“Unilaterally our customers are asking for more local product,” says Tom O’Boyle, executive vice president of marketing and merchandising at A&P. The Local Day Boat Program is being rolled out throughout the Montvale, N.J.-based chain’s entire portfolio of stores, including A&P, Waldbaum’s, Super Fresh, The Food Emporium and Pathmark.

While the vast majority of America’s seafood is still imported—83% according to the National Fisheries Institute’s latest estimates—consumer concerns about saving American jobs, the environment, carbon footprint and the quality and safety of imported product is causing the tide to begin to shift to domestically produced seafood. “The feedback that we get from focus groups and store teams who interact with customers on a daily basis; they are always more apt and more interested to ask about and buy those locally grown items,” O’Boyle says.

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