MUSTARD SEED TO EXPAND PREPARED FOODS AT NEW STORE

ROSEANNE HARPER

AKRON, Ohio -- Mustard Seed Market & Cafe, a natural-food retailer here, will open up its kitchen and expand its prepared-foods displays at a store it is building in a Cleveland suburb.

The most significant changes at the new store, the company's second, are related to on-site-prepared foods in the retail section, said Margaret Nabors, who co-owns the company with her husband, Phillip Nabors.

Retail sales of prepared foods have increased so dramatically -- 20% to 25% year-to-date -- that proportionately more space will be devoted to the products at the new 56,000-square-foot store, Nabors said.

Sales growth can be attributed primarily to the growing number of consumers who are so busy they need help getting good food on the table for dinner, Nabors said.

"I know, as a working mother, how nice it is to be able to take at least part of the meal home already prepared."

She added that she expects sales to be even better at the new site -- which will open this summer -- because with more equipment, more chefs and more space, the company will be able to increase variety and display its prepared foods the way it wants to.

"We're bumping up against limits here at this store. We need more room to do what we want to do with that category," she said.

The existing store, which was remodeled and expanded two years ago, is 31,500 square feet. At the new unit, now under construction, a large open kitchen and bakery will be the focal point in the market area, and Nabors said that alone will drive sales up.

"As you enter the store, you'll see on the left an open kitchen that runs a length of at least 100 feet. That's big, and I think it's dramatic. People will be able to see the cleanliness of the place, and they'll be able to see when something comes out of the oven," Nabors said.

She explained that originally the store here had an open kitchen, though on a smaller scale. But the logistics of the redo here -- where space in which to expand was limited -- necessitated moving the kitchen to the rear of the store to make more room for displays up front. That move was a loss, Nabors said.

"We lost the interaction that we had had between the chefs and staff and customers. It was a fun atmosphere. Customers miss it and so do our chefs. Our chefs are the kind of people who like to talk to customers," Nabors said.

At the new location, two separate kitchens will serve the retail section and the cafe, Nabors said. Here, one kitchen serves both -- which means food has to be carried from the kitchen, which is on the first floor, up to the cafe, which is on the second floor.

The cafe, Nabors said, serves to help push sales of all prepared foods.

"Customers sometimes try something in the restaurant and ask if they can also get it downstairs in the market. It [the cafe] has been an important tool for us. It creates a great synergy," she said.

She also pointed out that the cafe particularly is convenient for market shoppers who drive to Mustard Seed from other areas.

"It's more fun. They can sit down and have a milk shake or a carrot juice or an espresso and then come downstairs, refreshed, to do their take-home shopping," she explained.

The cafe's kitchen, like the one downstairs, will be visible to customers in the new store. A window from the cafe's seating area will look into the kitchen.

"Wherever we're preparing food, customers will be able to see us. Our meat department, too, will be open. We want customers to know who we are and what we're doing," Nabors said.

From a demographics standpoint, the new site is similar to the one here, Nabors said.

"Everything is similar except on a much larger scale," Nabors said.

The new store will be situated in a newly constructed strip mall that has plenty of parking spaces available, and the site is near exits from major highways running north-and-south and east-and-west, Nabors said.

"Like our store here, it will be easy for people to get to," Nabors said.

Also, a huge farmers' market just three miles away will be a plus, she added.

"It's a huge farmers' market that's now open all year. Very popular. Those people have done a great job of training people to drive to that part of the world. It's good for us. I can see people visiting them and us in the same trip," Nabors said.