NORRISTOWN, Pa. -- Genuardi Family Markets here has placed in its 30 stores interactive computer kiosks that offer health-oriented meal recipes tied to fresh center-of-the-plate items.
The chain installed the kiosks in early October, and initial feedback from consumers has been "very positive," according to Ray Taglialatela, director of perishable food merchandising at Genuardi. In the program's first month of operation, the kiosks dispensed about 50,000 recipes, he said.
The kiosks are loaded with an interactive program called "To Your Health," which the chain developed in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania Health System, a local health services initiative.
The health services organization worked with Genuardi to select the recipes and ingredients, all of which are low in fat, low in sodium and low in cholesterol, said Taglialatela. He said the two parties were drawn together by the kiosk manufacturer, Carter Retail Technology, based in Richmond, Va.
"The computer is easy to use, and it prints out recipes and shopping lists for the consumer to take along," he said.
The program offers a rotating list of six recipes, relying on ingredients that each week include beef, chicken, seafood, pork and vegetarian entrees and a side dish. The selection is drawn from a memory bank of recipes on hard disk and is changed automatically each week, Taglialatela said.
"The first goal of this program was to introduce these recipes as a way to say to consumers, 'Hey, we really care about your health and want to help you easily select the right foods from our stores to fit your needs for a healthier diet.' The second goal, of course, is to sell more food and encourage shoppers to travel all around the store to find the products needed for the recipes," he told SN.
All the kiosks are placed at the start of the shopping trip. Some are at the head of the produce department, Taglialatela said, while in some stores they are situated in the foyer. The objective, he said, is "to get them into the program and hopefully help guide their purchase decisions as early as possible, rather than halfway through or at the end of the shopping trip when they've already made all their decisions."
When the machines debuted, the chain used in-house demonstrators and in-store personnel
for a weekend as hosts, to encourage shoppers to step up and give the program a try. Taglialatela is convinced that helped To Your Health get off to a healthy start.
The proof of its effectiveness, however, will come from measuring the program's effect for a longer period. Genuardi will likely track both the number of recipes dispensed and the actual sales data on products included in the recipes to measure To Your Health's performance.
"The program is still very new, but eventually we will have to measure the response. The key to its effectiveness for us will be to see what kind of closure we are getting on the recipes. Just because they print themselves out does not mean that our consumers are actually using them to buy the products and change their eating habits," he explained.
As the program progresses, the chain is also likely to find ways to tie-in promotions and advertising on specific fresh items that are included in the weekly recipe list.
The kiosks also offer Genuardi another as yet unexploited opportunity: to use the computer video screens' downtime to advertise Genuardi's products and programs, he said.
"Most of the time, these systems are down, waiting for someone to start using them. We can use that downtime to help us promote other things besides the recipes themselves," he said.
Genuardi will work with the To Your Health program for at least a year, and then evaluate its effectiveness and decide whether to continue or change it.
Taglialatela said the chain is already working on developing health-oriented tips that it would also offer on a weekly basis through the kiosks.
In addition, the program is likely to be used to bolster holiday promotions. Eventually, Genuardi also will customize the recipe programs by store, to pinpoint the in-store locations of the various ingredients needed for the recipes, he said.
