SAVE MART ENTERS MANHATTAN BAGEL CIRCLE

ROSEANNE HARPER

MODESTO, Calif. -- Save Mart Supermarkets here has linked up with Manhattan Bagel Corp., Eatontown, N.J., to sell branded bagels from custom display cases in its in-store bakery departments.

The first stores -- three of them here and one in Larkspur, Calif., just north of Sausalito -- began selling Manhattan Bagels late last month. The merchandising fixtures are custom-designed, low-profile, self-service cases that sport the Manhattan Bagel name and logo with a stylized Manhattan skyline.

Officials at 90-unit Save Mart's corporate offices here could not be reached for comment at press time, but officials at a master franchise company for Manhattan Bagel said the setup provides a good opportunity for both Save Mart and Manhattan Bagel.

"Save Mart was very anxious to have a good bagel program and it's a great opportunity for us to sell more Manhattan Bagels," said Ken Miller, a partner in Bagel Boys Inc., San Juan Capistrano, Calif., which holds the master franchise for Manhattan Bagel development in northern California.

Bagel Boys has arranged for its nearby Manhattan Bagel franchisees to supply the Save Mart stores each morning with fresh-baked bagels and flavored cream cheeses.

Save Mart gains an opportunity for painless profit while providing its customers with a variety of top-quality, fresh bagels, Miller said.

"We're selling them great bagels wholesale and maintaining the displays," Miller added.

"They [Save Mart officials] have indicated they want us in at least half of their stores," Miller said, adding that he expects to have the displays in 12 to 15 additional Save Mart units by the end of this year. The displays will all be near the front of the store; in Save Mart units the in-store bakery is situated either in the left or right front corner of the store, Miller said.

Until late last year, when it introduced custom, self-service cases fitted out with logo and signs, Manhattan Bagel Corp. had made open production a hallmark of its operations, including those inside supermarkets. But, as in the Save Mart case, "the volume of traffic doesn't always justify a full-service, full-production operation in the store," Miller said.

The lighted, self-service bagel cases were designed to give Manhattan Bagel maximum flexibility inside supermarkets of various sizes, company officials told SN in an earlier interview.

The self-service, branded displays -- which include 4 by 4 endcap sizes as well as larger island and in-line cases -- were debuted in 12 units of the San Antonio-based H.E. Butt Grocery Co. last year. That self-service launch was scheduled for expansion to 40 additional H-E-B stores this month, Miller said.

The custom display has also been set up in a Smith's Food & Drug Centers unit in Las Vegas, and a four-unit test of the displays is set to get under way shortly at four Furr's Supermarkets in Texas.