SPOTLIGHT ON SERVICE
Underscoring service in the supermarket meat department pays off. Meat cutters, newly nudged into the limelight and often newly trained to engage customers offer a benefit that keeps meat sales growing even in the face of rising prices, retailers said. They see the service meat department as an information center, and the ultimate place to seal customer loyalty. Some also said it's a great place to
August 22, 2011
ROSEANNE HARPER
Underscoring service in the supermarket meat department pays off.
Meat cutters, newly nudged into the limelight — and often newly trained to engage customers — offer a benefit that keeps meat sales growing even in the face of rising prices, retailers said.
They see the service meat department as an information center, and the ultimate place to seal customer loyalty. Some also said it's a great place to sell customers up, and promote across departments.
“Given that there is so much case-ready meat, having a service meat counter with a butcher can become a real point of differentiation for a retailer who still has those assets,” said Neil Stern, senior partner, McMillan Doolittle, Chicago.
Indeed, for many independents, service counters have become a crucial point of difference with their larger competitors.
“For an independent operator in a chain environment, [full-service meat] is a necessary point of differentiation,” said Gale Lasko, general manager of five-unit Lamb's Thriftway, Wilsonville, Ore.
“We believe there's a difference between selling and serving,” he added. “We sell meat from our self-service cases. Customers usually know what to do with what they pick up from there. But the service meat counter — where we have a different variety of meats — gives us an opportunity to give them service.”
Lasko added that all five of Lamb's units have full-service meat departments.
“It's in full service that we have the restaurant-quality cuts and all-natural beef and value-added items,” he said.
“There, we have marinated meats and kabobs, for instance. We can talk to customers about the product, the meal they're going to prepare and make suggestions,” Lasko said. Cooking advice can also help drive traffic to other departments if associates suggest a wine pairing or a side dish, for example.
Lasko, like other retailers SN spoke with, said Lamb's full-service meat departments held up well during the recession. He theorized that customers were able to buy high-quality meats like steak or rack of lamb for much less money than if they had eaten such items in a restaurant.
“In such a cut, cut, gloom, gloom economy, customers downgraded in other departments, but treated themselves to a good meat,” Lasko said.
That's exactly where the meat cutters and knowledgeable associates in a full-service department can be of help. Customers pay a premium price for a prime rib roast or a rack of lamb and they don't want to ruin it.
Large chains are launching marketing efforts to reintroduce shoppers to their service counters as well.
Winn-Dixie Stores currently is emphasizing its service meat departments via its “Your Neighborhood Butcher” program launched last year. Indeed, the program is a major component of the chain's “transformational” remodels, said Hunter Robinson, spokesman for the 484-unit, Jacksonville, Fla.-based chain.