BRITISH EVENT SCORES IN FOOD EMPORIUM AISLES

RICHARD TURCSIK

MONTVALE, N.J. -- There was an invasion of British foods at Food Emporium last month as the upscale division of A&P here ran its 10th annual The Very Best of the British Isles . . . in our Aisles event.

Typical British grocery fare including tea, marmalade, crackers, hard candies, ginger ale and even Worcestershire sauce was featured during the event.

"Our British sale went over extremely well," an A&P spokesman told SN. "We merchandised the promotion in the store by using an end-aisle display that highlighted key items. We also had point-of-sale materials that Food Emporium produced as well as others provided by the various manufacturers."

Cheese and Carr's crackers were sampled in all Food Emporium stores, which are primarily located in New York City, while larger units with on-site kitchens prepared more detailed British recipes.

Among the items featured were Carr's crackers, two 4.25-ounce boxes for $3; Tiptree preserves, $4.49 for a 12-ounce jar in strawberry, raspberry, seedless raspberry or black currant varieties; Hartley's orange marmalade, $2.89, 12-ounce jar; Chivers ginger preserves, $3.19, 12-ounce jar, and Sharwood Worcestershire sauce, $2.79, 5-ounce bottle.

Also featured were Wessex Fare English fruit chutney, $3.49, 11-ounce jar; Tynant water imported from Wales, $3.29, 25-ounce bottle; Twinings tea, $4.39, 4-ounce tin, and $2.49 a 25-count box of bags; Tate & Lyle sugar cubes in crystal amber or white, $5.39, 1-pound box; Altoids strong mints, $2.29, 1.75-ounce tin; Callard & Bowser toffees, $1.49, 3.5-ounce box, and Frazermint chocolate mint cremes, $3.29, 5-ounce box.

Several Indian foods were included as part of the promotion because "the British love Indian foods. You will too, especially when you can prepare an authentic Indian meal in less than 20 minutes with Viceroy Indian cooking sauces!" ad copy in Food

Emporium's weekly circular read.

Part of the promotion included a sweepstakes for "a musical mystery tour from Schweppes, the New British Pop" in which shoppers could choose one of six different trip packages centered around Chicago blues, country kickin' Nashville, Hollywood rocks, jammin' in Seattle, jazz it up in New Orleans and New York on Broadway. As part of the promotion, a gift basket of British foods along with a coupon for a free Schweppes beverage was awarded in each store.

Schweppes ginger ale was featured during the sale for 89 cents a 2-liter bottle with a Food Emporium Bonus Savings Club card.

The spokesman said the sweepstakes exceeded expectations.

"We received thousands upon thousands of entries for the British Rock sweepstakes. We have boxes of entries," he said, adding that because of its successes, the British Aisles promotion has been expanded to include other nationalities.

"This is a very strong promotion for us. The British salute was the first ethnic salute that we did, and based on its success we have expanded it to Jamaican and Caribbean and other nationalities," he said.