Grocery Store Owner Amuses CNN’s Boris Sanchez by Brandishing Giant Fish for Report on Memorial Day Prices

Stew Leonard, Jr., the owner of the regional Stew Leonard’s supermarket chain, brandished a variety of products during a CNN segment on Memorial Day grocery prices, including a large salmon, a tomahawk steak, and some avocados — to the obvious amusement of CNN Newsroom anchor Boris Sanchez.

Leonard was interviewed from inside his store location in Norwalk, Connecticut, one of eight total locations, with two more in Connecticut, three in New York, and two in New Jersey.

The broad tariffs enacted by President Donald Trump via executive order have been a topic of discussion regarding the effect on prices, and Sanchez asked Leonard about how the tariffs and other factors were affecting groceries in his store.

Leonard replied that there were “a couple little ups, a couple little downs,” but he thought it “looks like prices are the same as last year,” and touted his store’s filet mignon burger, saying customers were “gobbling it up” as he held up the package.

Leonard said that he thought egg prices would continue to drop as the flocks continued to come back after the avian flu, adding, “I don’t think it had anything to do with Trump or any other thing,” just a “supply and demand issue.”

Meat prices were “maybe up a little bit,” said Leonard, but since his stories sold “all U.S. domestic beef,” he wasn’t expecting any problems with tariffs affecting that.

Leonard said that one of his “best sellers” was salmon, and held up a very large fish, so big he had to back up for the entire fish to be visible on the television screen.

“Check this baby out right here, OK?” said Leonard. “How do you like this guy?”

“Ooh, very nice,” said Sanchez.

Leonard then held up some avocados, saying they weren’t tariffed right now but tequila was, which was a problem they were “worried about,” and “like all retailers, we have our fingers crossed that this tariff thing will be worked out” before the alcohol tariffs kicked in next month.

Sanchez briefly waxed poetic about how he would want that salmon prepared — grilled, “put some guac on top of it, maybe some feta, red onion, top it off with a margarita” — and asked Leonard about the local farm suppliers who sold products to his stores, and how they were preparing for the tariffs.

Leonard said that the supplies “bent over backwards to help Stew Leonard’s out” during the pandemic, so “we now are going to bend over backwards to help them out,” especially the smaller ones, “because we don’t want them to go out of business,” and working on deals to absorb about half of the tariff costs.

“It’s not great for margins,” Leonard said. “You know, we’re on a thin margin here in food retail, but we’re in it for the long term. We’re a family business, and you know we can do what we want, as far as pricing goes.

As the segment wrapped, Sanchez thanked Leonard and told him to “enjoy that salmon — that looked good, man.”

Leonard had one more product to show off for the CNN anchor, brandishing a tomahawk steak.

“Hey, Boris — one thing I heard you like steaks, right? So look what I got for you right here.”

Watch the clip above via CNN.