THRIFTWAY GETS CUSTOMERS IN MOOD FOR HOLIDAY ENTERTAINING

ROSEANNE HARPER

SEATTLE -- A group of Thriftway stores, including Queen Anne Thriftway in downtown Seattle, is getting customers ready to put a memorable Thanksgiving dinner on the table.

From baked brie in brioche and garlic mashed potatoes made on-site in the deli to tarte tatin featuring tree-ripened, red Comice pears from the produce department, holiday fare is being demoed to help customers make menu decisions early while they're still thinking clearly, officials said. The promotion typically boosts sales of featured dishes several weeks before the holiday.

Starting this past weekend, Thriftway's culinary team began offering tastes of different items for each of the meal's courses. For instance, roasted winter squash and garlic mashed potatoes were in the spotlight one day, and on another day, customers had a chance to taste two appetizers -- crab-artichoke dip and salmon mousse, made fresh in the seafood department. Cranberry relishes and sauces, including some fresh from the deli, will be featured one afternoon. One demo will put different turkey stuffings alongside one another. Another will pit desserts like marion berry pie against baked apples with saffron.

The November calendar/newsletter -- available in the stores and also mailed to customers -- carries the tasting schedule.

The program of demos is known as the "Early Bird Thanksgiving Dinner," an official told SN. "The idea is to give customers a chance to taste a whole variety of things so they can see what they like," said Ilga Westberg, marketing director for the three Thriftway stores in the Tacoma, Wash.-based group. "It gives them an idea ahead of time what they want to put together for the holiday dinner."

Meanwhile, the early demos push up sales of the items well before the week of Thanksgiving because customers may, after tasting the deli's roasted winter squash, for example, buy it on the spot and try it out on their families at home. Or they may want to try their hand right away at serving sliced red Comice pears with blue cheese and candied walnuts. While some items are available already prepared, others require preparation at home. In those cases, customers are given recipes and prep hints. All the ingredients are cross merchandised at the demo kiosk and Thriftway's culinary team shows customers where to find related items in the store.

For those customers who don't plan so far ahead, Thriftway also throws out a safety net as the T-Day dinner countdown begins. Three days before Thanksgiving, the company puts its culinary team members, clad in red coats, in the stores' aisles to walk customers through the meal preparation.

"When it gets that close to the holiday, a lot of people are just dumfounded. Some are cooking Thanksgiving dinner for the first time, maybe for their in-laws. When they come into the store, they're so overwhelmed they can't see anything. They need help," Westberg said.

As the program takes effect, customers can rely on the "Red Coats" in much the same way they would a hotel's concierge. Indeed, Westberg said she got the idea for the Red Coat program on a recent visit San Francisco.

"I was looking for a particular restaurant and how to find some other places. When the hotel's concierge gave me a map, showed me where to go, called and made reservations, I felt so taken care of. It made me think of those shoppers around the holidays and I thought they need a service like this."

What makes Thriftway's Red Coat program particularly helpful, Westberg said, is that the team is made up solely of veteran Thriftway culinary associates who routinely cook, demo, merchandise and market food in-store every day of the year.

"They know how to cook, and they know where things are in the store," said Westberg, a 14-year veteran of the company, who occasionally dons a red coat herself.

"Customers look for our Red Coats. Shoppers will see a Red Coat answering a question about which cheese goes with what, and pretty soon, you'll see five or six people gathering around to ask their own questions, about something else."

Sometimes, a cashier will use the PA system to summon a Red Coat to the front of the store to answer a customer's question.

"They ask us all kinds of things. Sometimes they just tell us they don't know how to cook a turkey and don't know what to serve with it, or they have questions about portions. In that case, we ask them how many people will be eating, and ask if there will be children, and how many men [because they eat more]. We'll suggest sides and a wine. Starting with the appetizer, we might walk them back to the deli and introduce them to our huge cheese selection. One woman wanted to know about goat cheese. She was trying a recipe she had seen in Martha Stewart's magazine," Westberg said.

The culinary team will take customers through every step of making dinner, telling them how to prep the turkey, suggesting accompaniments, maybe even describing how well ancho red pepper jelly goes with the baked brie in brioche, she added.

While it doesn't offer turkeys already cooked, Thriftway tries to give customers confidence that they can do it themselves. If questions arise on Thanksgiving, store personnel are still available. The stores will be open from 8 to 4 on the holiday.

"We'll give them the store's telephone number and tell them to have a Red Coat paged," Westberg said.

As soon as that holiday is over, the Thriftway cooking experts gear up to prepare customers for Christmas and Hanukkah entertaining.