RIESBECK'S ISBS LOVE THAT V-DAY FALLS ON FRIDAY

Roseanne Harper

ST. CLAIRSVILLE, Ohio -- Riesbeck's Markets will be making the most of the fact that Valentine's Day falls this year on what officials there call the "absolute best day of the week" from a retailer's perspective.

Heart-shaped brownies and cookies in a heart-shaped, clam-shell pack this year join the in-store bakery's retinue of other Valentine's Day items. Not only that, but the ISBs will be building displays at least 25% to 50% bigger this year and putting them up early in the week.

"We're excited about Valentine's Day falling where it does. It's just better for business all the way around. I expect sales to be maybe 30% above what they would be if it were early in the week, and I think they'll be up at least 15% from last year" when Valentine's Day was on Thursday, said John Chickery, bakery director, for the 12-unit independent.

The heart-shaped brownies and cookies, with a $3.99 and a $3.29 retail, respectively, were added this year, particularly with school celebrations in mind, but also for office people, Chickery said.

"They'll be taking things in all week," he said.

The retailer plans to cross merchandise the items over in Riesbeck's produce department, where they're going to have Valentine's Day fruit baskets. The secondary display will hopefully pique the curiosity of shoppers to visit the actual bakery, where they'll see not only more fresh brownies and cookies, but heart-shaped cakes as well. The 4-inch, heart-shaped cakes sell for $2.49.

Chickery pointed out that the retail on that particular item makes it appeal to a large audience. Kids, for instance, buy them sometimes to take to their teachers, and if Moms don't want a lot of sweets around, they can at least put one of those little cakes on the supper table to celebrate the holiday.

"And, of course, there are our single-layer and double-layer heart cakes. The whole bakery is red, pink and white, everywhere you look that week. We'll have a huge display of our 'Old World' cookies cut in heart shapes and iced with red and pink."

The Old World cookies, made from a mix, are butter-type cookies that have become a signature item. They take on a different look depending on the season. Their everyday retail is $2.99 a dozen, but when they get dressed up for Valentine's Day and other holidays with pretty icing, the retail gets pushed up to $3.29 a dozen.

"Moms will be buying those red-and-pink iced ones all week this year to put in lunch boxes, and you know there's a lot of kid peer pressure. Kids see other kids eating those heart-shaped cookies with red icing and they'll want them, too," Chickery said, pointing out that since there could be a whole week ahead, their mothers will have time to get them some.

The Old World cookies, like angel food cake and country-style white bread made on-site from a mix , are items that serve Riesbeck's in-store bakeries well whatever holiday is on the horizon. They're great vehicles for theme colors and shapes, Chickery said.

On other holidays, for instance, the cookies are cut into other shapes, like shamrocks for St. Patrick's Day and eggs for Easter, and the angel food cakes and country-style white bread take on an appropriate hue when there's a holiday coming up.

For Valentine's Day and the week before it, angel food cakes with pink and red swirls will be a large part of table displays in Riesbeck's bakeries. The idea is to have something "Valentinish" for everybody. After the Christmas holidays when just about everybody feels they've eaten too many sweets, the lighter, no-fat, angel food cook presents an appealing alternative, Chickery said.

"And the kids love that colored bread. Imagine taking a sandwich to school on pink and red and white bread. At some of our high-volume stores, we'll sell 40 loaves of that in a day."

He added that making the red, pink and white bread will be a breeze after trying to match the Super Bowl teams' colors a couple of weeks ago. It was a big challenge, he said, for the bakery staff to create a bread that had swirls of Oakland's team colors -- black and silver -- and still make it look good enough to eat. And duplicating Tampa Bay's colors -- well, one of them, anyway -- the one Chickery describes as tannish, brownish silver, was even more of a chore.

The opportunity to cash in on a week-long Valentine's Day celebration and then to get the weekend celebrants, too, on Friday, is just one good thing the calendar is sending retailers' way. For retailers like Riesbeck's, which annually creates a huge event of selling the Polish super pastry, called pazcki, on the day before Lent, this year's calendar has another bonus. Lent doesn't begin until March 5.