PHOENIX -- Food broker Co-Sales Co. here worked with all the major grocery chains in the Phoenix area to bring grocery products, for the first time, into the coupon books that Boy Scouts here sell every fall.
Scout-O-Rama books will be available for Scouts to sell Sept. 20, in advance of the Grand Canyon Council Boy Scouts of America gathering on Nov. 3. In the biggest concentrated push so far, 280 individual stores will have Scouts out front selling the ticket books on Sept. 22 and 29, and 370 cable commercials will air, showing a den of Cub Scouts selling tickets in front of stores.
The promotion ties in well with October Frozen Food Month, said Jeff Nelson, executive vice president and general manager of Co-Sales.
In the past, coupons were from outlets like apparel merchants, roller rinks and fast food establishments. "None of the coupons bounced back to the grocery store. If you've got these people walking into the grocery store, you want a coupon in their hand," said Nelson.
In the Phoenix market, Fry's Food Stores runs double coupons up to $2, and Bashas' Markets has offered this, too, Nelson told SN. Also participating are Albertson's, Safeway, IGA and Southwestern Supermarkets, Nelson said.
The Scout-O-Rama books provide $7 worth of coupons, he said. Some of the brands participating are Tyson, Coffee-Mate, PictSweet, Krusteaz and Mor-
ton. Co-Sales Co. is setting up promotional programs with many of the brands to coordinate with the six-week ticket-selling period. Nelson said 700 posters will be printed, as will shelf talkers with the same graphics, and 600,000 tickets will be printed this year, up from 400,000 last year, when they sold out.