NATURAL, ORGANICS GAIN IN BSE SCARE

ROBERT VOSBURGH

NEW YORK -- Retailers are reporting an increase in customer inquiries regarding natural and organic beef following last month's mad cow disease scare in Washington state.

Those supermarket operators already selling such items said their customers have expressed relief that the meat they've been purchasing is from cattle that are grass-fed -- a diet that eliminates the possibility cows can contract bovine spongiform encephalopathy, which scientists believe is spread through consumption of feed mixed with infected spinal cord and brain matter.

"We get all our beef from Oregon Country Beef, and it's all vegetarian-fed," said Randy Yochum, meat manager at Rudy's Newport Ave. Market, Bend, Ore. "Our sales for Christmas week were actually up 12% to 14% from the same period a year ago."

Yochum said some new customers walked into the single-unit, upscale independent after the news hit. Some arrived through word-of-mouth, while others found the store through an Internet search, he added.

"We even had 6% to 8% more prime rib orders than last year. Our supplier [Oregon Country Beef], too, told us they're getting 150 hits a day on their Web site."

At Wild Oats Markets, Boulder, Colo., "more and more consumers have been coming into our stores asking about the benefits of all-natural and organic beef," said Paul Gingrich, the 102-store chain's vice president of meat.

To that end, the operator issued a list of beef-buying suggestions for consumers to follow in an effort to build confidence in the U.S beef supply. Among the tips is one promoting all-natural and organic beef, which is the only kind the chain sells.

"All-natural and organic beef standards [such as those used by Wild Oats Markets] prohibit the use of any animal by-products in the livestock feed," the sheet stated. It also urged consumers to find out the source of their retailer's beef, to purchase boneless beef and to consider beef alternatives.

Jonathan Savick, assistant meat manager at Central Market, Shoreline, Wash., said customers have also asked whether the store's hamburger meat is ground in-store, prompted by media reports that such meat is safer than plant-ground product.

"We grind our own in-store," he said. "We don't buy those tubes of ground beef. So we're confident of [the safety] of our supply, and the loyalty of our customers is great." Central Market, the flagship store of Seattle-based Town & Country Markets, did record a drop in the number of certain items for Christmas, like rib roasts, however.

"Even though we carry only all-natural beef, just for the holidays, we had regular USDA choice roasts [on special], and out of about 150 orders that were to be picked up the day before Christmas, 25 were not picked up. The [mad cow] news broke on the 23rd," Savick said, in explanation.

Yochum at Rudy's reported a similar occurrence, recalling that one new customer who bought a seven-rib, prime rib roast from the store on Christmas Eve said he had just returned a seven-rib roast to another supermarket in town.

"At first, I thought we'd take a little dip in sales, but it was a good beef Christmas for us -- in fact, the best beef year we've ever had," he said.

Even retailers who do not exclusively sell all-natural or organic beef found ways to reassure customers. Pete Davis, senior director of meat, seafood and sushi at Bristol Farms, Carson Calif., told SN the 11-store independent doesn't buy only all-natural beef, but has a tight, vertical program and its beef is raised on contract with all-domestic sources, which gave customers confidence in its supply and kept sales up.

"Prior to [the BSE case], we had information packets out, but we've elected to go into more detail now," Davis said.