The Buzz
January 11, 2010
A&P Expands Food Basics to Connecticut
Shoppers want a better deal, and the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., Montvale, N.J., wants to give Connecticut consumers just that by opening up its first Food Basics location in the Nutmeg State’s largest city, Bridgeport.
Like Save-A-Lot, Aldi and other food retailing concepts that are expanding in the recession, Food Basics is a compact format — at 28,000 square feet in Bridgeport — that uses economies to keep costs down so it can offer shoppers lower prices than more conventional supermarket operations. But unlike Aldi, Food Basics provides as much of a full-service shopping experience as it can, stocking deli and meat products from a commissary rather than through an in-store service function.
Michael Vacarr, Food Basics' district manager with responsibility for the Bridgeport location, said the elimination of butchers and deli managers helps A&P keep Food Basics’ prices low. Yet the retailer also wants to provide some traditional service at the front-end.
A&P is high on the Food Basics concept, Vacarr noted, and the enthusiasm isn’t just a product of the recession.
“This store has been in planning for four years,” he said
Food Basics is based on a format that operates in Canada, one that is closer to an Aldi in spirit, and even charges for grocery bags if it provides them. Vacarr said A&P, after considering such operations here, determined that the value shopper in the United States wanted something more than bare bones.
Thus Food Basics offers core products at a low price, but also makes sure it can address the range of its customers’ concerns. It offers an extensive lineup of frozen meat-substitute products, for example, to take care of shoppers who are trying to eat healthier.
Food Basics carefully tailors operations to meet local community needs, and the Bridgeport location includes an extensive assortment of Goya products to help satisfy the community’s Hispanic residents.
Ultimately, though, price is central to the concept’s proposition, so Food Basics maintains low prices on a daily basis but sweetens the pot for particular promotional events. La Yogurt, for example, carries a regular single-serve unit price of 44 cents, while Dannon is regularly priced at 68 cents but with occasional discounts to 38 cents, Vacarr noted.
A&P complements the manufacturer branded assortment at Food Basics with a large selection of A&P’s own private labels, including America’s Choice, to meet customer priorities in their pursuit of values that meet their definition best.
Vacarr said Food Basics appeals to a growing concern among many consumers about how to do more with their money; the concern isn’t altogether a product of the economic downturn.“The recession definitely helped us,” he said, “but we were doing well before the recession.” — Mike Duff
Giant Eagle Features Specialty Cheese in Gourmet Mega Market
Giant Eagle Inc., Pittsburgh, has joined Kroger, H-E-B and Wegmans in expanding a food format with gourmet aspirations and a conspicuous presentation of specialty cheese.
Early last month, Giant Eagle announced the opening of its third Market District location — a 150,000-square-foot destination store with a heavy emphasis on perishables and prepared food — featuring a specialty cheese shop that offers more than 400 artisan and imported cheeses. The product assortment is selected and aged on-site by certified cheesemongers.
Among the other operations Giant Eagle’s Market District store will use to tempt food lovers are an Italian gelato counter offering fresh product made daily; a cooking school under the direction of Chef and Cooking School Manager Carey Palenchar, a graduate of L’Ecole Culinaire in St. Louis; and an Asian street food station that includes fresh meats from a genuine Tandoori oven.
Giant Eagle launched the Market District concept with two stores in 2006.
Target Builds on Food Product, Store Initiatives
Minneapolis-based Target Corp. recently revealed new food initiatives that provide another signal the company is enjoying success in edibles.
In a third-quarter conference call, the retailer noted that it intends to have 450 of its P-Fresh expanded-food discount stores in operation by the end of next year. The company will build on the initial rollout of about 100 P-Fresh units this year. The P-Fresh format adds limited produce and fresh meat to Target stores, but the overwhelming bulk of the food operation is in grocery, frozen and refrigerated food.
Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel seems high on the concept. In the conference call, as reported by SeekingAlpha, he said P-Fresh is an effective selling concept that showcases what the company can do in food beyond the supercenter operation.
“By carefully evaluating the number of items in each category, this enhanced assortment includes 90% of the food categories and approximately 60% of the SKUs available in a Super Target store,” Steinhafel said. “And the concept incorporates unique fixturing and visual elements that clearly convey our commitment to a credible food offering in a general merchandise format.”
The long-term future of the concept might still be undetermined, but the short-term P-Fresh outlook has been set.
“While it is still relatively early to make a definitive judgment on this format,” Steinhafel said, “we continue to be very pleased with our initial results and feel confident enough in its future potential to extend our rollout to an additional 350 stores in 2010.”
On the new product front, refrigerated and frozen foods are critical to the new Simply Balanced food line that is launching under Target’s Archer Farms premium private label. Based on what the retailer characterizes as “better-for-you nutrition that’s budget-friendly,” Archer Farms Simply Balanced includes 70 products under an umbrella that covers segments from pasta to deli soups to frozen pizza.
All Simply Balanced products have to meet criteria for calorie, fat, saturated fat and sugar content. Products also are free of artificial flavorings and synthetic colors and have zero grams trans fats. Prices range from $1.48 for whole wheat pasta to $5.49 for chicken skewers, the company noted.
Supply Side
Chicago-based Kim & Scott’s Gourmet Pretzels is kicking off its Pretzel Dough program, an initiative offering schools across the country $1 for every Kim & Scott’s Gourmet Pretzel UPC box flap collected and returned to the company during the 2009/2010 school year. To enroll in the program, parents, teachers, students and school administrators may visit www.kimandscotts.com.
Henningsen Cold Storage, Hillsboro, Ore., is adding a new service for its customers: Henningsen Wine Services. The program offers temperature-controlled bonded and tax-paid wine and ale storage; multi-temperature ingredient and packaging materials storage; local, regional and national transportation, distribution, order picking and fulfillment; and space for bottling, labeling and packing.
The Hispanic market is growing, and the Rumba brand from Cargill of Wichita, Kan., is expanding to meet the opportunity. Launched as a pre-packaged beef line in 2007, it has continued to add new items, including, over the course of this year, hanger steak, flank, outside skirt, honeycomb tripe, marrow bone and suet. In June, the brand also added pork specialty cuts.
The International Boston Seafood Show and Seafood Processing America return to Boston March 14 to 16, 2010. The events combine to form North America’s largest seafood event, drawing over 17,000 buyers and sellers from 90 countries.
Stefano Foods, Charlotte, N.C., is promoting its Rip-n-Dip Stuffed Pizza Ring for Super Bowl parties. The 21-ounce pizza ring is available in two flavors: Pepperoni & Cheese and Four Cheese.
Pittsburgh-based H. J. Heinz Co. and its Weight Watchers Smart Ones brand conducted a study that found Americans favor sandwiches as their favorite lunchtime option. The conclusion supported the recent rollout of Smart Ones Grilled Flatbread sandwiches to supermarkets and also suggested that consumers crave carbohydrate-heavy foods for lunch, so the brand is launching two additional products: Pizza Minis and Stone-Fired Pizzas.
Ruitenberg Displays and Off The Wall Co. merged to form a new privately held firm named Off The Wall Co. LLC, which will provide design, branding, engineering, fixture development and sustainability support operations to retailers.
Did you enjoy this article? Click here to subscribe to the magazine.