LEGGING UP

ERIC THORSEN

WASHINGTON -- While the National Chicken Council, based here, estimates that only about 10% of all U.S. retailers are selling chicken fresh, that number may soon change as more supermarkets develop programs to offer consumers the option over case-ready poultry.

Consumers not only want a strong service element, they want tradition. Shoppers like to be handed their selection wrapped in butcher paper, with a courteous thank you from the clerk, retailers told SN.

According to Johnny Johnson, president and chief executive officer of Community Pride Food Stores, Richmond, Va., adding a fresh-chicken case to his stores further differentiates them from local competitors, like Hannaford Bros., Scarborough, Maine, and Food Lion, Salisbury, N.C.

Johnson said he decided to incorporate a service-oriented, fresh-chicken program after a recent trip to a Shop N' Save unit in St. Louis, where a similar program has been successful. After selling case-ready product for the past three years, he said, the move toward fresh chicken was the the first step to going back to full service.

"We're adding more services to really differentiate ourselves from the meal-solution retailers," said Johnson. "Meal solutions is dead. It's not profitable and we don't want to do it anymore. We want to serve the customer. It's another way of us interacting with our consumer."

Acting quickly to set up the service program, Johnson has already installed a service counter in his newly remodeled Community Pride Plus format store that will become the destination point for fresh chicken. He said that to make room for the poultry service counter, he cut the 24-foot seafood counter to 12 feet and used partitions to separate the two.

The new 12-foot counter will display the raw chicken on ice, behind glass, and allow customers to choose from a number of parts including boneless breasts, leg quarters, breast quarters, wings, halves and whole chickens. All the chicken parts will be sold by the pound.

The chicken arrives at the store on a daily basis in 40-pound boxes packed in ice. Johnson said that the same staff that handles the meat department will also be responsible for the chicken counter. He said that staff has been trained to handle the chicken to avoid any cross-contamination.

"It's going to be a little more labor intensive, but our people are well-trained," he said. "We're not going to have to add additional help except clean-up people."

The program was introduced this month and is being tested only in the one unit for the next three to six months, said Johnson. He said that if the program meets its goals, he plans to roll it out into to four or five other units.

"It'll go or it won't go," he said.

He is optimistic about the program, based on the results of a recent focus-group discussion that centered on poultry. The consumer panel told him that fresh chicken might be more expensive, but the perception is that the higher quality makes it worth the price, he said.

"We had a focus group with customers and they don't want packaged fish or chicken," he said. "The perception is that is fresher. It's not going to have the preservative on it that comes in the pre-pack."

At Woodburn's, an upscale independent retailer based in Solomon's Island, Md., a similar fresh-chicken program began about 10 months ago and has met with great success, said co-owner Betty Johnson.

She said the decision to introduce a fresh-chicken case emerged when the supermarket changed to a gourmet format. (See "Woodburn's Repositions Itself to Fight Food Lion," SN, Sept. 28, 1998.) To accommodate the change, the combined service deli/meat department was severed, and the deli became a separate entity called the Solomon's Island Deli.

"Part of the conversion was getting into the more organic, more natural foods, more upscale," she said. "[And if] you're taking your grocery line in that direction, you also want your meat to go in that direction. All-natural chicken has been in the market for a long time and it just made sense that if we were going to be a gourmet, upscale organic store, we needed a line of natural chicken."

She said that the trick to developing a successful fresh-chicken program is getting customers to initially try the product. In Woodburn's case, it's exclusively a premium brand. Johnson said that customers have to realize the value for themselves.

"If you can get the customer to try it, absolutely she always comes back," said Johnson. "It's a little more pricey than [other brands], but you can take, for instance, a leg of ours and a leg of theirs, and fry them, you would be surprised at the difference. They can be the same-size chicken leg when it goes in the deep fryer, but they come out totally different. [Our brand] is going to have no shrink to it."

Recently, a local restaurant began buying its fresh chicken from Woodburn's after an unplanned taste test. Johnson said that the restaurant had been buying 30 to 40 of its case-ready chickens for the kitchen, but mistakenly received a shipment of the fresh product one day, when the usual sales clerk wasn't working. Johnson said she gave the restaurant the option of returning the chickens if it wasn't satisfied with them or the higher price didn't fit into its budget. Now, she said, the restaurant buys only the fresh chicken.

"[The restaurant's] buying them every week now," she said.

Another indication of just how much customers value the program came as a result of the retailer's delivery service for the elderly. One senior citizen who became accustomed to receiving the fresh chicken wrapped in white butcher paper refused an order when the chicken had been mistakenly wrapped it in a shrink-wrapped tray.

"That customer will call back and say that they got the wrong thing," she said. "Unless you put it in that white butcher paper, they don't think it's as fresh."

Woodburn's receives a shipment of fresh chicken four times per week. It comes packed 30 to a box, and covered with ice. The product is unpacked in-store and placed in the counter display on a bed of ice, where customers are able to pick exactly which parts they want.

"They come in and ask for three breasts or three thighs, and then the meat guy would take it out of the case and package it in white butcher paper, instead of being overwrapped in a shrink wrap," she said.

As far as additional training is concerned, Johnson said, it was more of an education process that was needed.

"We have a meat department that really never had to worry about waiting on customers with chicken," she explained. "In their eyes it's 'one more thing we have to do. Why do we have to do it when you can put it in the meat case?' But, our concept was you'll never sell it to the customer out there because it's going to be higher priced. The appeal is to set it out there fresh and have a better product."

For the first few weeks after the program was introduced, the retailer used a series of sales and fliers to introduce customers to the idea of purchasing fresh chicken at premium prices.

"We had to cut the margins when we put it on sale in order to start educating the public. And after we did that, then [we educated] our meat people. It didn't take them long to realize the customers really like this," said Johnson.

At Woodburn's, the addition of the fresh case hasn't pushed out all case-ready products. They are still offered in order to satisfy both types of Woodburn's customers. "I think we have a clientele for both, though I think we built our meat reputation on our service level, not our self-service," said Johnson, adding that service chicken will likely take on a special meaning for customers the same way meat has.

"It's amazing," she said. "In the consumer's mind, I can have porterhouse steak in my service case and I can have it in my self-service case, and it's the same thing. It may cut a quarter of an inch thicker, but believe it or not, many customers will come to that service case and tell which ones they want vs. going to the meat case and picking it up because they perceive it to be a different product."

Another supermarket that has realized the benefit of selling fresh chicken is West Point Market, Akron, Ohio. According to Nina Gionti, merchandiser and promotions coordinator for West Point, it sells nothing but fresh chicken and has been doing it for more than 10 years.

"I think it indicates freshness," Gionti said. "And, I think that consumers are becoming more concerned about freshness with all the illnesses that have been linked with improperly maintained chicken. It's an image of freshness and, so, maybe the main supermarkets that have dealt more in convenience have to address that issue. Some of the more mass-market retailers are becoming a little more sophisticated and maybe they have learned from more of the gourmet specialty stores."

Gionti said that she sees a number of retailers frequenting her store to see what new ideas are being implemented, and that includes what's going on with the fresh-chicken program. Just recently, she said, Giant Eagle began selling the same brand of premium chicken that West Point carries.

Aside from selling premium product, another important part of West Point's fresh-chicken program is the service, which is mirrored throughout the store.

"Customer service is definitely our main focus and that is part of it," she said.

To guarantee freshness, the retailer receives shipments almost every day. The chicken parts and pieces come in 10-pound bags packed in ice. The cuts are then displayed in the refrigerated service counter in porcelain platters and bowls, allowing the customers to pick what they want. The salesperson then wraps the chicken in plastic, and uses butcher's bags as an overwrap.

The salespeople are also trained to properly handle the chicken. Gionti said they are sent to a sanitation training course. To further protect the fresh-chicken program, the retailer has hired an outside company to perform regular, unannounced on-the-spot sanitation audits. The company grades the retailer based on health-department standards.

The labor factor is not an issue with the fresh-chicken program, because service levels are already high at the store, she said.

"Our labor demand is higher, but it has kept us in business 63 years," she said. "Some departments tend to be a little bit more labor intensive and our meat shop is one of them, I think along with our bakery. But, we make it up in other departments of the store."

To cut down on product shrink, the chicken is cooked prior to its expiration time and sold as a finished product in the deli case.

"We do cook it off in our deli, but we wouldn't dare cook off anything that wasn't fresh," she said. "We sell so much, we don't have much loss."

And, even though the fresh-chicken products carry a higher price point than case-ready chicken items, the fresh chicken still remains a big seller.

"Customers have said, 'I don't mind if costs more, I want it to be good,"' said Gionti.

According to Bill Roenigk, senior vice president for the National Chicken Council, the 10% of retailers carrying fresh chicken find that striking the proper balance is the best recipe for success, at least for now, as shoppers seem torn between their desire for convenience and demands for freshness.

"From a supermarket standpoint, you are capturing those people that want to get in and get out, pick up a package of chicken and get going," he said. "And, on the other hand, for those people that want take a little bit more time and pick out their boneless skinless breast, they have an opportunity to do that."

He said that supermarket chains look at a fresh-chicken program as an opportunity to differentiate their store from other area chains.

"If you want to give that consumer a reason to come into your store, you may look at something like this even though it's tough to cost-justif," said Roenigk, referring to a fresh chicken program. "But, it does give you a look and feel that is different from your competitors."

If there's one drawback, he conceded, it's that fresh counters aren't open all the time. As a result, the retailer has to make sure the service case gets a high profile when it is open and staffed, and that its operating hours are well-publicized.