BYERLY'S GAINS SALES WITH CROSS MERCHANDISING

STEPHANIE LOUGHRAN

EDINA, Minn. -- Byerly's, a banner of Lund Food Holdings here, is getting creative with cross merchandising its culinary products.

The retailer is putting its expansive culinary product displays in related grocery sections throughout its remodeled Ridgedale store in Minnetonka, Minn., said Julie Griffin, culinary product manager for the retailer. Some are in unexpected places, such as fine glassware for ice cream in the frozens section. Such initiatives resulted in 16% sales gains at that store for the culinary products category, she said.

"We've been enjoying the space we have and the sales we're seeing," she said.

As of its grand reopening in January, the retailer devoted 500 square feet of its 70,000-square-foot total to basic culinary products. The supermarket capitalized on the space by bringing in new high-end stainless steel cookware and copper cookware, incorporating seasonal cross-merchandising space near the deli section and creating a barbecue product section, Griffin told SN.

Byerly's rolled out an open-stock arrangement of stainless steel cookware and copperware about two months ago here. The cookware, produced by Gourmet Standard, Kent, Wash., includes seven stockkeeping units ranging from a three-quart saucepan with lid priced at $59.99 to a 12-inch saute pan with lid for $89.99. The copperware selection, manufactured by the French manufacturer Mauviel, includes price points such as $120 for a 10 1/2-inch frying pan.

The Byerly's Ridgedale and Chanhassen, Minn., stores were remodeled simultaneously and are "front-runners" in culinary cross-merchandising innovation because they have the most space to showcase the housewares items, Griffin noted.

Byerly's is making an effort to create themes with more nonfood offerings as part of a strategy to help time-starved customers, she said.

"If we can use our expertise to pre-select items and offer them [to customers], it's a real customer service bonus," said Griffin.

The Ridgedale store recently set up an outdoor entertaining theme for the summer season, complete with outdoor lanterns, drinkware and bug screen plate covers to protect food.

Several sections in the store have folded culinary cross-merchandising items in conjunction with food offerings, Griffin said. The dairy section houses omelet pans and egg separators; the seafood section offers seafood tool kits and butter warmers; and the ice cream cases sit adjacent to a display of ice cream dishes, sauces and, most recently, a display of tall root beer glasses and root beer bottles for floats.

"We pay attention to what month we're in and how we can tie-in products with the particular foods that are in season," she said.

In addition, Griffin said, the store has created a culinary sushi display at the sushi bar in the deli area. This includes $19.99 sushi-for-two kits, as well as sushi sauces and "crackle" textured noodle and dipping sauce bowls.

While other retailers have expanded nonfood offerings that do not relate to food, like apparel or toys, Griffin told SN that Byerly's and Lunds, another banner under Lund Food Holdings, have concentrated on building up an array of products that make more sense in the supermarket environment.