SAFEWAY ROASTED-CHICKEN GUARANTEE TAKES OFF

ROSEANNE HARPER

PLEASANTON, Calif. -- Safeway here has launched a roasted-chicken guarantee program in all its delis.

Here's the deal: If there's not a hot, roasted chicken ready for takeout from the deli between 4 o'clock and 7 o'clock in the evening, customers will get a roasted chicken free on their next visit to the store.

The guarantee, which -- according to a source in the Bellevue, Wash., office of Safeway's Seattle division -- is a first for the company, was ready for take-off July 14 and was introduced in some divisions that week via the chain's ad circular. The entire deli ad, a sixth of a page, was devoted to the roasted-chicken guarantee in the Seattle division's July 14 to 20 ad circular.

A full-color photo of a plump-looking roasted chicken surrounded by roasted red-skin potatoes on a serving platter dominated the ad. Superimposed on the photo was a box that contained this message: "Roasted chicken guarantee. We guarantee a hot roasted chicken ready for you to take home and enjoy between the hours of 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. or it's FREE on your next visit. You can depend on us! Save up to $1.50 each." The advertised price: $3.99 each. The everyday price for roasted chickens in that division is $5.49, said the source.

Safeway officials at the chain's corporate headquarters here could not be reached. A source in the chain's Seattle division office, however, said the new guarantee program was scheduled to be introduced in all divisions in July.

"The guarantee is a way to call attention to freshness. We're always looking for ways to get the customer's attention. And between those hours, four and seven in the evening, is when people are looking for something to take home for dinner," the source said.

In spot-check telephone calls to Safeway stores in other divisions, SN found that the guarantee, along with the special price, was introduced July 14.

A store-level source in the deli department of a Baltimore Safeway unit indicated that the guaranteed chickens weigh a minimum of a pound and a half and she said they had been offered in the Eastern division the week of July 14 for a special price of $3.99. The regular price at the store there, however, was $5.99, she said.

Calls to stores in the Phoenix division and in the Denver division revealed that the roasted chickens carried the guarantee and were offered at a special price of $3.99 for a week. A roasted-chicken meal, too, is available in some divisions for $6.99. It includes a pound of deli salad -- macaroni, potato or coleslaw -- and six pieces of cornbread or six biscuits. Whether the whole meal is offered is a decision made by each individual division, a division office source told SN.

Guarantees of the available-or-free sort for deli products are not common. Among the first seen in fresh-food departments were those for fresh-baked Italian or French bread in in-store bakeries. SN has observed that several chains and independents guarantee the availability of hot Italian bread during peak traffic hours. If it's not available, the customer gets a free loaf on the next visit. And one division of Montvale, N.J.-based A&P -- Food Emporium, the Bronx, N.Y. -- recently unveiled a guaranteed-fresh program that encompasses the entire store, including the deli and other fresh-food departments (see Fresh or Free Plan Started at All Food Emporiums, SN, May 24. 1999).