Jungle Jim's Highlights Versatility With BOGO Roasts

ROSEANNE HARPER

FAIRFIELD, Ohio — Jungle Jim's International Market does some wild things, but how about this? Selling buy-one, get-one-free rump roasts at a clip of 10,000 pounds per week — frequently.

The single-unit, one-of-a-kind supermarket ran a BOGO promotion on rump roasts twice last month and ended up selling at least 10,000 pounds of the roasts each of the weeks the promo was on.

People often think of rump roast as a winter meal — pot roast for the slow cooker. But Scott Severs, meat operations director for Jungle Jim's, put that idea to rest quickly. In fact, he said that the cut of beef's versatility is part of what makes it such a good value.

“This item can be used many different ways other than just as a roast,” he said. “As stew meat, kabob meat, jerky — we do have customers who make their own jerky in the fall — barbecued beef, any number of things. The item is an exceptional value, and that's why we can sell so much of it in a week in the middle of summer.”

The most recent ad for it, which ran the week of Aug. 22, featured Star Ranch Angus Choice boneless beef rump roast. It invited customers to buy one roast for the everyday price of $4.49 a pound, and get another of the same size free.

“We run this at least once a month since it's one of our most successful promotions. It is a particularly good value because the quality is tops. The thing about us is we always run Angus or USDA Choice, nothing less,” Severs said.

The versatility of the roasts helps the cut appeal to a broad spectrum of customers, all demographics, all ethnic groups, he said.

“I base this promotion strictly on offering a diversity of meat items on a weekly basis, and on a history of how this particular item sells when advertised. It sells well every day of the week when it's on ad. It appeals equally to our weekend customers and our weekday customers.”

Since Jungle Jim's embodies an unusual experience, with everything from Coney Island bumper cars to Elvis memorabilia hanging from the ceiling, as well as a wealth of esoteric products, customers on weekends include tourists and other shoppers from an hour or more away. Weekday shoppers are more apt to be regular customers from nearby.

Severs emphasized that while Jungle Jim's customers run the gamut when it comes to demographics, everybody likes a bargain, and he aims to have something of top quality and top value for everybody.

Severs explained that the state of the economy has had nothing to do with the promos and value-price ads he runs on a regular basis.

“We've been doing this for a long time. In this region, everybody's ads are aggressive. There's a lot of competition around us.”