COOKING LIGHT'S ROAD SHOW HEATS NEW JERSEY SHOPRITES

JOEL ELSON

MARLBORO TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- Nearing the end of a seven-month tour of some 100 individual supermarket locations across the nation, Cooking Light magazine took its interactive mobile trailer on healthy cooking styles to a ShopRite unit here and one in Montgomery Township.

Customers lined up at display tables for giveaways Sept. 25 and 26 when the magazine's trailer was parked on the store's lot, according to Alan Karpf, grocery manager.

"We displayed the food items advertised in Cooking Light from tables set up at the front of the store. Customers like such things. It created excitement and focused attention on Cooking Light and other magazines. Signwork with the magazine's name at the tables also made everything stand out," Karpf stated.

"The program builds store traffic and promotes the products advertised in the publication," said Chris Allen, vice president and publisher of Cooking Light, a New York-based Time-Life publication.

During this year's "Ask Cooking Light" tour, the trailer has traveled to between 10 and 15 chains, including Byerly's, Harris Teeter, Ukrop's and Randalls. Grocery coupons, fitness tips and cooking light recipes were distributed. The event, now in its fifth year, on average attracts between 1,500 and 2,000 shoppers a day, Allen estimated.