Grocers Expand Salad, Hot Bar Concepts

CHRISTINE BLANK

With tough economic times ahead, consumers are expected to eat at restaurants less, and perhaps indulge in supermarket prepared foods more. As a result, many grocers are adding new prepared foods programs or expanding existing ones in hopes of catching those migrating dollars.

Some operators are expanding their popular hot buffet and salad bar offerings this year.

For example, Market Street, the upscale chain operated by United Supermarkets, Lubbock, Texas, is expanding its Signature Tossed Salad program from two stores to four or more this year.

“[Sales in] our Signature Tossed Salad area have increased in excess of 100% over the last year. We will add it to all of our new stores, and retrofit about two more stores this year,” Diane Earl, director of deli and foodservice for United Supermarkets, told SN.

The Signature Tossed Salads — chopped salads that are tossed with dressing in front of customers — come in five varieties: Caesar, Chop, Asian Noodle, Hearty Mediterranean, and Goat Cheese & Greens.

The Chop salad is a mixture of romaine lettuce, garbanzo beans, tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, bacon and avocado. The Signature Salads retail for $6.49 a pound.

The salads are popular because shoppers like the lettuces chopped for them and tossed with their dressing of choice, according to Earl. The Tossed Salad concept came about after a stand-alone Caesar Salad kiosk, which opened three years ago, proved very popular with Market Street shoppers.

Meanwhile, PCC Natural Markets in Seattle is expanding its hot prepared foods bar and its hot breakfast bar.

The hot bar concept, which includes organic and vegetarian entrees, sides, desserts and soups, was started last year in a new PCC store in Redmond, Wash. Since then, PCC has expanded it to two other stores, and will add the hot bar to stores in Greenlake, Wash., and Edmonds, Wash., by the end of the year.

The hot bar features 10 or 12 different items daily, such as lasagna, corn pudding, vegetables and fruit cobblers, at both lunch and dinner.

“It is really popular, because people don't cook. They are eating out so much,” Jan Thompson, deli manager for PCC Natural Markets, told SN.

The hot bar is especially popular during lunch hours at PCC's Fremont, Wash., store because it is a “really busy, popular walking neighborhood,” Thompson says.

As a result, PCC is adding four self-serve registers next to the deli in the Fremont store.

“It's a long store, with the deli at one end and registers at the other end. Getting in and out at lunch and dinner would be easier,” Thompson says.

In the mornings, PCC stores' hot bars function as a natural and organic breakfast buffet with scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, “Cheesy Grits,” oatmeal and other items. Cold products, such as yogurt with granola, are also offered.

PCC's healthy grab-and-go items, such as the Lentil & Quinoa Breakfast Burrito for $3.00 and “Bun on the Run with Sausage and Cheese” for $3.00, are also popular.

“Breakfast is not a huge seller, but it is certainly something that people buy when it is there [in the store],” Thompson said.

To boost breakfast purchases, PCC plans to offer more “portion-controlled,” convenient sizes of grab-and-go items. “People don't eat $6 worth of burrito in the morning,” Thompson said.

Market Street also offers hot breakfast items in all of its stores, and has been successful with the concept. “Breakfast is really popular for all of our stores,” Earl said.

The prepared foods area offers a full line of hot breakfast foods, including eggs, bacon, sausage and biscuits, as well as grab-and-go items.

“Breakfast burritos are our most popular item,” Earl said.

Customers can choose the ingredients they would like in the burritos, which are made in front of them. They retail for $3.49 a pound, and average out to about $2 each.

Meanwhile, some grocers are expanding their deli and foodservice offerings simply by adding coffee and smoothie franchises.

Raley's, West Sacramento, Calif., is working with Peet's Coffee & Tea to launch kiosk-style shops in its stores, which include Nob Hill, Raley's and Bel Air banners.

Raley's new store in Oakdale, Calif., features Peet's Coffee & Tea, along with a soup kiosk, a gourmet sandwich shop, chef-prepared sushi and fresh take-and-bake pizza.

Market Street is franchising Albuquerque, N.M.-based Keva Juice smoothie outlets in two stores this year. It already has a lease with Keva Juice, which offers a variety of smoothies and fresh-squeezed juices, in one of its stores.

“When we wanted to put a smoothie concept in our stores, we decided on this one, because so often smoothies taste gritty or grainy. This one did not,” Earl said.

The company will operate the franchised locations itself, so it is currently working on a training program for employees who will work at the Keva Juice outlets.

And Schnucks, St. Louis, is including regional brand Kaldi's Coffee Bar cafes alongside its new Marketplace Bistro and The Grille restaurant concepts. The Marketplace Bistro and The Grille are being added as its stores are built and remodeled.

The first restaurant concepts and Kaldi's Coffee Bar were included in Schnucks' recently opened 63,000-square-foot store in the St. Louis suburb of Town and Country.