SN: How will consumers' focus on convenience foods redefine the supermarket's role? McEWAN: Convenience is the question of the day because prepared foods are so labor-intensive and there's such a huge amount of loss if it's not handled properly.
enough to make it worthwhile. NOWAK: We think the desire for convenience foods will increase, especially products consumers can take home and pop in the microwave. We see that as an increasing business because people want convenience -- they don't want to spend time cooking.
Supermarkets have to be ready to meet convenience needs by carrying the items and variety consumers want, by being willing to experiment with new products and to have more service so customers won't have to go elsewhere. We're continually looking at more customer services and more convenience foods. SCROGGINS: Supermarkets will be major players in the area of prepared takeout foods that meet today's lifestyle demands for convenience. Good supermarkets will focus on the consumer of tomorrow, and we should see more fresh-oriented supermarkets, including some with home delivery of prepared foods. There will be more attention paid to taking care of shoppers outside the store. HOSEY: Such convenience items as hot prepared foods, salad bars and branded salad mixes are all exploding. In the future we may have to do home deliveries and accept faxed orders or provide other interactive services and assistance.
This is a generation of consumers that doesn't know the basics of food buying, storage or preparation, and it becomes our role to generate more interaction through recipes or brochures. In the future we may need to provide more labor-intensive departments where consumers can learn how to use different foods, or we may have to share information through interactive videos or other computerized programs to help people use these products.
And we may be required to be tremendously flexible -- to do home deliveries, for example, or to have more knowledge about our customers, right down to the level of individual community demographics to meet their demands for convenience. STEINBACH: We see supermarkets becoming more competitive with fast-food restaurants. So we have to determine how our stores can offer fast-food solutions. We have to come up with solutions at the stores that make it quick and easy for customers to buy -- things like more heat-and-eat entrees, plated dinners and boxed lunches. OMERNICK: A lot of people never learned to cook, and we've been very successful putting out ready-to-eat sandwiches and salads on an island display.
At one of our larger stores we've eliminated the service meat case in favor of an expanded self-service section, and sales have been terrific. We haven't decided to take similar actions in other stores because our image as a service operator is important to us. MATHEWS: We need to continue to look at the convenience products we offer to keep customers from going elsewhere. We don't consider ourselves a fast-food store, but we do offer a lot of convenience foods, including soup and salad bars, rotisserie chicken, step-saver meats (where we do the preparation) and prepared entrees. We need to offer nutritious, reasonably priced convenience foods and maintain a good variety.
Convenience is one of the most important factors for the customer who's pressed for time and who doesn't want to spend a lot of time cooking during the week. CROWLEY: As the consumer's time grows more precious, the need for more convenience in supermarkets will grow greater. The day may come when we have to take orders for meals by phone, prepare them and have them ready for customers to pick up at a drive-through window.
There also will be a continuing growth to find foods that are easily accessible to consumers and to develop complete prepackaged meals -- from salad to desserts -- that have a high nutritional value. GERLAND: Our customers don't use of lot of convenience foods because they tend to be more expensive. In the past we've had prepared food sections in some of our suburban locations, but those didn't do well and we got rid of them.
Frozen foods are certainly popular because that's the way the market is going. But our customers buy mainly groceries and do a lot of cooking at home.
