JEWEL FOOD STORES' MARKETPLACE CONCEPT SET FOR UNVEILING

PAT NATSCHKE LENIUS

ORLAND PARK, Ill. -- Jewel Food is putting the finishing touches on The Marketplace, its latest in-store strategy for capturing food-service sales, in a test-plant store here.

The Marketplace includes a coffee shop; hot and cold entrees and side dishes prepared in an in-store kitchen and sold from European-design display cases; European bread displayed in baskets; and a pizza department leased to Home Run Inn Pizza, a Chicago company.

The expansive section runs along the perimeter of the store beginning at the entrance, and is adjacent to a large produce department which is flanked by floral and bakery.

"This has been in process for a few months, and it just opened less than a month ago," said Karen Ramos, director of public relations at Jewel Foods' Melrose Park, Ill., headquarters. "It is not yet finished. We still plan to do some decor work."

First in the lineup is the Papanicholas coffee shop, which offers espresso, cappuccino, latte, mocha latte, iced mocha, hot chocolate, coffee, and hot or iced tea. Shelves built into the counter display 10-ounce bags of whole-bean Papanicholas coffees in assorted flavors.

Atop the counter are pre-packaged coffee cakes, cookies, mini-muffins, brownies and sweet rolls. Additional shelving within the coffee shop area is used to display juice and bottled water and 23.6-ounce bottles of Monin syrups, available in flavors such as almond, yellow banana, blueberry and cinnamon, and suggested for use in cocktails or desserts.

Next is a basket of European-style bread, followed by a two-foot rack of bottled wines.

A soup bar offers three choices. On one visit, the selection consisted of chicken noodle soup, lemon rice soup and Arizona chili.

The line-up continues with about 24 linear feet of chilled prepared entrees, including a self-service display of about 16 linear feet of prepackaged chilled entrees and side dishes, and a European-design display case of about eight linear feet containing bulk quantities of the chilled entrees and side dishes displayed in crockery and on platters. A fully equipped kitchen is visible behind the display cases, and a chef is present.

"There is a chef on-premise, and he develops the recipes," Ramos confirmed.

The chilled items on display in bulk quantities included: multi-grain salad, bow-tie pasta with meat, Parisian potato salad, baked turkey tetrazzini, cucumber feta salad, pico de gallo, antipasto salad, vegetarian lasagna, homestyle meat loaf, steak fajitas, Amarillo chicken salad, ravioli, smoked chicken panini, Tuscan panini and smoked salmon panini. Prices ranged from $3.96 to $4.99 per pound.

The prepackaged choices include five-cheese casserole, creamed spinach, bistro roasted vegetables, bistro marinated chicken, chicken marengo, herb-roasted chicken, crabcakes, North Carolina barbecued chicken, chicken & bean burrito, Creole marinated shrimp, tortellini vegetable salad, and vegetable fried rice, with most of the items displayed in bulk.

The prepackaged items ranged in price from 87 cents to $4.14, based on price per pound. Two pre-wrapped, ready-to-eat sandwiches were also displayed: a turkey pesto club and a Sicilian brick-oven club, each priced at $3.99.

The prepackaged items carry the Marketplace logo: a square divided into four small sections, each a square containing a different colored line drawing of a food item. The divided squares feature purple grapes, a brown rotisserie chicken, loaves of bread in a basket and apples.

The package has a black plastic bottom and white cardboard top with a film window revealing the product. The chilled items can be heated in the microwave or in a conventional oven.

The hot case, just a few feet from the chilled display case, offered selected items in bulk by the pound or in eight-ounce serving size. At the time of SN's visit, homestyle meat loaf and vegetable lasagna were featured as eight-ounce servings for $1.99.

Other items in the hot case displayed in bulk quantities were: baked eggplant casserole, Santa Fe chicken breast, baked turkey tetrazzini, North Carolina barbecued chicken, bistro roasted vegetables, five-cheese casserole, creamed spinach, vegetable fried rice, Szechwan stir fry, and zucchini marinara. Some of the side dishes were available in four-ounce size for 99 cents. Eight-ounce servings of the entrees ranged in price from $1.99 to $3.49, while the per-pound price varied from $3.98 to $6.98.

An upright oven containing rotisserie chicken was visible behind the display case, as was a cooler containing soft drinks and other beverages. There was an eight-foot self-service display of hot rotisserie chicken in clear dome packages, sold as a four-piece meal, roaster breast or a whole chicken. Pork loin roast was also displayed in the same packaging.

Printed bags were used to promote Jewel's "Meals To Go" in the Marketplace area. Meal 1 was a whole or eight pieces of rotisserie chicken, with one pound of the customer's choice of selected traditional salads and four French rolls for $6.99. Meal 2 featured Perdue all-white meat roasted chicken breast with four French rolls and one pound of salad for $8.99. Meal 3 was a half butterball turkey breast, an Armour pork loin roast or President's Choice barbecue pork back ribs, with four French rolls and one pound of salad for $11.99.

Next in line is the Home Run Inn Pizza Express, a leased department, which offers hot and cold pizza. The sign promoted a special on Mondays and Tuesdays: Buy one, get one free pizza slice (one quarter of a pizza) for $2.29 plus tax. Menus with coupons and refrigerator magnets with the phone number were available at the counter.

"Home Run Inn is leasing the space," Ramos said. "They are a Chicago-based company and have an established name that our customers will recognize. We have carried Home Run Inn frozen pizzas for a number of years.

"Three Jewel stores have leased Home Run Inn pizza departments," he added. "We used to offer our own Chef's Kitchen Express fresh pizza in the Orland Park store, but we did not have take-and-bake pizza like Home Run Inn has. The pizza is prepared and the crust is cooked so it can just be baked at home. We are putting Home Run Inn pizza in all of the new stores."

The Orland Park store has been the site of food-service tests for Jewel for several years. A few years ago, the space now allocated for the Marketplace housed departments leased to Panda Express (including a fully equipped kitchen) and McDonald's. The McDonald's was replaced by a local coffee shop, which also closed.

The Marketplace concept here provides four tables, each with four chairs, for customers interested in on-premise consumption. The seating capacity is smaller than had previously been available in the store.

The Levy Organization, Chicago, a restaurant company, has been involved in the development of the Marketplace concept for Jewel, but an executive there declined to comment, saying the project was not yet completed.

"I have heard wonderful things about Jewel's Marketplace concept," said Howard Solganik, president, Solganik & Associates, Dayton, Ohio, a food industry consultant. "It seems it is going in the right direction. Downsizing the seating is definitely in line with what we are seeing and doing.

"There is a difference between food for here and now, and food for there and now," Solganik added.

"Supermarkets have a bigger opportunity for food for there and now, but they should not abandon here and now. They just have to make the seating more in line with where the potential is. That is a very exciting area of the store."