SURF & TURF

NANCY GRIFFIN

BOSTON -- "Here's to good old Boston, the home of the bean and the cod. Where Cabots speak only to Lowells, and Lowells speak only to God."

Doggerel known to every kid in the city has long proclaimed Boston as the land of the bean and the cod -- and it's still home to some intensely competitive seafood merchandising in supermarkets here and nearby.

The city's historic Revolution-era building, Faneuil Hall, even sports a "sacred cod" weather vane. In a port city where landings by the fishing fleet were once the country's largest, consumers have salt water in their blood. Plus, a more recent influx of ethnic groups with their own love of seafood keeps the department a crucial one for supermarkets.

What's more, competition is heating up with the advent of trendy, natural-food chains that are setting a new upscale pace for the older operators.

"It's very tough because it's a very competitive, price-driven market," said Bill Doyle, manager of M.F. Foley & Son's New Bedford seafood-processing plant, in an interview with SN.

Foley's, a fourth-generation, family-owned seafood business widely known for integrity and a high-quality product, supplies retailers and restaurant accounts out of two plants in the region.

Boston is competitive partly because New England residents eat more seafood than people in other parts of the country. One study says the average per capita consumption rate in New England is more than 150% of the national average. And while fish landings are down, Boston is still a major hub for seafood processing and distribution.

The market is changing in one respect, said Kenelm Coons, executive director of the New England Fisheries Development Association in Boston, a trade association whose members are mostly seafood processors.

"The ethnic makeup of Boston is evolving toward more fish eaters. We're gaining large populations from Asian countries, and to a lesser extent, countries like Brazil," said Coons.

A recent tour of supermarkets in Beantown and its suburbs revealed four distinct approaches to marketing seafood: * A more conventional style, which includes fresh, frozen and cooked products sourced from all over and merchandised in full-service or self-service cases;

The natural-food-store approach, mostly fresh seafood backed by guarantees of no additives, and mostly upscale in presentation;

Fresh, preservative-free branded seafood, exclusively at Roche Bros. Supermarkets, Wellesley Hills, Mass.;

And frozen-only, private-label seafood, at one of the new kids in town, Trader Joe Co., South Pasadena, Calif.

The metropolitan area encompassing Boston and its suburbs is a market of roughly 6 million people covering a geographic area popularly defined by local residents as being bounded by Routes 128 and 495.

The oldest large chains still surviving inside Boston are Stop & Shop Cos., Quincy, Mass.; and Star Market Co., Cambridge, Mass. Shaw's Supermarkets, East Bridgewater, Mass., is also a large chain, although none of its 47 Massachusetts stores are in the Boston itself, but in the surrounding suburbs that make up the greater metropolitan area.

"The big chains have mostly left the inner city to the smaller, private chains and put their money into the more affluent suburbs," said one supermarket observer.

In the affluent suburbs, including neighboring upscale cities such as Cambridge, are also found a growing number of stores representing the latest trend in food retailing: the natural-food supermarket.

Star Market has launched two stores in a new format called Wild Harvest, with more expected. Natural-food supermarket chain Whole Foods Market, Austin, Texas, bought out the Newton Highlands, Mass.-based Bread & Circus Wholefood Supermarkets operation that started the natural supermarket trend in Boston years ago. Nature's Heartland, started by one of the founders of Fresh Fields, opened one store in Bedford, Mass., five months ago, but more are anticipated.

The 20-year-old Roche Bros. chain gives the natural-food supermarkets and the larger companies a run for their money by relying on a relationship with a high-quality supplier to give its offering a branded cache.

All the seafood sold in its 13 stores is purchased from M.F. Foley & Sons, and merchandised and promoted as such.

The seafood cases sport little fish-shaped cards to mark each species and price, that bear the message: "M.F. Foley & Son, Boston's REAL Fish Market."

"Foley fish is something to brag about," said one Roche seafood associate. "They are dedicated to top quality." In fact, Roche Bros. has an aggressive training program that includes attendance in the "fish school" at Foley's.

"We've been with Foley's for 15 years," said Paul McGillvray, seafood/deli director for Roche Bros. "We send all our managers and deli staff to at least two or three seminars. This helps them handle the product better and communicate better with the customer."

Educating associates seems to pay off for Roche Bros. Each of its stores exceeds the national average of 2% for seafood sales distribution, and some stores are much higher. "It varies dramatically by store," reports McGillvray. "The higher-income areas sell a lot more."

The seafood case at Roche Bros. offers a variety of products, from ready-to-eat smoked fish to fresh, raw fillets, and includes a mixture of value-added products, such as ready-to-cook, preseasoned fillets.

A totally different approach is taken by Trader Joe's, with three stores here so far in Brookline, Cambridge and Framingham. Trader Joe's sells only frozen fish, and under its own label. Its ads proclaim the seafood to be fresher than fresh, because it's frozen-at-sea.

"We think the freshest seafood you can buy is frozen seafood," proclaims a Trader Joe's flyer.

The self-service seafood cases aren't pretty, piled as they are with plastic wrapped fillets or trays and bags of frozen shrimp, scallops and other species, but the prices are lower on average than the fresh seafood in other upscale markets.

Frozen Alaskan cod fillets sold recently for only $3.29 per pound. Shrimp was available in seven different sizes and varieties.

"Newcomer Trader Joe's seems to be proving that Bostonians will go for frozen-at-sea products," said Coons. "I suppose health-food outlets feel it's a marketing advantage to say they handle only nonfrozen fish, but the reality of moving a worldwide supply of seafood to the consumer is going to force acceptance of frozen product."

Star Market advertises its seafood as "U.S.D.C. Lot Inspected" on the stores' seafood cases, a nod to consumer concerns about seafood's safety that still lingers after a a run of negative publicity about seafood several years ago.

The 12-foot full-service case in the Star unit in Somerville displayed many species, from Calico Bay scallops on sale for $3.88 per pound, to fresh Ahi (tuna) steaks and precooked Louisiana crawfish. Fresh cod sold for $7.99 per pound. Several products were displayed on a bed of ice in large black trays shaped like scallop shells.

At large Star Market in Gloucester, still a major fishing community, cod was selling for $3.99 per pound. The self-service case adjacent to the 12-foot full-service case contained many store-brand, value-added products, such as smoked spiced mackerel.

Star Market's simple logo, the name and a star on a white field, is reminiscent of the stores themselves -- clean, efficient and sanitary.

Shaw's on the other hand, has a busier, more colorful logo, and stores to match. The chain's unit in the affluent North Shore community of Beverly features a 16-foot full-service case, a self-service case and a tank for live lobsters and rock crabs. Shaw's brand adorns several ready-to-cook, value-added products such as stuffed clams and crunchy, breaded cod fillets.

Just down the street from the Beverly Shaw's, in direct competition, is a Super Stop & Shop with a 20-foot full-service case filled with an array of different species of fresh fillets. There, cod fillets were selling for $6.99 per pound. An adjacent self-service case contained many value-added products including ready-to-heat fish cakes, stuffed scallops, clams and breaded scallops with lobster-meat stuffing.

All the markets visited by SN used some multitiered shelf units or barrels in front of the seafood cases offering customers a variety of associated products, such as fresh lemons, bottled seafood sauces, bread crumbs and seasonings.

A Super Stop & Shop "Fish Market" in the affluent Bedford community, near Nature's Heartland, offered an exotic array of seafood salads made in-store, which included squid, octopus, crawfish and mussel salads, as well as a surimi salad. Cod fillets were on sale for $4.99 and salmon heads sold for 99 cents per pound.

The names Wild Harvest, Bread & Circus and Nature's Heartland all indicate the content of their stores is of the natural variety. All three are upscale, well-stocked and well-appointed.

"All our fin fish are impeccably fresh and have never been frozen," stated a sign before the seafood counter in Nature's Heartland. Clearly, that new store is taking the opposite tack from Trader Joe's, which states its all-frozen product is better than never-frozen product.

Fresh vs. frozen is a continuing debate within the seafood community. Many seafood professionals would like to see seafood marketers stop implying that frozen seafood is somehow inferior or that fresh is the opposite of frozen. "Rotten is the opposite of fresh," said one local source. "Frozen is another state of fresh."

Nature's Heartland offers a tempting array of seafood with a large number of value-added products. Fresh New England crab cakes and salmon cakes sold for $3.99 a pair, with Maryland crab cakes a dollar higher. Store-made seafood sausage (in a pork casing) sold for $5.99. Ready-to-cook products included a $7.99 per pound stuffed "salmon roast" and salmon-stuffed potatoes, two halves to a package, ready to microwave.

Wild Harvest offers a similar array of interesting prepared seafood products, including langostino salad at $7.99, creole-marinated catfish fillets, salmon cakes, crab cakes and store-made seafood sausage (in lamb casing) at $3.99 per pound. Cod fillets sold for $4.99 per pound, with a coupon.

Friendly, courteous seafood personnel behind the full-service counter were willing and able to answer questions.

The kickoff to the Lenten season offered a deep discount on cod for $3 per pound said John Wilder, seafood director in the Medford store. The Lenten promotion also offered special promotions on sturgeon and extra-large shrimp.

"We offer deep discounts on something every Wednesday," said Wilder, who formerly worked for Bread & Circus. Although Wild Harvest is a natural-food store, Wilder says 70% of his customers formerly shopped at regular supermarkets.