Mom’s Recipe Can Be Your Point of Distinction

Imagine a shopper lingering by the deli counter as she or he wonders what to bring to a Fourth of July picnic. Grandma’s homemade potato salad sounds good, as does the buttermilk Southern fried chicken.

Flash forward to Thanksgiving, when a harried young shopper is hosting their first family holiday but doesn’t have the time or inclination to make their own cranberry relish. The fact that your store does—and signals that it’s made in-house—closes the deal.

By carrying house-made products (or, to another extent, house-amended) in their foodservice area and touting them as such to shoppers, stores can differentiate themselves in a way that combines convenience and quality. This is especially true for independent and smaller stores, which can be more nimble in operations and, at the same time, have a need to stand apart from competitors who receive and make products in a different way.

“That kind of thing in today’s world, with the nostalgia of a family recipe, conveys homemade quality,” observes Bill Bishop, chief architect for Brick Meets Click, a consulting firm in Barrington, Ill. He said carrying such products helps build the store brand and engender loyalty among patrons who appreciate that gesture: “This is a place where a smaller store can really compete in a significantly differentiating way.”

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Such an approach has worked well at Casey’s Market in Western Springs, Ill., where prepared food and deli manager Kate Jones estimates that “almost everything” in their prepared foods case is homemade. “We have a full kitchen with two to three people cooking and working all day,” she said.

According to Jones, customers appreciate and are willing to pay a little extra for homemade dishes such as chicken salad (a recipe from Jones’ mother), potato salad (a recipe from her sister), lasagna and grilled vegetables, to name a few examples.

Such back-of-the house products also appeal to customers looking for authentic recipes made with clean ingredients. “Our mashed potatoes are $4 a pound and we mash them with real butter and using real potatoes that we boil ourselves,” Jones said, noting that customers compare that to the same price point for potato salad at the local chain store, which likely comes from a large tub.

Jones herself is an example of the kind of customer her store reaches. At the end of the busy day, she’ll buy some of the store’s prepared foods for dinner, because she knows it tastes good, has been made properly and is convenient. “One of my favorites is our mashed potatoes,” she said.