If there's one thing Stew Leonard Jr. understands, it's satisfying consumers. It's what he and the other 2,400 people who work at Stew Leonard's strive for every day. His message to cattlemen? Meet your consumers where they are, and listen a lot more than you talk. Leonard is president and CEO of Stew Leonard's, a family-owned grocery business in Connecticut and New York. Recently, the four-store chain began selling "naked beef," a product raised without antibiotics or growth promotants, in an alliance with Kansas cow-calf producers and feedyards. "We probably do over $50 million a year just in beef in our stores," he says. They came up with the naked beef idea because customers were coming into the stores and saying they were scared about their food. "They really don't have time to know what's in it," he says. "They just want to feel good about eating it." Currently, naked beef accounts for about a third of all beef sales, and growing "It's about 10-20% more expensive at retail, but customers are willing to pay it because they feel good about it," Leonard says. -- Burt Rutherford, Beef Cow Calf Weekly e-Newsletter