PUBLIX LOOKS TO RADIO TO SWEETEN HONEY-GLAZED HAM SALES

LAKELAND, Fla. -- Publix Super Markets here has been hamming it up on the radio in its Miami division.

y-glazed ham. The ad's script features a dialogue between a deli clerk and a customer that is repeatedly drowned out by what could be described as "heavenly" music.

Against a background of choral music, the customer asks: "What was that, that noise?" The clerk answers: "That's angels." The clerk then says something about Publix' ham tasting heavenly.

The conversation ends with the customer saying, "I think I'll try a ham."

A voice-over at that point says: "Just stop by the Publix deli and pick up a scrumptious, spiral-sliced ham. They are baked in our very own glaze made from imported spices. You just heat and serve. We've already done the cooking." The "angel music" then swells to a peak.

Officials at Publix' corporate offices here declined to comment on the radio ads. A store-level source, however, told SN that such ads emphasizing the spiral-cut ham are being aired in other divisions.

A deli associate at one Miami store told SN the hams "are cooked at our own warehouse." She said they are delivered to stores frozen and then thawed as needed. Two or three hams are displayed in the deli case, she said.

Publix spiral hams weigh in at about 14 pounds, the deli associate said. She also was quick to add that they are available by the half-ham and she talked up deli items that "go well with them, like our sweet potato casserole." The everyday retail is $3.79.