Skip navigation

CLEMENS FROZENS PRICES GET HOTTER IN COLDER WEATHER

KULPSVILLE, Pa. -- Shoppers in stores owned by Clemens Markets here aren't just making small talk when they talk about the weather. They're talking about the prices of two frozen food items -- as determined by the previous day's high and low temperatures.The low temperature, as reported on a local television news broadcast, becomes the next day's price of Swanson's 7-ounce turkey, chicken or beef

KULPSVILLE, Pa. -- Shoppers in stores owned by Clemens Markets here aren't just making small talk when they talk about the weather. They're talking about the prices of two frozen food items -- as determined by the previous day's high and low temperatures.

The low temperature, as reported on a local television news broadcast, becomes the next day's price of Swanson's 7-ounce turkey, chicken or beef pot pies. (Clemens set the lowest possible price of the pot pies at 10 cents.) The high temperature becomes the price of Stouffer's 12-ounce macaroni and cheese.

The chain is promoting its sale, which began Feb. 28, with in-store signs and through newspaper ads. In the upper right-hand corner of one Clemens ad, a box with the featured products and a thermometer read, "Now You Have a Reason to Like the Cold Weather!"

When contacted by SN, Jim Roesner, dairy and frozen food buyer at Clemens, said the lowest temperature to date was 12 degrees and the highest was 63 degrees.

He said this promotion was exciting to the consumer, and that the chain might run it again next year or at some other time of the year.

"We had done something like that a few years ago in the summer with hot dogs and soda. That [promotion] went pretty good. It was different. [This year] I just wanted a different twist for frozen food."

To spur store-level interest, Roesner said, Clemens ran a contest among its 14 stores.

"We had a display in each store. We held a contest with the stores and they put a display up in each [frozens department]," Roesner said.