Skip navigation

IT'S TIME TO ACT FAST

CHICAGO -- Most retailers know that shoppers are hungry for convenience when they walk into the store to buy their evening meal. The problem is, they've been slow to figure out how they can provide their customers with quick and easy meal solutions without taking inordinate risk. Food courts, it appears, may be one answer.According to Howard Solganik, president of Solganik & Associates, Dayton, Ohio,

CHICAGO -- Most retailers know that shoppers are hungry for convenience when they walk into the store to buy their evening meal. The problem is, they've been slow to figure out how they can provide their customers with quick and easy meal solutions without taking inordinate risk. Food courts, it appears, may be one answer.

According to Howard Solganik, president of Solganik & Associates, Dayton, Ohio, a supermarket food-service consulting firm, if supermarket companies don't start moving fast to give shoppers what they want, they stand to lose the battle for the food dollar to restaurants and fast-food establishments.

The numbers say it all: Of the 86% of people who eat dinners at home during the week, fully half are eating prepackaged or takeout food that they picked up or had delivered, Solganik said, quoting a recent survey.

"Over half the takeout food sold is consumed at home. This was in USA Today a couple of weeks ago," he said. "While we slept, restaurants came and took a lot of our business away from us. We didn't respond to the changing customer. They did. They understood how to take ingredients and add value to them and give food to the customer efficiently and fast. What makes things even worse is they think it's their business. It's our business."

Solganik made his remarks at a seminar on food courts at the 1994 annual supermarket industry convention of the Food Marketing Institute held here May 1 to 4.

What can retailers do to put themselves in the business of selling complete takeout meals rather than ingredients for meals?

According to Solganik, food courts are one possible answer, but the jury is still out as to whether the concept, born in malls where hungry shoppers needed a quick bite, are the best answer.

For the food court in a supermarket setting, part of the point is to give shoppers food they not only can eat at the store, but which, in contrast to a mall, they can easily take home to eat. If a food court per se isn't the answer, some kind of emphasis on food service may well be the way to go, Solganik said.

"A lot of us believe that traditional delis will be able to carry us through to the next decade," said Solganik. "I don't think so. I believe we have to make a substantial commitment to food service. "The food business, the entire food business, is our business. That's the business that we're in and we need to embrace it. We have a lot of things going for us. We have good locations, big parking lots, our customers like us and we give a lot back to our communities. But what we have to do now is take the next step and hire and train people in food service."

For a food court to be successful, a store must have significant traffic, and should do upwards of $350,000 per week in sales, he said. Location is also key. In the store, seating is critical.

Then, said Solganik, the food court must be easy. "Easy to find. Easy to follow the floor plan. Easy to buy. Easy to get out of the store."

If you can't lick 'em, join 'em, goes the old saying. But that's not how Solganik sees it. He told FMI attendees that he is not in favor of bringing national brands of fast food into the supermarket.

"There may be a place for some fast-food feeders in supermarkets, but I'm not necessarily sure that that's the food image a retailer wants to make," he said.

They may, however, serve as a draw, he said, referring in particular to the scaled-down McDonald's outlet in a unit of Jewel Food Stores in Orland Park, Ill., that opened a year ago. For retailers who choose to run their own programs, Solganik suggested they first take plenty of time to plan.

A key, he said, is to minimize preparation at store level to keep down labor costs, either by using a central kitchen, or by bringing in components from outside vendors. "It's not the food cost that's the issue in these operations," he said. "I believe there should be minimal preparation done at store level. We think you should focus on finishing and assembling at store level, not scratch cooking."

Solganik said when he goes into a supermarket food-service department and sees more than one food preparation area, he knows immediately that there are probably problems stemming from high labor costs. "Do serving, not cooking, in several locations," he said. Solganik said retailers who use central kitchens for a significant portion of their food preparation are taking the right route. For example, he said, Ukrop's Super Markets, Richmond, Va., does most of its preparation at a central facility, but has a small grill in its food-service area where preprepped items are cooked in front of customers.

To source food for food-service programs, Solganik suggested establishing relationships with food-service vendors, rather than buying ingredients off the shelf of the supermarket. "I think you need to get food-service relationships. It can result in some much better numbers," he said. In terms of pricing, Solganik said retailers should not be afraid to charge what the prepared food is worth. If a KFC can charge in the $8 range for a roasted chicken, why can't a retailer, he asked. Many retailers interested in turning their traditional deli departments into food-service operations take journeys to trend-setting supermarket companies such as Wegmans Food Markets, Rochester, N.Y., to get ideas.

Solganik cautioned seminar attendees not to fall into the trap of trying to copy success. "Copy carefully," he said. "I don't know how many times retailers have told me to go up to Wegmans and they say, 'Howard, take a look at it and come back and help me build one.' "

Instead, Solganik said, retailers would be better off sending up human resources people to study the staff organization behind Wegmans' much-admired food courts and food-service programs.

"They have very successful food courts and they have a serious commitment from the top."