CONVENIENCE MADE YULE VOLUME MERRY

SN REPORT

a special holiday meal on the table, shoppers needed help this Christmas and they were willing to pay for it.

That was the message of supermarket deli and bakery executives who told SN that party trays, meal packages and trays of holiday cookies, all geared toward convenience-hungry shoppers, were especially strong sellers this year.

Items that saved labor for retailers worked well this year in at least two cases. One retailer known for strong baked goods brought in premade quarter-sheet cakes for the first time and had excellent sales. Sourcing the thaw-and-sell products from outside gave the retailer more time to focus on the company's specialty items that are produced in-house.

The other case is a small independent grocer that seized on an opportunity created by a local gift shop that went out of business. The retailer offered cheese gift boxes for under $10 and sold hundreds. The boxes were brought in premade, so very little labor was needed.

Several retailers told SN they introduced smaller sizes of party trays this year with consequently smaller price tags, and that seemed to spur sales.

For Christmas in the produce department, there were challenges brought on by Mother Nature in terms of tight supplies of holiday favorites, broccoli and cauliflower. To ease the pinch, retailers focused on promoting fruit, and some took pains to inform their shoppers why prices

for the vegetables were so high.

In the meat case, ham maintained its place as the most popular Christmas meat item, but turkey and rib roasts of beef also made a showing, retailers reported. Bone-in ham did very well, retailers said. Following are more details about the all-important holiday selling season in the fresh departments.

PRODUCE

Despite high prices for traditional holiday vegetables, produce sales in different markets across the country were strong this Christmas, produce executives told SN.

Pat Quotson, produce buyer for Fred W. Albrecht Grocery Co., Akron, Ohio, said his profits were excellent this year compared with last, thanks largely to high prices.

"It was the highest retails I've seen in a long time," he said. Qoutson said more people seemed to be buying fresh produce for Christmas. "Basically, people bought a little bit of everything this year, which was great," he said. "They always want the best for Christmas, and they're willing to spend the bucks for it." Quotson spurred sales by featuring broccoli for $1.48 a head and cauliflower for $1.69 a head. Most of his competitors were selling both for $2.99, he said.

Rick Noeth, vice president of perishables for Houston-based Gerland's Food Fair, offered a mix-and-match special on navel oranges and Washington extra fancy delicious apples for 48 cents per pound during Christmas week.

"Sales were very good this year," he said. Besides the apples and oranges, he said bunch radishes and pears sold well too. Gerland's also offered the radishes and green onions as a "mix or match" special at three for $1.

Noeth said he promoted fruit baskets more heavily this year. "That paid off," he said.

Ken Lanhardt, director of produce and floral operations for the Georgia division of Stillwater, Minn.-based Cub Foods Stores, said the high price of vegetables didn't help sales.

"We noticed sales of frozen cauliflower and broccoli increased. People bought that instead of the fresh." He put a special emphasis on promoting fruits instead, including apples, citrus and pears. He said he also advertised pineapples, which resulted in a slight increase in sales.

Fruit baskets sold well at Harp's Food Stores in Springdale, Ark., said Vince Terry, director of produce. "On Christmas Eve, we were Fed-Exing in materials for the baskets," he said. He advertised the baskets heavily and offered a coupon in the chain's newsletter. They were made on-site to customer specifications, so the consumer knew they were fresh. Terry said his citrus and apple sales overall were outstanding. He said the only item he overstocked was pecans, which had a high pricetag this year.

He said one store manager believed broccoli and cauliflower wouldn't sell. But thanks to posting a sign about the weather problems, sales "didn't flinch," Terry said. Norman Carpenter, produce director for Rosauers Supermarkets, Spokane, Wash., said it helped his sales that Christmas fell on a Sunday this year. "We had an entire selling week, and we did big business." As for broccoli and cauliflower, "People resented the price, but they decided to buy it anyway," he said. Tom Murray, director of produce for Roche Bros. Supermarkets, Wellesley Hills, Mass., said his sales were up 10% from last year. Although Roche Bros. has offered fruit and vegetable platters for years, Murray said he promoted them heavily this Christmas in ads.

The platters sold so successfully that he plans to promote them again next Christmas, despite the labor they require.

MEAT

Keeping with tradition, ham was, once again, the most popular item for Christmas dinner this year. But beef also made an impressive showing.

Meat executives polled by SN reported generally strong sales with a noticeable increase in bone-in hams. Many also said that prime rib was a meat of choice for many families. Turkey was a runner up, they said.

"Sales were outstanding for us," said Mike Hurley, director of meat operations for Felpausch Food Centers, Hastings, Mich., an 18-store chain.

"We saw people spending more money on premium products, especially on premium hams and rib roasts," he said. "It seems people were willing to spend more on parties and dinner."

He added that some shoppers "bought a ham and a rib to go with it."

A buyer for a leading Northeast chain said he saw a significant increase in bone-in spiral hams and in ham sales in general.

He attributed the sales increase to more aggressive advertising and lower pork prices. "We advertised more brands of ham than we did last year and we used more ad space for hams," said the retailer, who asked not to be named.

The chain priced its bone-in spiral hams at $2.98 per pound, down from $3.28 a year ago.

Popular beef items included tenderloin and ribs. He noted an overall increase in beef sales, also due to depressed market prices. Brad Graham, meat buyer for Harris Teeter, Charlotte, N.C., said that while ham still sold very well for the holiday, movement was down from last year.

But, he added, fresh pork and beef sales were up between 12% and 15% from the previous year. Turkey sales, he said, "stayed about the same."

Douglas Hanson, meat merchandiser for Rosauers Supermarkets, said hams were big sellers.

"People are going more toward bone-in and away from boneless. That market grows every year." He said its bone-in hams, sold as loss leaders, were priced at 98 cents per pound, the same as in 1993. The wholesale price ranged from $1.05 to $1.15, he said.

In the Spokane market area, beef was also a big hit, said Hanson. "Prime rib was huge," he said. Demand for prime rib seems to grow more and more each year, he said.

Robert Hathaway, meat buyer for the 73-store Edwards Super Food Stores, Windsor Locks, Conn., said, "Hams and rib roast are basic items for Christmas and they went very well."

Some retailers polled said they were featuring pork for New Year's Day.

"For New Year, we went heavy after the fresh pork business, " said Graham of Harris Teeter. "Our fresh pork sales are strong this week," he said the week before New Year's.

DELI

'Twas the season to be jolly about sales of party trays and holiday meals.

Those two categories spurred an 18% sales increase over last year at Tom Thumb Food & Drugs, Dallas, said Ron Bourland, food service director for the 55-unit chain. Party trays and holiday meals combined also accounted for most of a 24% sales jump at 54-unit Harvest Foods, Little Rock, Ark., said Kristy Spillett, the chain's deli field merchandiser.

Retailers said sales were helped by more attention to holiday merchandising, word-of-mouth advertising, smaller trays and lower prices, better planning and consumers who weren't afraid to spend. "People were just spending like crazy this year. You'd have thought everybody had won the lottery," said an executive for a midsized, Midwestern chain. "They weren't looking at price. In the past, we felt that most of our party trays went for office parties, but this year people were taking them home. A lot were picked up on Christmas Eve." He said his total deli sales were up "significantly" and added that better organization was one of the keys.

At 30-unit Fiesta Mart, Houston, party tray sales alone were up 35% over last year, contributing to a 22% hike in total cold deli sales. The introduction of a smaller -- nine-inch -- meat and cheese tray at $9.95 gets a lot of the credit.

"We tapped a new market, the smaller party or gathering," said Larry Jones, Fiesta's manager of cold deli merchandising.

At B&R Food Stores, Lincoln, Neb., deli sales were up an estimated 5% to 10%, but party tray sales themselves were up about 13%, said Steven R. Nelson, director of deli for the eight-unit independent.

The increase came even though B&R didn't offer a dollars-off coupon for party trays as it had last year. "I've just never found that coupons get people to buy a party tray. I don't think they make a difference," Nelson said.

At Harvest Foods, party tray business was the best yet, but an increase in dinner sales helped push up total deli sales. "We cleaned up on everything," Spillett said. "We had more front-page advertising than last year. That helped," she said. But Spillett said being better prepared also helped.

"We talked to our deli managers earlier, and were more specific, about merchandising for the holidays. For example, we showed them how we wanted the cheese cases filled up. And we made it a requirement that they have two or three impulse trays in the case at all times," she said. The nine-inch trays had either cheese balls and crackers or cubed cheeses. Bourland at Tom Thumb said the retailer's television ads focused on party trays and holiday dinners for the first time. "That helped sales and we were able to bring down the dinner prices by about $3, which made us more competitive. We were able to do that because costs were less. One thing we did was use a regular pie instead of a gourmet one we had had in previous years." Keeping holiday dinner prices competitive got credit for an 8% increase in deli sales in one division of a large Southeastern chain, said an official there

BAKERY

At Harris Teeter, Joe Colaianni, bakery merchandiser, said the chain, which operates stores in five states, sold more cookies than ever before.

"We keep coming up with more ways of merchandising them and promoting them." Stollen was a strong Christmas seller, as was a quarter-sheet cake brought in premade from the retailer's cake supplier. The thaw-and-sell cakes helped alleviate the pressure at store level, Colaianni said.

"With holidays being as busy as they are that's when they will need the most help," he said. "Now we're looking at the holidays throughout the year so we can be ready for Valentine's Day through Mother's Day."

Colaianni said the sheet cakes didn't eat into sales of the retailer's store-produced cakes. "It does not take away from those sales," he said. What it does do, he added, is allow the chain to keep up with holiday demand.

A major point, he added, is that the cakes, which retail for $11.99, are made to Harris Teeter's specifications. Gingerbread houses were a surprise big seller at King Kullen Grocery Co., Westbury, N.Y., and they contributed to a record Christmas sales week, said Anthony Mondello, bakery director for the 48-unit chain.

"People were buying them like crazy," he said, adding that sales of the $21.95 item were up "a good 10% from last year." King Kullen bakery associates usually assemble and decorate the houses from prebaked components sourced from outside in kit form. This year, however, they ran out, and ended up making houses from scratch in order to keep up with demand.

The chain's best sellers -- cookie platters -- were up 5% from last year. Cookie dough, made from scratch, was a stand-out seller at Quillin's, said Rand. But another high-margin item, Tom and Jerry drink mix, made from scratch in the bakeries, saw a 25% sales increase over last year.

Made from sugared egg yokes, powdered sugar and cream of tartar, the mix is a base for a regionally popular hot drink that contains rum and brandy. Quillin's price: $1.99 for an 18-ounce deli container. Sales between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31 hit 3,600 units.

"I attribute that to excellent cooperation between stores and between departments," said Quillin's head baker Eric Gilbertson. This was the first year the bakery sold it in the frozen food department as well as in the bakery.