FOR THE management of Seafood City, tilapia happens to be more than just a hot item on the shelves, it indicates how the Filipino community in the United States is doing.

People who work in the supermarkets can tell just by looking at the rate tilapia flies off the shelves.

When tilapia sells according to company projections, then all is well with the Filipinos abroad.

But when tilapia starts selling like hot cakes, it doesn't mean people abroad are getting too homesick, they're simply straining to tighten their belts, buying fish instead of the more expensive pork or beef. When stores run out of stocks of tilapia, then you'll have to start worrying about the state of the economy, a company executive says.

These days, stocks are running out.

Doing fine

The economic downturn in the world's largest economy has not spared anyone.

According to Lito Hontiveros, a key official of Seafood City, the supermarket chain “is doing fine, even in this time of crisis.”

“We notice that more people now prefer to stay home than eat out in casual restaurants. Also, people are going back to the supermarkets, buying food that they'll cook at home,” he says.

A Seafood City finance officer tells how the recession took its toll on his friends in the banking sector.

Job applicants

“I have friends who used to work in banks,” he says in Filipino. “Some of them were vice presidents who had been with the institution for eight years. They got laid off.”

Other white collar employees – Filipinos who work at information technology firms one day, only to find themselves without a job the next – have been applying for work at Seafood City.

According to one company official, the applicants are willing to take on any job, even menial ones.

“Application forms have been pouring in, the official says. He estimates that there are three times more people applying for jobs with Seafood City than there were last year.

That official hopes to accommodate as many applicants as possible. After all, the supermarket chain is still expanding despite the downturn.

Expansion

When the finance officer joined Seafood City in 2002, the company only had seven supermarkets in various parts of California.

Today, it has 17 full service supermarkets – mostly concentrated on the Western seaboard – out to please the Pinoy palate.

“The expansion happened so fast, even I was surprised at the speed by which the stores had opened,” the finance man says.

“Even at this time, when the economy is down, we are still opening additional stores.”

That statement was made in late March, and the company at that time was set to open two more stores by the end of the year.

The supermarket business may be recession-resistant, but it is nonetheless affected by what's happening in the rest of the world.

Contraction

“There has been a contraction in the basket of goods consumers bought between the months of January and March,” a company executive says.

This development has prompted the company to be more responsive and creative with the marketing of its products.

In Las Vegas, the manager of the Seafood City establishment there says that the market in the area continues to have great potential and revenues are excellent.

He claims that a sizable number of customers at the Vegas store is from out-of-state.

He also describes how, three years ago, the Vegas establishment marked a record of sorts.

Tills are ringing

No Jollibee or Chowking outlet in the Philippines, or anywhere else, came close to matching the sales that had been rang up that day.

The cash tills were ringing throughout the day, while lines of people, eager to have a taste of home, stretched out almost to the parking lot.

“It was crazy back then … we had to put more tables [outside the Jollibee and Chowking stores] to accommodate the crowd,” the Vegas store manager says, describing the chaos in the supermarket aisles right up to the very entrance of the establishment.

Jollibee Foods Corp. and Seafood City have an enduring partnership in that part of the world: wherever a Seafood City establishment is put up, a Jollibee hamburger joint and Chowking restaurant will surely be there to feed the hungry supermarket customers.

Saturation point

With 15 stores in California alone, plus the two in Nevada, with two more set to open still on the West Coast, has the company reached saturation point? Are there that many Filipinos in that part of the United States to sustain the company?

Apparently, there is, according to Tony Junio, a Seafood City executive.

“There are still many unserved, underserved areas in California,” he says, referring to large pockets of Filipino residents where the company still has to establish a presence.

He estimates that two-thirds of Filipinos there were born outside the United States. That means there are that many whose tastes and preferences are fully homegrown.

Also, the economic downturn in the United States “presents opportunities for us,” Junio says.

He explains that there are many mainstream US retail outfits that are facing bankruptcy, and that the company is in a position to fill the vacuum that will be created when the retailers close shop.

“Recession is only a bump in the road,” he explains. “You cannot allow it to deter you from focusing on your long-term goals. Recession just reminds you of the important things ... for you to go back to basics ... to watch your costs.”

At Eagle Rock, according to him, people in huge numbers walk in and out of the Seafood City supermarket, lending business to the surrounding stores that have mushroomed around the establishment.

There are many plans afoot for Seafood City, including expansion in areas outside California.

And even though the United States is in the grip of an economic crisis – said to be much worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s – the prospects of the Filipino-owned company have never looked brighter.