ROSAUERS' 12-HOUR SALE INVIGORATES TRAFFIC

AMITY K. MOORE

SPOKANE, Wash. -- Rosauers' 12-Hour Produce Sale, held recently, generated significant store traffic and sales, SN observed during a visit to the independent's store in Kalispell, Mont.

Organized chainwide, the 12-hour sale has been run before; last time, the grocery retailer held it in January. Norm Carpenter, produce merchandiser at the company here, would not say if there are plans to run the event again in January 1999.

"It's something we've found that's working for us, and this one was a good one," he said.

The supermarket promoted the 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. sale via an insert in its in-store flier, followed by radio and television advertisements, Carpenter explained. Additional support came from black and white posters hung throughout the stores. Carpenter said store employees are responsible for decorating their respective stores for the event.

When SN toured the retailer's Kalispell location, both the day before the promotion and the day of, black and white fliers were hung throughout the store, including doors and windows, and were being distributed by checkers at the front end.

Produce shippers were found along the perimeter of the store. For example, cartons of cantaloupe, alongside 2-pound bags of lemons, were found in the plant/floral department, and 15-pound sacks of potatoes were merchandised across from the meat department.

Corrugated boxes of bananas were placed along the floor in the produce aisle, as well as on their usual in-aisle fixture.

During the event, three employees were in the department answering questions and restocking bins with tomatoes, corn and oranges.

Customers were able to save 40% to 60% as a result of the sale prices. For instance, bananas were on sale at 5 pounds for $1, a discount of about 49 cents. Red and green seedless grapes were on sale for 88 cents per pound; they are regularly about $1.76 per pound. Unadvertised sweet yellow corn cost three for $1 and tomatoes were discounted to 79 cents per pound, savings of 50 cents a pound.

Shoppers were made aware of the reduced-price perishables by red, white and blue signs that were hung over the corresponding fruit or vegetable. When SN visited during a lull in the day's traffic, there were about 10 to 12 customers in the produce department taking advantage of the store's slashed prices. A store employee remarked that the pace was expected to pick up again about 4 p.m. as people got out of work.

A store-level associate at a store in Washington said the individual stores don't know when they will be running an event. "They just tell us a month ahead of time," he said.

What happens to the perishable items if they don't sell out? The chain tries to accurately plan how much extra produce to stock. "Most of it we don't have left over," the store-level associate said. "This time, we had some bananas, which we sold to the bakery for banana bread. We still have a few cantaloupes; we just put them in the cooler. They come a little green anyway. And the few lemons and oranges, we can juice. We can pretty much use up everything we have left over," he added.