GOING BANANAS OVER BREAKFAST

BARBARA MURRAY

More and more, retailers are cross merchandising items, such as bananas, in the breakfast aisle in an attempt to raise sales by making consumers consider various breakfast options.

The Carteret, N.J.-based Pathmark Stores started doing this recently, chainwide, while the independent Clement's Market, Portsmouth, R.I., put a banana rack in the middle of the cereal aisle about two months ago, according to the store manager.

"We sell through three cases a day off that rack in the cereal aisle. I would say that's a lot. The store sells a total of 12 to 15 cases of bananas a day, so they are getting maybe 20% of their sales out of the breakfast aisle," said Bob MacFarlane, manager of the one-store independent located just outside Newport.

The opposite tack is taken by some other stores, including the IGA in Amagansett, N.Y. "We have coffee in the cereal aisle," and a lot of other day-starters, too, said Joseph Cirillo, manager of the 16,000-square-foot store. But yes, they have no bananas -- in the cereal aisle, that is.

"Bananas are a lead item. Everybody buys them, and a large percentage of people look for bananas as they walk in. So, we don't put them in the cereal aisle," said Cirillo. However, the cereal aisle in his store contains some items that are typically found in the baking aisle of most other stores, such as pancake mix, syrup, coffee and teas, cocoa mix and evaporated milk. But it also has Carnation Instant Breakfast, Pop Tarts, breakfast bars and Fruit Rollups. "We own two other stores, and they're all set up the same way," Cirillo said.

In a small urban prototype Pathmark store in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, N.Y., shoppers see no bananas as they enter. The whole produce aisle is barren of bananas, until you turn the corner at the back end of the aisle, and spot them in an endcap bin on the right. Shoppers who miss the bananas can pick them up in the cereal aisle, however, as the whole chain has just started using cardboard, blue and white, four-shelf banana trees in the cereal aisles.

"This is another type of cross merchandising that we have throughout Pathmark," said an official for the chain, who wished to remain anonymous.

The cereal category has been as flat as a pancake lately, but, to some, the very idea of cross-merchandising the breakfast aisle is a logistical nightmare. "You're introducing day parts," commented Mel Korn, president and chief executive officer of Saatchi & Saatchi Collaborative Marketing, New York.

"Where's the bacon, where's the sausage, the milk, eggs, frozen waffles? We try to tell the retailer to knock the silos down, and do some cross merchandising, but this really begs the question of day parts. Next, do you do lunch?" Korn wondered.

Safeway is already doing this to some extent, with its structured aisles labeled Bake Time, Snack Time, Lunch Time (over the canned soups) and so forth.

Price continues to play a large part in breakfast aisle sales. The Private Label Manufacturers Association, New York, keeps track of price and market share comparisons between the mainstream and stores' own brands. It finds that, for the year ended Jan. 2, 2000, cold cereal's average price per unit for name brands was $3.02 in supermarkets, versus $2.20 for private label.

Supermarket dollar volume in the category was $7 billion, which was neither an increase nor a decrease, but unit volume went down by 2.3%, to 2.4 billion units.

Private-label cereal dollar volume in supermarkets was down by 1.4% and unit volume also decreased by 3.8%, but that could be due to consumers purchasing larger packages. Private-label market share stayed steady, at 7.4% of the dollar volume of cold cereal and almost 10% of the units.

Supervalu, Minneapolis, Minn., supplies Clement's, the Rhode Island store, which carries a few of its private-label Sweet Life brand cereals. "The price is significantly lower on the private label, except for when the national brand goes on sale. But the national brand is still far and away more popular. The movement is very, very good," MacFarlane told SN.

MacFarlane added that the impact of coupons has dwindled over the years, although, as he said, "There is certainly still a coupon shopper out there." When the new store opened, Apr. 28, Clement's advertised double coupons. "We were surprised that the impact was not as great as we expected," MacFarlane said.

"Apparently we don't have that many double coupon shoppers as there were 10 or 15 years ago. In this day and age, with both members of the household working, and more single parents, a lot of people just don't have the time anymore [to search for and clip coupons]," he added.

Some retailers believe cereal is one of those benchmark categories in which they can make a valiant effort with their store brands.

"You can really make a difference in the cereal aisle with private label," said Karrie Thomason, cereal buyer for Spartan Stores, Grand Rapids, Mich. She added that Spartan is in the process of updating the cereal item offerings, getting out of the slower selling varieties and being more aggressive with the price points on the Spartan brand, which has a green label, consistent throughout the store giving a high recognition to their "own brand."

In a Waldbaum's store in College Point, N.Y., many types of private-label, ready-to-eat cereal were on shelves in the aisle devoted to cereal on one side, baby items on the other, with aseptic boxes of soy and rice beverages in between the cold ready-to-eat cereal and the cooking varieties. Forty-four feet was devoted to cold ready-to-eat cereal.

A 6-ounce bag of America's Choice Rice Puffs was 89 cents (marked "save 10 cents"); America's Choice Bran Cereal in a 13.8-ounce box was $2.29 versus Kellogg's All-Bran Extra Fiber for $3.79. Master Choice, the top-tier private label, was found in a muesli for $3.89.

America's Choice Crispy Rice in a 13.5 ounce box was $2.29 versus Kellogg's Rice Krispies, same size box, for $3.49. America's Choice Raisin Bran (one pound, 4 ounces) was $2.89, and next to it was Kellogg's Raisin Bran (same size box) for $3.49.

America's Choice Fruit & Frosty O's (15 ounces) was on special at two boxes for $5, and next to it was Froot Loops, 15 ounces for $3.89.

America's Choice Golden Corn Nuggets with a bear character on the package was $1.99 for 15 ounces, labeled "great price, save 80 cents."

America's Choice Bite Size Shredded Wheat, 14 ounces, was $2.19 next to Post "The Original Shredded Wheat Spoon Size," 17.2 ounces for $3.39. America's Choice Frosted Bite Size Shredded Wheat 19 ounces with a seal character on the box, also was marked $1.99 ("Great Price, save 60 cents"), with shelf tags.

As for further price comparisons, America's Choice Cocoa Comets were $2.69 for 13.75 ounces, while General Mills' Cocoa Puffs were a dollar more for almost the same size box, 13.76 ounces. Count Chocula, also from General Mills, was $4.09 for a 12-ounce box. Toward the rear of the aisle, on shelves above the quick-cooking oatmeals, were toaster pastries and fruit snacks, which have become popular breakfast items. Fruit Rollups, Fruit By the Foot and America's Choice Fruit Snacks, also with colorful cartoon-like characters on the box -- Dinosaur, Lion, Creepies and Sharks. The dinosaur is shown breaking out of an egg, while the Creepies are cute-looking insects, like worms and a multilegged, blue fuzzy creature. All 5.4-ounce boxes with six pouches were on sale at two boxes for $3. Fruit Rollups had 10, 5-ounce pouches, each for $2.69.

Ten feet of hot cereal followed. A big cylinder of America's Choice Quick Oats in a handsome dark blue package, 42 ounces for $2.29, was on sale ("save 30 cents"). Next to it was Quaker Quick Oats, $3.59 for the same size box.

There was a line of America's Choice Toaster Pastries, 11 ounces for $1.19 ("save 30 cents"), six pastries per box, compared with Kellogg's Pop-Tarts, 8 pastries per box for $2.29, and New Kellogg's Pop-Tarts Snak-Stix, six in an 11 ounce box for $2.29.

The Pathmark SN visited in Kew Gardens Hills, like the Waldbaum's, also had an endcap display of national brand cold cereals on sale. Kellogg's Raisin Bran and Crispix at two boxes for $3.98 and Pokemon, 13.2 ounces, for $2.49.

A&P's spokesman, Rick DeSanta, did not return SN's calls for comment on the private-label cereal brands.