Whole Health: Big Birds

ROBERT VOSBURGH

DOROTHY LANE MARKET IS NOT AFRAID to play chicken. If anything, the three-store retailer loves to play it up.

“We believe not only in the health aspect, but also the flavor,” said Jack Gridley, DLM's director of meat and seafood. “There is a flavor difference and texture difference in our chicken.”

The independent chain highlights both health and taste in its poultry by seeking out local suppliers whenever possible, and using an air chilling process that doesn't add water to the product.

“I think the meat is firmer, which locks in the flavor,” Gridley said of air chilling. “It's the sum of all the ingredients going into them, the way they're raised and slaughtered.”

Any way they're cut up, chicken and other poultry are tops on many consumer shopping lists. A study released in July by the Perishables Group, West Dundee, Ill., shows that nearly three-quarters of 1,600 shoppers polled noticed higher meat prices over the past year, particularly with beef. To compensate, 43% of respondents said they were purchasing more chicken because of its relatively lower price, and 37% stated they were buying more turkey.

Retailers who highlighted the lower poultry prices with promotions saw a 238% sales lift on breasts and 254% on whole birds, the firm's research showed.

That's promising news to operators like Dorothy Lane Market, which sells three types of birds, primarily merchandised out of large self-service cases in the meat department. The strategy here is to appeal to the widest audience possible while keeping the category manageable. The retailer's most popular product is a private-label Dorothy Lane All-Natural Air-Chilled Chicken. The birds come from Bell & Evans, one of the country's leading purveyors of upscale, all-natural poultry. The chicken is raised in humane fashion on a vegetarian diet, and is not subjected to steroids or antibiotics.

Dorothy Lane moved to air-chilled products about 12 years ago, at a time when the supermarket industry relied on water-chilled birds. Studies have shown the technology helps birds retain their natural juices, since water chilling causes them to absorb roughly 7% of their body weight in added liquids.

Of course, in certain instances, air chilling is not an option, so Dorothy Lane stresses other attributes. That's the case with a whole bird roaster that's offered to customers through a local supplier, Hill Family Farm in Xenia, Ohio. There's no local air chilling facility available, so the birds — averaging 6 pounds — receive special handling that meets DLM standards.

“They're raised outdoors. It's a barnyard chicken,” said Gridley. “It's antibiotic-free, vegetarian-fed and there are no by-products in the feed.”

Then, there is an organic line, also locally produced. The pasture-raised, USDA-certified organic chickens (as well as eggs) are supplied by a small farm in Piqua, Ohio, run by a pair of older women — appropriately named Two Old Hens and Their Chicks.

“The products aren't available fresh year-round, because they just can't raise them outdoors in the winter,” said Gridley. “So we'll switch over to a previously frozen bird and carry them frozen throughout the winter months.”

In the current economy, sales of specialty poultry like all-natural and organic seem to be taking a hit. The Perishables Group study found that — of those who said they purchased such meats at least occasionally — 53% said they were either buying them less or not at all.

Seasonal promotions that build volume are a good time to upsell these higher-priced products. At Dorothy Lane, all but a small percentage of the retailer's holiday turkeys come from Bowman & Landes, New Carlisle, Ohio. The birds are guaranteed to be free roaming, raised without antibiotics, hormones or growth stimulants, and are fed a vegetarian diet.

The emphasis on animal welfare isn't new to Dorothy Lane. According to Gridley, the treatment of food animals has long been part of the retailer's core values. As a practical matter, the end product tastes better, he said, though the message itself resonates with DLM shoppers.

“It's something we've believed in for so long, it's become part of our mission statement, to sell great food and educate our customers whenever possible,” he said.

“It's something we have done from the beginning, even before certification became the rage. A lot of what we do is geared towards family farms and not factory-type processors. Those family operations have always been the ones who care directly about their animals and the way they're raised.”

As a member of the DLM organization for more than 30 years, Gridley has been building the retailer's reputation for quality and welfare standards for some time. Indeed, all of the beef, pork and poultry sold by Dorothy Lane Market is “Certified Humane” by Humane Farm Animal Care, a non-profit organization established to promote the cause.

“We can say we're certified on our three major proteins, as well as on our private-label products that are made using those proteins,” said Gridley. “It's nice that we can use the same message on all of the products.”

The meat department supplies both the deli case and the rotisserie. That means that the same health attributes found in the meat department poultry lines are on display anywhere animal proteins are served.

“Any chicken that you find throughout the store, whether it be in our rotisserie program or in our deli as a cooked breast or as part of a chicken salad, we carry those same specifications all the way across,” noted Gridley. “So any deli salad using chicken has the air-chilled, ABF vegetarian-fed chicken.”

Likewise, the animal welfare message receives a larger platform as well. Brochures, labels, shelf strips, case banners and even market report articles published by the retailer for customers constantly reinforce the healthfulness and ethics behind DLM meats.

“They all have the same message — no hormones, antibiotics or steroids, vegetarian-fed, certified humane,” said Gridley. “We're just trying to get that concept across over and over. You can't say it enough.”

The retailer has just launched a special series of “foodie,” or food expert classes, designed to familiarize employees with other products and services outside of their area of expertise. For the meat department, and the poultry category in particular, that means another way to grow as more associates familiarize themselves with the retailer's meat standards.

“It's about cross-merchandising, but more about breaking down those department walls,” said Gridley.

GOOD ADVICE