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COURSE GROUND CHUCK ATTRACTS ATTENTION

ATLANTA -- Coarse ground chuck may not appear to qualify as a value-added product, but there it sat alongside cornbread-stuffed pork chops and pinwheels Florentine at the Publix Super Market SN visited here.ce was $2.59 a pound -- the same as for regular ground chuck offered in another case.The product, looking like it had been gathered fresh from the large-hole plate on the meat grinder, lay in overlapped

ATLANTA -- Coarse ground chuck may not appear to qualify as a value-added product, but there it sat alongside cornbread-stuffed pork chops and pinwheels Florentine at the Publix Super Market SN visited here.

ce was $2.59 a pound -- the same as for regular ground chuck offered in another case.

The product, looking like it had been gathered fresh from the large-hole plate on the meat grinder, lay in overlapped strings nearly half an inch in diameter. On overwrapped trays, a handful of facings were merchandised in a 12-foot length of self-service case dedicated to value-added meat and related accouterments.

SN observed that the product attracted the attention of tour attendees, most of whom said they thought it was a good idea.

"It's just a little different twist, and something we could do easily," said one retailer. Another retailer-wholesaler said he intends to try it in selected stores.

"It's one of the ideas I saw that I think we'll try in some of our stores up here. I've never seen anyone do that in our area, but I'm sure it would work. I know it's a Southern thing. I think they grind meat that way, too, for spaghetti," said Joe Melton, meat director at Associated Wholesalers Inc., Robesonia, Pa.

AWI owns 10 corporate stores and services more than 800 independent supermarkets and c-stores in the northern Mid-Atlantic region.