BIG BEAR UNIT GIVES HOME MEAL REPLACEMENT A BIG HUG

ROSEANNE HARPER

News & Solutions Home Meal Replacement

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Big Bear Stores here is embracing home meal replacement in a big way, with an extensive fresh food-service program introduced inside a newly opened replacement store.

The 75,000-square-foot store, which opened April 13, features the company's first fresh food power alley. But, more significantly, it also represents a new commitment on the part of the chain's top-level management to deal head-on with one of the supermarket industry's most critical issues in marketing: How to fight for a bigger share of the burgeoning market for fresh food prepared away from home.

What's more, it's a marked re-emphasis for a chain that until now has been best known for a larger-than-usual complement of nonfood items.

"We're doing this because we know that this is where the industry is headed," said Steve Breech, president of the 77-unit chain. "People want restaurant-quality food to take home with them and we're committed to providing it.

"Our deli's long-term future doesn't lie in potato salad; it lies in meals," said Breech, interviewed by SN shortly after the store opened.

To meet that future, the new store features a deli and food-service department that takes up 100 feet of the fresh aisle, and is arguably the new store's dominant element, given the sights and aromas of food preparation.

The department's animation is helped by the presence of a team of chefs, who can be seen whipping up an impressive repertoire of entrees, sides and

desserts in a huge open-production area.

"I think the reason most supermarkets have failed in selling meals is that they're not dedicated to quality," Breech told SN. "They're not willing to invest in the manpower that's necessary. They're afraid to charge a high enough retail price.

"We're committed to doing this right, and our customers apparently love it. There are no 99-cent sub sandwiches. Our retail for panini is $5.99. I honestly believe that with this approach we'll crank up the level of supermarket delis in the whole market," Breech said.

More than double the size of the deli at any other Big Bear store, the new department offers at least twice the variety of products as the chain's other delis, said officials.

The assortment includes comfort foods as well as exotic and gourmet items. Choices range from pizza and homestyle meatloaf and mashed potatoes to upscale, pecan-crusted chicken breast and strawberry soup.

Trendy roasted elephant garlic is on the menu. So are state-of-the-art sandwiches such as portabello mushrooms on onion bagel, panini and wedges of muffaletta.

Breech said the variety is a key to success, and offering it is possible only because the company assembled its team of skilled chefs.

"We knew we would put our corporate chef on site, but in a last-minute move, we decided to hire four more chefs, just 30 days before this store opened," he explained. The chain also hired a wine expert, "to rework the variety of wines we offered."

In addition, Big Bear installed a catering office at this store, so that "customers can sit down comfortably and talk to our chefs," Breech said.

"Customers love this," Breech said of the chain's new direction.

"This is a sophisticated city. There are international companies headquartered here. We knew there was a tremendous opportunity to sell consumers foods that they haven't been able to get, but now we see that opportunity as even bigger than we thought," Breech said.

At least one local observer agreed that the store represents a new standard, for Big Bear and the market as a whole.

"This is not just a leap forward for Big Bear. It's a leap forward for all of central Ohio. There is nothing like this in the whole market area," said Karen Johnson, a consumer specialist, based here.

"I have to attribute this to the incredibly proactive leadership at Big Bear. For them to be moving this fast into the meals arena has to mean there's total commitment at the top," Johnson said.

She added that she was particularly impressed with in-store efforts to educate people about the foods offered.

"Chefs were interacting with customers when I was there, offering them samples of foods they were preparing. And posters explain how some of the items are made," she said.

The fresh food aisle leads off with a cappuccino bar and a sushi station. While the impression of service is strong, most of the prepared food items are blast-chilled and offered in dual-ovenable containers from a low-profile self-service case.

The total package will be duplicated in a second store, set to open on the other side of town next month, chain officials added.

Meanwhile, Breech said he was amazed at the public reaction to Big Bear's new strategy so far.

"I've never seen such a grand opening. The store was swamped," he said. The day the store opened, the sushi chef could hardly keep up with orders, for example.

"He made it all to order. We have a case for self-serve packages of sushi, but that was empty from noon on because we were selling them as fast as the chef was making them."

Big Bear, a division of Syracuse, N.Y.-based Penn Traffic Co., operates 14 supercenters and 63 supermarkets. Most of them are in Ohio and West Virginia.