means a mostly specialty food focus. Kitchenware didn't make the cut.

"We got rid of cookware, little gadgets and magnets: in our location, those things didn't work for us," Oster says. "We are so small that shelf space is worth quite a bit. People want to buy what they can't find elsewhere."

No matter where the food is sourced, Oster says packaged specialty food sells faster when it is cross-merchandised with the house-prepared food.

"We have a great line of sauces, called Maine Chefs Sauces, and we merchandise the line so it is natural that people will buy the Maine Chefs Keylime Tartar Sauce when they buy our prepared crab cakes," she says.

"We try to put things together so when people buy the prepared food, they will try something they may not have had before."

A hot sauce might accompany a breakfast burrito, for example. "If we have a delicious sauce, we will use it in our preparation so people can see the final product," she adds.

"We sample a lot of products," says Oster. "It is the single most successful way to move an item."

Healthy Partners
Among many other professional associations, Aurora has business ties with Slow Food Portland and the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) which helps support the overall theme of buying local, says Oster. The professional groups also are a way to find new suppliers in the area.

Community, she says, is important to the Aurora Provisions' customer base.

"Portlanders tend to stick within the district," she adds. "And they are very food-conscious."

Though Aurora is off the tourist track per se, the catering business has strong ties with residents who live in Maine on a seasonal basis. The company supplies a popular beach club with concession-stand food during the summer months, building business with the area's "summer people" who are opening up their vacation houses and looking to entertain.

"They'll get up here and their house will be empty, and they'll call us," Oster says. "They'll order a case of wine and perhaps some frozen meals." A store delivery service makes it even easier to stock up, for those who don't mind the fact that Aurora charges by the mile.

"We'll go as far as you want," says Oster, who remembers when a delivery charge cost three times as much as the pie that was ordered. "They liked the pie so much, they said it was worth it."

Aurora also does business both with summer folks and locals with gift baskets of its specialty foods and candles, she adds. Store displays are carefully arranged to give gift basket ideas, as well as to add to the overall atmosphere of the retail space. And that, Oster says, is a very important strategy.

"People eat with their eyes," she notes. "This is a beautiful store, and everyone works very hard to keep it that way. We are always trying to make things better, constantly looking at our audience and business plan, and making changes."

Business Practices
With a catering business, retail store and even delivery service, Aurora has a diverse employee base. Oster says year-round that means about 15 people work in the kitchen and on the retail floor. Some 20-25 more folks are added in the summer to handle the concession stand and summer catering business.

While the dishwashing team tends to turn over frequently, "most people have been with us for a long time," says Oster. The staff both on the retail side and in the kitchen are all foodies, mostly drawn from "restaurant people that we've known for years," she explains.

"There are so many people that love good food in Portland that it isn't hard to find good employees."

Despite that general affinity toward food, the company has a training manual for its staff, she says, including discussing the different products sold in the store.

Currently, Oster says, one of the most significant issues facing Aurora Provisions -- and many other retailers -- is the overall price of food, which is going up across the board thanks to the spike in fuel prices.

"The cost of goods is extraordinarily high, thanks to how much it costs to ship product," Oster says. "Even the guy selling us bread from downtown is raising prices." That means the store's management team has to keep tweaking assortment, asking, for instance, "How much stuff am I going to bring in from France this year?" Oster says. "People always buy food but will they buy $10 paper cocktail napkins right now?"

What worked last year might not be the same strategy for this year, and as successful as Aurora has been, there's always the next hot food product to introduce to the neighborhood.

And that comes back to being in touch with customers, Kuzma says.

"I take great care in listening to our loyal customer base and often have bought products based on their suggestions or finds. Sometimes, I will just happen upon a product, say in a small store somewhere, and beg them to ship to Maine," she says.

"It's about never resting on your laurels," concludes Oster.

Aurora Provisions makes a practice of supporting producers in the state of Maine. Here's a look at some of their inventory from Maine and beyond.

Maine:
Pemberton's
Pastor Chuck's Organic Apple Butter
Overland Apiaries' Products
Swan's Honey Products
Maple's Organic Gelato
Maine Chefs Sauces
Guzman's Salsas
Savage Oakes Winery
Shalom Orchard Winery
Winterport Winery
Appleton Creamery
Silvery Moon Creamery
Sunset Acres Farm Cheese & Eggs
Merrymeeting Mead
Peak Organic Beer

The World:
Michel Cluizel Chocolates
Point a La Ligne Candles
Tissage Moutet Linens
Francoise Paviot Paper Napkins
Single Vineyard Olive Oils from Organic Olive Oil Company of Italy
Lakelands Australian Olive Oils