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Two themes highlight the opportunities in deli at this year’s Show and Sell: creating an experience and customization. “What we’re saying is, ‘You’re the consumer, why can’t you come up and design that meal based on your wants and desires and not what I think you want to eat,’” said Chris Koch, chef with Cooking or Whatever and the brains behind this section of the Show and Sell floor.
“We’re getting the consumer more involved in the decision-making process. If you go to most grocery stores you are given the option to buy premade meals. You won’t see a lot of premade meals over here,” Koch said. This display items show guests how they could mix and match items available to create their own meals.
“Comfort foods are still very big so this is the Americana case. It has all the traditional comfort foods: roast beef, ham, chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes,” Koch said.
The selection of comfort food items. Koch said to reduce shrink and labor in an application like this, cooking in batches and chilling them with a blast chiller is the best option. “When you incorporate a blast chiller, it allows you to produce a large amount of food and get it low temp very quickly and have a shelf life for 30 days. Then you can move away from a convection oven and filling the case every day to a combi oven and blast chiller,” he said.
Changing demographics means Hispanic food is a great option for retailers.
Options in the Latino-focused case. One of the other cuisines Koch suggested keeping an eye on is African. This enables retailers to offer customers something new and unfamiliar.
Koch said to ensure you had a wide variety of starches, grains and proteins to select from in your cases.
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