KASH N' KARRY GETS FRESH

ROSEANNE HARPER

TAMPA, Fla. -- Kash n' Karry Food Stores here has taken a decisive step toward the future with a remodel that showcases the chain's strategy to refashion itself as a fresh foods specialist.

The chain's new motto says it succinctly: "Kash n' Karry, Your Destination for Fresh." The store, which reopened March 21 here, pulls out all the stops to be that destination.

"We had to find our niche, and fresh is it," said Cliff Smith, the 91-unit chain's senior vice president of merchandising.

"When we redesigned this store, we put our collective heads together and asked how each department could contribute to a strong identity that tells consumers this is the place to come for quality, fresh food. The company is on a singular mission and everybody's on the same page," Smith told SN.

A bright and airy decor is the finishing touch on a store that could serve as a primer for upscale fresh merchandising trends.

It sports a wide fresh foods power aisle, occupying more than a third of the store; an expanded produce department with full-service floral; and a home meal replacement strategy that attempts to do Boston Market one better.

Other concepts at the store include:

A fresh pastry station featuring fruit tarts and multilayer tortes.

A chef's program that brings 100 prepared, chilled items to the table.

A service seafood counter that features one of the several open production areas sprinkled throughout the fresh aisle.

These concepts have chalked up enough success in their first few weeks of operation that they're on the board for upcoming remodels and new stores, said chain officials.

Smith pointed out that in this breakthrough unit, Kash n' Karry has not only torn down walls to expose the production areas, but has removed other barriers, both visual and philosophical, to allow more cross-pollination between departments than the chain has tried before.

For example, the food-service department has a share of the service meat case, and a sushi bar under the management of the seafood department is right up front with a Caesar salad station and other prepared foods.

Every element, apparently, has been given a role in delivering the fresh message.

"We needed to create an image," Smith said.

And Kash n' Karry, struggling with financial and competitive troubles, had been essentially "imageless" for the last couple of years, a local industry observer told SN.

"In the past, Kash n' Karry had been known in this market for their low prices, but then when they got into financial trouble, they raised the prices. That knocked them out of the running as the low-price leader," the source said.

The observer said that establishing a new identity as the quality fresh food purveyor is particularly important for the chain's future health in a continuing struggle against operators here who hold strong positions.

"Now they're headed in the right direction. They're putting their money on fresh. You can't get your prices lower than Winn-Dixie's and it's hard to out-service Publix," the local source said.

While the chain has been remodeling units since the beginning of the year, this 52,000-square-foot site was the first remodel that could accommodate a true power aisle, Smith said. "Customers have enough room to move around and see everything." The fresh departments occupy 35% of the store. That compares with about 20% in other Kash n' Karry units.

"Where we have the space to duplicate this, we will," Smith added.

Given the execution at this store, the chain's new fresh image may have come sharply into focus.

During an SN store visit shortly after it opened, the store's first declaration of freshness came just inside the entrance: a 22-foot mass display of seedless grapes, tiered upon weathered-look crates.

The display spoke of value as well as freshness. The white and red Thompsons were specially priced for the week at 79 cents a pound. The huge display was situated at an angle facing customers as they entered, and served to shepherd them into the fresh food power aisle.

To the left, a 16- to 18-foot wall case displayed produce stacked in high vertical rows, creating a colorful geometric pattern.

Straight ahead, in the middle of the power alley, a shop-around case showed off more bulk produce. Mirrors wrapped around the center of the case and reflected a cascade of oranges, distorting the bright orbs at the top of the display. The strangely pointed fruit was a compelling visual draw.

Meanwhile, the aroma of freshly rotisseried chicken wafted across the aisle from three large rotisseries that twirled chickens, turkey breasts and slabs of ribs in various states of doneness.

Next to the side-by-side rotisseries stood a young man, decked out in a Kash n' Karry apron and cap, carving a turkey breast at a butcher block counter.

At the far right, beyond the rotisserie and carving station, was a brightly lit seating area large enough to accommodate 48 people at booths and tables.

White and aqua decor marked the area, designated The Sand Dollar Cafe. This is the first extensive seating area Kash n' Karry has offered. Only eight other stores have seating and the extent is "minimal," chain officials said.

At the rotisserie carving station, with the meat carvers just behind a crystal-clear, shoulder-high glass partition, customers had a choice of a chicken, turkey or rib entree and then were invited to help themselves to two sides from a hot table containing wells of eight different vegetables.

"Customers love this aspect of it. They like to help themselves to the vegetables," said Jarett Peppard, Kash n' Karry's manager of food service.

Asked if the company makes money on the heap-it-high concept, Peppard said, "Oh, yes. Our margin's above 60%, no matter how much they pile on those plates."

The concept brings to mind an upscale buffet where patrons pick up their entrees and then help themselves to an array of accoutrements -- a little like Boston Market, perhaps, but not quite.

"I wanted some restaurant concepts. Boston Market does a terrific job, but ours is just as good or better. And ours is not so labor-intensive," Peppard said. Peppard, a certified chef, is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, N.Y.

The theater of the carving station combines with the whish of a nearby espresso machine and the burst of color from the mass produce displays to create an ambience. "It's the produce and food-service departments that are driving our new image," Smith said.

Produce was the rock that Kash n' Karry chose to build upon. "When we surveyed our customer base, we found they loved our produce," said Joe Ciccarello, vice president of produce.

"This used to be a packaged [produce] market, but we've led the way with bulk produce over the last few years, and here at this store we've expanded on that. More than 90% is bulk, and we've added new elements, too."

The produce department here is enlarged by nearly 40%. Total product variety was more than doubled to 500-plus items, and the production area was opened up. Associates, now facing customers, can be seen cutting melons and other fruit just beyond a new 12-foot expanse of a slanted ice table.

"The ice table adds to the fresh presentation and it allows us to build the profile we want without having to put too much product out," Ciccarello said.

The produce executive said ice is not likely to appear as unattractive as empty shelving, and so it's possible to arrange a variety of products nicely and still keep shrink under control.

On the day SN visited, a large bed of ice held eight half pineapples cut lengthwise, cherries for eyes and noses, and an orange section for a mouth that turned the item into a face. The smiling pineapple halves were $1.29 cents each. A whole pineapple, with no expression, was 99 cents.

Two watermelon boats filled with melon balls and other fresh fruit were on display, priced at $15.99. Ciccarello made a point of saying all cut fruit is cut fresh each day, and discarded if it's not sold by day's end. He added that those two melon boats are usually sold each day. "They have a price on them so people know they're for sale," he said.

He added that even if they didn't sell that day, it would be worth it to make them every day because they're effective image-makers.

"If they didn't see these, they might not think to ask for them if they want one for a special occasion," he said. The cut-up pineapples serve the same purpose, but they've also been turning at least twice a day, Ciccarello said.

The 90 varieties of exotic produce added at this store are good for the image, too, but Ciccarello also intends to show customers how to use them, through a cooking school. The first class was set for the week after SN visited the store, with the store's head chef conducting the class in the produce department during the early evening.

"At some point, some of the exotics may be incorporated in the chefs' prepared foods program," Ciccarello said.

Meanwhile, they made a strong variety statement, filling one side of the 12-foot refrigerated shop-around case. From a huge flat wicker basket, cactus leaves were fanned out and another heavier basket was piled high with whole celery roots. Other odd-looking varieties spilled out of terra-cotta containers of various sizes.

White-enameled track lighting spotlights particular items here, as it does in the other fresh food departments.

Customer response has been good, Ciccarello said. So far, the produce department's contribution to store sales here is 8.8%, nearly a full point above the chain's average.

Asked what's next, Ciccarello said he will try to expand the organic category. Right now, the variety of organics is limited to 20, here and in other stores.

Asked if this is Kash n' Karry's prototype for the future, officials said there is no prototype, strictly speaking. Kash n' Karry is dedicated to micromarketing, and it sees the fresh food business as decidedly evolutionary, they said.

"The day we opened here, we decided there were modifications we would make. For instance, we figured we could call more attention to the produce island. We might make it more of a market within a market, maybe with the use of a canopy. That's just one example," Ciccarello said.

Food service also began to change almost immediately, Smith pointed out.

"This past Sunday, we introduced a brunch, and it was unbelievable. We didn't even promote it." He pointed to a chalkboard sign in the seating area that invited shoppers to the brunch from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. "That's all we did." More than 200 consumers took up the offer, paying $3.99 a plate. It was not an all-you-can-eat buffet, but it was self-service. Scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, French toast and grits, and potatoes were offered up from the same hot table that's used for the rotisserie meal program.

So pleased was the chain with the brunch that it's already been set as a weekly event.

"We're talking about taking that a step further and creating an everyday breakfast concept," Peppard said. "Why limit it to Sunday? We can do it from 7 to 10 in the morning and then allow an hour to get set up for the rotisserie whole meal program, which runs from 11 to 2 and then is set up again for the evening hours."

While the standout attractions in the food-service/deli area are the rotisserie program and a pizza program offering hot, chilled and slice options, Peppard said the best-sellers are the chef-prepared, chilled entrees, sides and meals.

The entrees and sides are on platters in the service deli case, and in whole meal and component packages in a three-tiered, refrigerated case at the head of the power aisle. A chalkboard hanging over the case flags them as "chef-prepared meals to go." The grab-and-go array of chef-made products makes up part of an island station that's dominated by an espresso coffee bar, complete with six high-backed stools. The espresso bar faces the Sand Dollar Cafe's seating area.

Just to the side of the espresso bar is a Caesar salad station that's manned at lunchtime and early evening hours. Adjacent to that is a 4-foot sushi station, where a sushi chef works in front of customers, placing packages in a self-service case fronting his work station.

A small salad bar comes next on the island, and then the grab-and-go case that holds chef entrees and sides, whole meals, sandwiches and salads.

The whole meals are apparently divided into two categories, each with a flat price, whatever the selection.

For example, comfort meals, such as meat loaf with corn and mashed potatoes or lasagna with a vegetable side, were displayed on the first tier of the self-service case. They were $4.99. On the next tier up, dinners such as chicken cordon bleu with braised asparagus were $6.49. The top tier was devoted to sandwiches and salads in single and two-portion containers.

In the open kitchen, Peppard pointed out that chefs, cooks and preparers are all situated so they're facing customers.

"That makes them accessible to answer questions. It just gives a more customer-friendly feel to the whole area," he said.

Some pieces of equipment were pulled from the kitchen, while other types were brought in. For example, a deep fryer was taken out to make way for a gas grill. The grill was piled high with large chunks of vegetables being prepared in time for the lunch rush. Grilled vegetables are the best seller in the chef's program, Peppard said.

"We've gone through 500 pounds of potatoes alone, most of them grilled, in the last four days," he said.

A medley of grilled vegetables was displayed in the deli service case on an oval-shaped platter. They were $3.99 a pound. Other items nearby in the case included Caribbean chicken salad, $6.99 a pound; meat loaf, $5.99 a pound; Jamaican jerk chicken salad, $6.99 a pound, and meat lasagna, $5.49 a pound. Next in line after the chef's prepared items is a 12-foot case featuring Block & Barrel brand premium deli meats. ?

"The name isn't that well known to customers because, until recently, it's been primarily used in restaurants and other traditional food service, but it's top quality. We had blind cuttings of this brand alongside two or three brands well known in retail, and this one was the choice every time. We took it on because we know people are looking for upscale cold cuts," Peppard said.

The food-service department also has had big success with store-roasted ham, roast beef and turkey. "We sold 60 whole hams over the weekend," Peppard said. Combined deli and food-service sales are currently making up 8% of total store sales. That's two to three points higher than the chainwide average.

Kash n' Karry introduced an 8-foot kosher case at the store. Other deli features, such as an upscale self-service cheese island and an olive bar that features 10 types of olives for $4.99 a pound, had their debut earlier in two smaller remodels.

Smith told SN the store's fresh food elements will be transferred to all remodels and new stores, with modifications likely to be made based on demographics. The chain continues to work with a research firm that makes market-by-market recommendations based on demographics and other factors. This location, Smith added, serves a melting pot of income levels.