SUNBURY, Pa. -- Weis Markets plans to offer a one-day-a-week kosher rotisserie chicken and kosher fish-cutting operation at a store in Allentown, Pa., that recently made a splash with its new kosher bakery.
According to a store associate, the chicken operation will start within weeks. The chickens will be prepared on Thursdays, when the rabbi is in, for Friday sale. Another associate said the seafood operation will begin after a remodel is completed this May.
Rabbi Yitzchak Yagod of the Lehigh Valley Kashrut Commission told SN this particular Weis store is making the additions to appeal to local consumers and to build on the positive consumer response to an in-store kosher bakery that began operations last month.
The bakery, which is part of an 8,400-square-foot expansion, has new wooden cutting boards, mixers and other equipment, said Dennis Curtin, public relations director at Weis Markets. The decision to put in a kosher bakery at the Cedar Crest store came out of a community demand.
"This store has a large Jewish clientele, and there was considerable interest in a kosher bakery," said Curtin. "With the expansion, it made perfect sense to put in a kosher bakery."
The Cedar Crest unit is one of only two stores with kosher-exclusive bakeries in the 156-store chain.
The community's response to the new bakery? "Amazing," said Yagod who trained all the bakery staff and oversees the production. "People are excited and happy. The response is not just from the Jewish community, but many other groups in town that you don't always think of. One of the most common is the people who have allergies and have special dietary needs. Another common group, Seventh Day Adventists, they have certain laws similar to kosher; and the people in the Muslim community."
Another group that appreciates the new kosher bakery are regular customers looking for quality and cleanliness. Yagod said the market study Weis conducted prior to launching the bakery showed that the majority of customers interested in buying kosher products were not people who keep kosher for religious reasons. He said many consumers are just looking for products that they can trust, and items prepared with a sense of "cleanliness" and "purity." According to Kashrut, the ancient Jewish dietary laws, the origin of all ingredients must be known, and there must not be any living items in the product. There is also no mixing of meat and dairy, a practice that appeals to vegetarians.
Research supports the belief that consumers who buy kosher products are doing so because of perceived health benefits, and not for religious reasons. According to a February 2003 Mintel report, 35% of people who buy kosher products do so because they like the taste or flavor, or because they want to buy them. Sixteen percent purchased the products because of the "guidelines under which they were produced." Another 5% thought the product was "safer and healthier." Only 8% purchased the products because they keep kosher. The report suggested a large number of consumers are buying kosher foods because of the "detail" that goes into kosher inspection, and because they believe it is a "healthier product."
Also, the Jewish population accounts for "just under half of kosher purchases." The category "has wide acceptance from the rest of the American population, many of whom purchase the goods because they feel the products are better, and safer, than non-kosher alternatives," according to the Madison, Wis.-based International Dairy Deli Bakery Association's "What's in Store 2003" report. The IDDBA predicted the retail market for kosher goods will reach $200 billion this year.
For supermarkets looking to build loyalty with a consumer base, kosher food options and in-store bakeries can go a long way in promoting "good will," said Rabbi Moshe Heimowitz, of Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Heimowitz works with many supermarkets on kosher supervision. "The bakery is the way to get people into the store," he said. "It's no different than a buy-one, get-one-free sale."
The cost of running a kosher operation or carrying kosher goods is negligible, he said. For example, Heimowitz works with a company that sells 5 million of a product: 70% of it is certified kosher. The cost for certification is about $100,000. That is amortized into the sale of the 5 million products. "Let's say 5% of a chains' customers care, and 95% don't care," said Heimowitz. "There is no downside. The cost per unit is almost nothing -- tenths of a penny."
Kosher has become important nationally because it can help supermarkets inch out an extra 1% to 2% on their bottom line each year, Heimowitz said. "Let's take the Boston to Philadelphia area," he said. "That's 20 million people: 3 million of them are Jewish. At least 1 million are kosher. Five percent is a lot."
