DIRECTIONS IN BOSTON

RUSSELL REDMAN

BOSTON -- When it comes to accenting a store's frozen food selection, a tour of Boston-area supermarkets revealed two distinct in-store strategies.

For Demoulas SuperMarkets, Purity Supreme and Roche Bros., the emphasis is on point-of-sale signs, tie-in items and end displays, while Stop & Shop Cos., Shaw's and Star Market rely more on brightly lit glass-door cases to showcase a big selection, SN found in a visit to 30 Boston-area supermarkets last month.

Stop & Shop is the Boston area's leader in sales volume. Local observers say the Quincy, Mass.-based company is penetrating even deeper into the city as it converts Purity Supreme units to its own format. Stop & Shop acquired Purity this year. "Purity has one of the bigger market shares in Greater Boston," one observer noted. Another said, "A lot of the Purity stores will be converted over soon. So that will give Stop & Shop an entry into 'Demoulas country.' " Stop & Shop will gain 25 to 30 more stores in the region with the Purity units, he added.

But Stop & Shop's metro-Boston competitors are close behind. One observer pegged the market-share ranking as follows: Stop & Shop, 14%; Demoulas, Tewksbury, Mass., 13%; Star Market Co., Cambridge, Mass., 12%; and Shaw's Supermarkets, East Bridgewater, Mass., 8%. Roche Bros. Supermarkets, Wellesley Hills, Mass., which also operates Sudbury Farms supermarkets, is a heady player as well, he said.

"You get somewhat of an [everyday-low-pricing] philosophy from Demoulas," another observer said. "Shaw's used to be straight EDLP but now is going a little more in a high-low direction. Stop & Shop is more high-low. They have their consumers programmed to work their ads, fliers and coupon books. Star Market is pretty much a straightforward EDLP merchandiser."

Other area supermarkets include Shop 'n Save, which is operated by Hannaford Bros., Scarborough, Maine; Edwards Super Food Stores, a Windsor Locks, Conn.-based division of Ahold USA; Omni Foods, Gilford, N.H.; and Foodmaster Supermarkets, Somerville, Mass.

"Demoulas is probably one of the better area chains with using POS materials, and Roche Bros. to a certain extent," a local observer said. "Many of the smaller chains will use it more. The bigger retailers -- Stop & Shop, Shaw's and Star -- try to keep their cases fairly clean."

Market Basket used a potpourri of signs, tags and end bunkers in frozens to snare customer attention. For example, its Chelsea store had package replicas and POS standups from Stouffer's, Tombstone, Swanson and Marie Callender's atop doors. POS stickers from Tony's, Mrs. Smith's, Nestle and Healthy Choice also were on several doors. Two end bunkers were topped with large signs reading, "Frozen Food Specials." The chain's Middleton store wrote specials for Breyers and Demoulas store-brand ice cream on glass doors with colorful China markers. Coupons from Tony's, Red Baron and Pepperidge Farm also were taped to some doors.

"[Demoulas] tends to football a lot of items, with a lot of bulk products: big bags of frozen vegetables, potatoes, pasta, etc. They're a real dollar-for-dollar store," a local observer said.

Tie-in groceries crammed shelves spanning the top of coffins at all Market Baskets SN visited. Items included fruit snacks, cookies,

shelf-stable fruit, sprinkles, and ice cream cones and toppings.

"Demoulas is not as aggressive as the other chains when it comes to selection, but it's an excellent merchandiser," one Boston observer said. "The chain knows how to move a lot of product with endcaps and display material. That's its strong point."

Purity was aggressive with shelf tags. Clusters of tags reading "Checkout Coupon," "Extra Value," "Surprise Value," "Everyday Value" or "Compare Purity Brands" hung on the center ledge of coffins above discounted items. Tags dotted shelves inside doors as well. Colorful, logoed dividers for Swanson, Egg Beaters, Toaster Strudel, Welch's, Minute Maid and other items also drew attention to coffins.

Although Purity stores had case displays at all aisle ends, signs and in some cases price tags were missing at the chain's Newton location, possibly leaving customers wondering if there was a discount. A Purity in Brookline used pegboard atop a coffin for tie-ins like candy, chips, ice cream scoops and utensils.

Roche also actively cross-merchandised. A counter packed with dry groceries, candy and general merchandise spanned the top of coffins at the chain's Westwood and Wellesley stores. A Sudbury Farms store in Needham had a rack with English muffins and maple syrup near an endcap promoting Eggo waffles.

The forte of Stop & Shop, Shaw's and Star was showcasing the product. Uncluttered with signs and tags, their radiant rows of glass doors effectively trumpeted their selection.

Those chains, too, took greater care to stand products up to exploit package graphics. At some stores, displays of ice cream, novelties, pies, cakes, waffles, juice and meals were especially striking. Observers said Stop & Shop is likely to bring stronger frozens presentation when it converts Purity stores, which had dim and/or dark doors at some locations SN visited.

Shaw's, Stop & Shop and Star were more strategic in using signs and tags, which primarily touted temporary price reductions and private-label items. Of the three, Star was the most active, with numerous "Star Advantage" club-card and "Star Brand" tags standing out through doors and plastic clips that held promotional signs.

At stores with doors and coffins, Star and Shaw's made extensive use of end space, with bunkers, door cases and/or multidecks for price specials. Stop & Shop seemed lacking in end displays, typically having just a pair of end cases in stores SN visited.

"Stop & Shop has a large-sized frozens section, but they don't have much end display space. They really need to focus more on display space," an area observer noted.

In private label, Shaw's and Stop & Shop led the way. Stop & Shop turned eyes to its Select ice cream and frozen yogurt by using colorful suspended signs and endcap displays. However, Shaw's was more aggressive with promotional displays of its label at stores SN visited. "Shaw's is knocking the socks off it; they're doing a really nice job," a local observer said.

Demoulas had a strong contingent of Demoulas and Market Basket brand items, especially vegetables, but being displayed in coffins hampered their presence. Star's private-label frozens offerings (Star, President's Choice and Top Frost) were impressive at Star Plus locations but just average at its smaller stores. At a few Purity stores the National label already has begun to make way for the better-presented Stop & Shop brand.

Dropping the Sweet Life label, Roche is expanding its store brand in frozens with plans to add specialty vegetables, French-bread and premium pizza, and more ice cream flavors, said frozens-dairy buyer and merchandiser Bob Annand Jr. when interviewed by SN at Roche's Westwood, Mass., store. Other Boston-area chains declined to meet with SN or couldn't be reached.

"We've probably moved about 80% of [Sweet Life] items into the Roche name, and sales have been phenomenal," he said. At most of the stores SN visited, breakfast food and bagels received hefty space. The breakfast section -- mainly waffles -- ranged six to 10 doors, and bagels occupied two to five doors. Breakfast items and bagels filled a coffin side at a few stores. "Frozen bagels are big in this market," Roche's Annand said. More often than not, frozens departments were big, SN found. "They're normally one full aisle and maybe half of another aisle," one observer explained. "Shaw's puts them in the middle, Stop & Shop and Demoulas put them on the end, and Star puts them in the middle or end."

Star's frozen departments varied the most among chains SN visited. A Star Market in Allston had the largest section, with roughly 120 doors. Star Plus units had big sections in the middle of the store, with an aisle-length coffin splitting two 35-door rows. Other Star units had about 55 doors at one end of the store; cases were visible from the checkout.

Though large, Stop & Shop's frozens sections -- one to two aisles totaling about 70 doors -- were tucked away at one end, almost out of sight when one entered stores.

Demoulas' Market Basket stores had "Frozen Food" painted across a striped wall above uprights, which averaged more than 60 doors. Their frozen departments, next to produce at one end of the store, bordered the checkout area and were immediately noticeable. Doors ran in an L-shape along the wall, around one or two running coffins.

At two Purity stores, customers walked right into frozens upon entering. The spacious sections had 50 to 60 doors -- one superstore had 80 -- plus one or two long coffins toward one side of the store. However, there were no signs to mark off product categories, as at some Star stores.

Frozens stood out at Shaw's and Roche stores, where the department was right in the middle (one Shaw's had a T-shaped array of uprights toward one end of the store). Island or running coffins split two sides of 30 to 35 doors at those stores.

Roche's Annand said he prefers having a mix of doors and coffins at the center of the store.

"[Coffins] help give a presence to the aisle so it's not just a narrow aisle with doors running down each side," he said. "It creates more of an image."