DIERBERGS ADDS CHINESE RESTAURANT

ROSEANNE HARPER

CHESTERFIELD, Mo. -- Dierbergs Markets here has teamed up with a popular local Chinese restaurant to write a sales success story that keeps getting better.

Sales have been climbing at the in-store Chinese restaurant since it opened at the chain's new flagship store in January.

"As word gets around, we expect sales to continue to grow," said Greg Dierberg, assistant store director at the unit. He also oversees special projects for the 15-unit chain.

"They're easily meeting our projections and we had set our sights high," Dierberg told SN.

The restaurant operator, Yen Ching, is well-known in the area. For the past eight consecutive years, it has received a People's Choice Award for excellence from a regional magazine.

That reputation, in addition to the quality of the restaurant's food, spurred Dierbergs to seek the link-up.

Dierbergs also offers traditional hot entrees and sides in the deli department of the 71,500-square-foot store, which is located in the Warson Woods section of St. Louis. "But we wanted to offer customers another option," Dierberg said.

The restaurant owners have a lease agreement with Dierbergs, with terms based on a percentage of sales.

The venture is so successful that Dierbergs and Yen Ching will enter into a similar venture at a new Dierbergs unit set to open in December, and will join again in a Dierbergs remodel that will have a grand reopening in 1997, Dierberg said.

Before approaching Yen Ching early last fall, Dierbergs had investigated the successful relationship Byerly's, Edina, Minn., has had with a well-known Chinese restaurant in its own marketing area. The investigation revealed that much of the success at Byerly's was based on the restaurant's local reputation for quality.

"We wanted to do much the same thing that Byerly's has done. We figured we could build storewide sales off the restaurant and also offer our customers the option of top-quality, cooked-to-order Chinese food," Dierberg said.

Offering products cooked to order is a major key to the operation's success, he said, explaining that preparing the food to order ensures quality that brings customers back. It also just about eliminates shrink, he added.

"The two things that can devour profit quickly are shrink and lack of volume. We don't have either one of those worries," Dierberg said. "We don't have to throw away food that's been sitting under heatlamps. Under those lamps, it starts degenerating in about 20 minutes. You shouldn't serve it to anybody after that. This way, the only shrink we have is if someone doesn't pick up their order.

"The customer also is getting a freshly cooked product. We offer him an in-store beeper so he can go about his shopping and we beep him when his food is ready," Dierberg noted.

Most customers, however, don't take the beeper; most prefer to wait for the food to be cooked. Cooking time is 5 to 7 minutes.

The extensive menu offers 25 entrees. A sample of each, on a black oval plate, is exhibited in a 12-foot display case. Each is fronted by a product card to identify it.

"We thought briefly about getting plastic replicas for display, but decided against it," recalled Dierberg. "It has to be real to look its best. It's an art though to get those displays to look their best in the case, though. You have to undercook the vegetables, for example, so they'll retain their bright color."

All the meals are priced at $4.79, but shrimp meals may get their retail slightly boosted soon "in order to maintain the right margin," Dierberg said. The restaurant and the supermarket chain are also currently working on a price structure for selling the products by the quart.

"We've had customers ask for the option of buying a family-sized portion rather than buying three or four individual meals," Dierberg explained.

At present, the meals are packed in dual-ovenable containers with domes. However, a switch to microwavable-only containers is on the horizon, Dierberg said.

"We've found that almost everybody reheats in a microwave and it's better for the product if they do. Rice can dry out in a conventional oven," he said.

The hands-down favorite at the Dierbergs Yen Ching outlet is sesame chicken, which was a surprise to the restaurant owners; their signature spicy, braised chicken is the favorite at Yen Ching's stand-alone restaurant about 5 miles from the store.

Even though Yen Ching's meals at Dierbergs retail for much less, the restaurant owners insist the supermarket sales have not cannibalized any business from their stand-alone facility, where the average dinner costs $8.