CHAINS ADD MEALS.COM'S RECIPE FEATURE TO WEB SITES

STEPHANIE LOUGHRAN

BELLEVUE, Wash. -- A growing list of retailers have recently launched a new recipe component on their Web sites, powered by Meals.com, a subsidiary of Coinstar, also based here.

The chains offering the feature as a new service to their Web pages are: Big Y Foods, Springfield, Mass.; Harris Teeter, Matthews, N.C.; King Kullen, Westbury, N.Y.; Lowe's Foods, Winston-Salem, N.C; and Tidyman's, Greenacres, Wash. Other recent retailers to add Meals.com include Ukrop's Super Markets, Richmond, Va.; Gerland's Food Fair, Houston; and Marsh Supermarkets, Indianapolis.

The recipe pages bring the user to information on cooking advice, integrated shopping lists, nutritional analysis and recipes.

While sources at King Kullen and Tidyman's were unavailable for comment, Big Y Foods' art production manager, Merle Zamansky-Coen, said site usage on www.bigy.com has been strong. "We've been generating a lot of hits on the recipe pages, equal to the other pages on the site," she said.

Joyce Caldwell, advertising manager for Harris Teeter, said they united with Meals.com as an "added service to our customers."

Russ Ruby, vice president of marketing, Meals.com, said content and personalization are two key ingredients to the retailer sites. "By taking the site and personalizing it based on consumer needs, it gives enhancement to the retailer site," he said. "It is the first step to drive Web traffic to their store."