SAFEWAY SET TO PUT LABEL ON MAGAZINE 'FRESH IDEAS'

JUDY CORCORAN

OAKLAND, Calif. -- This fall Safeway will introduce "Fresh Ideas," a for-sale-at-checkout magazine with exclusive editorial about the chain and the products sold in its stores.

Distribution of the magazine will be throughout all 840 Safeway units.

"This is a magazine of substance that will only be available at our stores. We think this exclusivity is very important," said Debra Lambert, Safeway's corporate director of public affairs.

EW Communications, New York, publisher of "Eating Well" magazine, will publish and distribute Safeway's "Fresh Ideas About Everything in Your Supermarket." The concept was first launched earlier this year at Shaw's Supermarkets, East Bridgewater, Mass. "Fresh Ideas" offers supermarkets geographic exclusivity, along with personalized retail-directed editorial. It clearly identifies the chain by name and design as an information magazine about the products in that particular supermarket. " 'Fresh Ideas' gives us the opportunity to provide a great deal of information about Safeway, our private label and the other promotions we offer customers. It does this in a very succinct and unique way," Lambert added.

"Fresh Ideas" will be sold only at checkout and from floor racks. Suggested retail on the magazine has yet to be set. Shaw's sells the magazine for $1.75.

"Our test issue with Shaw's proved very successful. We proved that people will buy a magazine about supermarket shopping," said Scott Mowbray, publisher and editorial director of "Fresh Ideas." The editorial configuration of "Fresh Ideas" consists in part of six or eight customized pages on specifics about the chain. These pages can be produced either by the store or by "Fresh Ideas." The remaining editorial is independently produced by "Fresh Ideas" editors and includes coverage of all national and regional brands, products and services, without reference to house brands. The advertising in the magazine is sold by "Fresh Ideas." "The main thing we bring to the partnership and what we've learned from Shaw's is that a title like this takes advantage of the marketing power of the store," said Mowbray. "That's to the store's benefit, obviously, because their goal for the magazine is to raise the profile and increase its role as a consumer relations tool," he added. "By working with the store on racking and all the things they can do with freestanding inserts, shelf talkers and such, we can make 'Fresh Ideas' the premier vehicle in any given store," he stated.