Shoppers Can Swap 'Pink Slime'-Laced Ground Beef For 'Slime-Free' At Fresh & Easy

Fresh & Easy's fresh&easy brand ground beef (above) is free of the ammonia-treated filler "pink slime," Photo courtesy of www.ninjashopper.blogspot.com.

'Pink Slime-Free Wednesday' at Tesco's Fresh & Easy - Analysis & Commentary

When the news many U.S. food and grocery retailers sell ground beef laced with the ammonia-treated filler "pink slime" (we've known about it for many years, as have many others with experience in the industry) hit the mass media like a ton of frozen ground chuck last week, we offered grocers some immediate advice via these two tweets on the Fresh & Easy Buzz Twitter feed, on March 17:

>Tweet One, March 17, 2012: #Grocers take note: If you don't sell #hamburger containing #pinkslime, tell the world. Why? It's now a point of competitive advantage.

>Tweet two, March 17, 2012: "The Corollary: if you're a #grocer selling #hamburger containing #pinkslime, drop it. Slime and #food are antithetical in consumers' minds.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, which does not use "pink slime" in its hamburger, is doing just what we said grocers should do in the first tweet above on March 17, which is to tell the world - in Fresh & Easy's case consumers in California, Nevada and Arizona where it has its nearly 190 grocery stores - there's no "pink slime" being used as filler in the ground beef offered for sale in its stores.

And Tesco's Fresh & Easy is "telling the world" it doesn't and has never used "pink slime" in its ground beef in a smart and creative way.

On Wednesday, March 28, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is holding a "Pink Slime Swap Meat" at all its stores. Consumers can bring up two two pounds of fresh or frozen ground beef from another retailer to any Fresh & Easy store and exchange it for a package of fresh&easy (80/20) ground beef at no cost.

As part of the promotion Fresh & Easy is also asking interested customers to use the hashtag #SwapMeat on their Twitter and Facebook sites on Wednesday as part of the "pink slime" ground meat swap out. (80/20 refers to the ratio of lean meat to fat in the ground beef.

According to Tim Mason, CEO of Fresh & Easy, the Tesco owned fresh food and grocery chain "grinds all of its own meat, using only fresh, never frozen beef."

Mason is also inviting customers who have questions about the "pink slime" issue, Fresh & Easy's meats, or any other and Fresh & Easy private brand products to e-mail him at tim@freshandeasy.com, saying in a statement issued just moments ago: "It’s understandable that people would lose confidence in food retailers because of the use of pink slime. Fresh & Easy has never been about shortcuts or fillers - just high-quality fresh food that we produce ourselves, so we know it’s the best."

All the meat sold in the Fresh & Easy stores is cut and ground at the retailer's food and distribution facility in Riverside County, California, where its also packaged. The fresh meats are then shipped to the stores in California, Nevada and Arizona. Unlike most other grocery stores and supermarkets, the Fresh & Easy markets don't have meat departments in-store.

In our March 17 tweet advisory to grocers that don't use "pink slime" in their ground beef, we said touting that fact offers a competitive advantage if done in a timely manner.

The reason this is so is because the "pink slime issue has already a major food safety - not to mention a gastronomical nightmare - with consumers. Like we said on March 17 in our second tweet to grocers that do use "pink slime" in their ground beef: "The Corollary: if you're a #grocer selling #hamburger containing #pinkslime, drop it. Slime and #food are antithetical in consumers' minds." The conflicting concepts are also hard to swallow when it comes to consumers' stomachs.

Most grocers that have been using pink slime are doing just that - stopping the practice and announcing it to the consuming public.

In our analysis Fresh & Easy's "Pink Slime Swap Meat" is a home run on numerous levels.

First, it's a creative yet a simple concept, which are the best kind to communicate to consumers.

Second, and most importantly, it takes advantage of the competitive advantage opportunity not using "pink slime" in ground beef offers grocers like Fresh & Easy, in terms of offering to exchange consumers "pink slime"-laced ground beef for a "pink slime"-free substitute - fresh&easy brand - at one of the grocery chain's stores.

The key potential short-term competitive advantage with this is that it might drive shoppers who've previously never stepped foot into the Fresh & Easy stores into the small-format grocery markets. There's also a branding opportunity for the grocer with its fresh&easy brand in the fresh meat category.

Fresh & Easy's "pink slime"-laced ground beef swap out on Wednesday should draw some attention to the grocery chain in general, and more significantly to the healthier food store position and brand Tesco has been and is attempting to stamp on its Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market operation. This offers a potential competitive advantage element in the chain's long-term efforts to convince consumers that Fresh & Easy equals healthy, safe and tasty foods.

Free, as in bring in your pink slime ground beef, and get pink slime-free hamburger in return for no charge, is a powerful message and concept, as is the fact the trade out is as easy as meat pie.

Lastly, the creative "pink-slime"-laced ground beef for "pink slime"-free swap out concept has an element of fun to it, which combined with all of the above elements adds power to the event. It's also a good news hook which we are certain the mainstream media will pick up on.

One important caveat though to such promotions: Grocers must be very careful they operate a fully integrated "clean food" operation when they go this route. Why? Because if they don't, they could be caught in a pink slime situation of their own, and having challenged competitors previously with this type of promotion therefore would put them in an extremely vulnerable place should such a thing occur.

We give Tesco's Easy Neighborhood Market high marks across the board - creativity, practical application competitive advantage opportunity, ect., for its ground beef trade out event planned for Wednesday.

Most all grocers who've been using "pink slime" in the ground beef they offer for sale are dropping it. Many have already done so. In our analysis, the rest will do so in the days ahead. After all, what food retailer in its right mind wants to be know as the grocer with the "pink slime"-laced hamburger in its stores?

Therefore, we predict any competitive advantage from the "pink slime" issue will be rather short-lived. Most food retailers are acting rapidly to no longer stock ground beef laced with the garbage. Consumers will forgive, as long as those grocers guarantee their ground beef is now "slime free."

As a result, grocers like Fresh & Easy are wise to strike while the grill is hot because a couple months from now we doubt the topic of "pink slime" will be getting much attention.

Whole Foods' Video Mini-Series Charts One Man's Search For Love in the Aisles Before He Turns 30 On Valentine's Day

I've spent a lifetime looking for you
Single bars and good time lovers, never true
Playing a fools game, hoping to win
Telling those sweet lies and losing again.

I was looking for love in all the wrong places
Looking for love in too many faces
Searching your eyes, looking for traces
Of what.. I'm dreaming of...
Hopin' to find a friend and a lover
God bless the day I discover
Another heart, lookin' for love

- "Lookin' For Love (in All the Wrong Places)," from the movie "Urban Cowboy." View and listen to the soundtrack here.

Whole Foods Market goes to great lengths throughout the year to get shoppers to love its stores.

But from February 8 until Valentine's Day (February 14) the grocery chain's Southern Pacific Region, which includes its stores in Southern California, Southern Nevada and Hawaii, is giving a little of that love back by launching a video mini-series called, "In the Market - An Organic Love Story," which tracks one man's search for romance in the aisles of a Whole Foods' store.

The video mini-series, which is designed to give food and grocery shoppers "that loving feeling" in the week leading up to Valentine's Day, features the romantic adventures of Whole Foods' shopper Ben (pictured at top) who, aided by his pals Alex and Ted, sets out to find his Valentine before he turns 30 on Valentine's Day.

The first episode in the seven-part video mini-series aired February 8 at http://www.wholefoodslovelocal.com/. A new video is being released on the dedicated website everyday, with the final episode airing February 14, Valentine's Day.

In the mini-series Ben pays far more attention to the women walking the aisles of the Whole Foods' store than he does to the grocer's gleaming displays of fresh fruits and vegetables, the tempting displays of fresh baked goods, and even the huge end-cap displays of snacks and craft beers, although all these features serve as important backdrops in his love search.

Ben particularly seems to have his eye on every girl he sees wearing yoga pants, many of whom he attempts to seduce grocery store-style, offering everything from free wine to gourmet meals at his place.

"For many of our shoppers Whole Foods Market isn’t just where they go to grab all the fixings for dinner - it’s where they go to find the ingredients for love," said Andi Dowda, regional marketing coordinator for Whole Foods Market's Southern Pacific Region, in explaining the logic and strategy behind the creation of the video mini-series for Valentine's Day. "And with romance on the mind this time of year, these films are a fun, light-hearted approach to spreading that love for our shoppers to enjoy."

Marketer Dowda also suggests looking  for love, and meeting a potential mate, at a Whole Foods' store has a compatibility angle to it, saying: "Anyone can find love in the most unlikely places. As our character Ben put it, 'if you meet someone in Whole Foods, at least you know you have one thing in common - you both shop at the same store.'"

The character played by John Travolta in the movie "Urban Cowboy" - the song 'Lookin' for Love (in All the Wrong Places)" at the top of this piece - would likely agree with Whole Foods' Dowda.

"In the Market  - An Organic Love Story" is part of a newly-launched series of mini-documentaries called "Love Local," which celebrates the relationships Whole Foods Market’s Southern Pacific region stores have forged with their local partners, team members and customers, Dowda says. (You can view other videos in the series, along with Ben's search for the love of his life before he turns 30, at the website here.)

Whole Foods' operates on a very decentralized structure. It's regional divisions localize product selection (beyond a required core merchandise mix), merchandising and marketing in a way similar to what an independent grocer based in a given community might do. The system works extremely well for natural grocery chain and is a major key to the grocer's success.

Whole Foods Market has 39 of its 317 stores in its Southern Pacific region. There are: 32 units in Southern California, four stores in Southern Nevada, and three units in Hawaii.

The "In the Market - An Organic Love Story" series was produced for Whole Foods' Southern Pacific region division by Omelet, a Los Angeles, California-based branding, advertising and entertainment company.

We've viewed the first four episodes of the series. The videos are well done, and the writing is of a high-quality.

The marketing message is clear: Whole Foods Market is much more that simply a store to buy food and groceries at - it's a shopping experience. In other words, it ties in with Whole Foods' existing image and the extensive marketing effort the grocer puts forth to reinforce and grow that message and the Whole Foods' brand.

Love, romance, Valentines Day and Whole Foods, all tied together as a video mini-series, is also symbolic of the approach Whole Foods Market takes to food retailing, which is best demonstrated from a merchandising perspective by Co-CEO Walter Robb, who has approached natural and organic food retailing in a passionate and one might even suggest somewhat romantic, yet realistic, way for the three-plus decades he's been in the grocery business.

Food retailing as a passion is also an attribute Whole Foods' co-founder and CO-CEO John Mackey, who held the CEO position for nearly 30-years until asking Robb to share it with him in 2010, has built into the Whole Foods Market culture.

In fact, that shared view of food retailing as a passion, with a little romance thrown in, played a big part in Mackey offering to share the CEO position with Robb, who he personally hired in the early 1990's to supervise the construction of, open and manage the Miller Avenue store in Mill Valley, California.

Food retailing as a passion is real at Whole Foods,' rather than being a marketing or public relations slogan. It's a part of the culture, just like the yoga pants are.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday (Valentine's Day), we'll learn if Whole Foods' shopper Ben finds his "Valentine" on his 30th birthday, or if he will remain single, continuing his aisle-by-aisle, produce department and in-store bakery-to-whole body department search for the yoga pants-wearing girl of his dreams. Stay tuned.

Suggested Reading

April 1, 2011: A Natural & Organic Kind of Thing: Finding Love at Whole Foods Market

June 21, 2011: The 'Art' in Food Retailing On the First Day of Summer at Whole Foods Market in New York City's Chelsea District

June 14, 2010: Newly-Named Whole Foods Market CO-CEO Walter Robb Comes Full Circle With the Opening of the New Store in Mill Valley CA.

The 'Earth Fairy' Arrives at Earth Fare to Spread Some Down-to-Earth Holiday Cheer

Meet the Earth Fairy! (teaser) from Earth Fare on Vimeo.

Turkey and Technology -- Grocers, new technologies and holiday promotions

There's arguably no grocer that's better at using video technology and social media to help tell its story, build its brand and promote its stores than North Carolina-based healthy, natural and organic foods-focused supermarket chain Earth Fare, which has 28 stores in North Carolina (9 units), South Carolina (4), Alabama (4), Tennessee (4), Ohio (4), Georgia (2) and Florida (1).

This week Earth Fare launched a new video to introduce the arrival of the Earth Fairy, who also debuted her own Twitter feed today, @TheEarthFairy, where she plans to bring holiday deals, freebies, tips and more to shoppers via the popular social media site.

The video (posted at top) introducing The Earth Fairy is actually a teaser for her upcoming music video titled: "Did You Get What I Got," which breaks December 12, 2012.

Earth Fare says its Earth Fairy holiday goodies maven will be visiting each of its stores, from Monday, December 5 to December 12, bringing those holiday deals, freebies, tips and cheer to shoppers in-person.

We're wondering if Jack is excited to be sharing the video limelight with the Earth Fairy for the December holiday season. Jack (Murphy) is the CEO of Earth Fare and the star of an ongoing series of videos produced by the grocery chain, like the two spots he was featured in here and here in November for Thanksgiving. In the videos the CEO always goes by just plain old Jack.

Jack's been mum so far. But the Earth Fairy just arrived. Therefore, we suspect he may be weighing in with a new Christmas holiday season video soon, perhaps even mentioning the Earth Fairy and her arrival at the fast-growing, down-to-earth natural and organic foods supermarket chain he runs.

Meanwhile, the Earth Fairy is yet another example of Earth Fare's creative use of inexpensive video technology to create excitement among shoppers, help build its brand and promote its stores, in this case for the December holiday season, along with using social media - allowing the Earth Fairy to create her very own Twitter feed - as part of the marketing process and program.

Related Stories in our Turkey & Technology Series

December 1, 2011: Master Chocolate-Maker Tells the Story Behind Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's Holiday Confections

November 29, 2011: Raley's Combining High-Tech and High-Touch Tools to promote its Stores For the Holidays

Master Chocolate-Maker Tells the Story Behind Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's Holiday Confections

Fresno, California-based master chocolate-maker Guy Debbas tells the story behind some of Fresh & Easy's private brand holiday chocolate items in the two-minute video above.

Turkey and Technology -- Grocers, new technologies and holiday promotions

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has combined the age-old tradition of storytelling with digital-video technology (YouTube in this case) to offer shoppers a two-minute look behind the company that's crafting some of its fresh&easy private brand holiday confections.

The video features master chocolate-maker Guy Debbas, who owns artisan chocolate-maker Go Pure Foods in Fresno, California, telling his story, and the story behind how he makes a variety of confectionery products for Fresh & Easy.

In the video, Debbas steps away from his chocolate factory in Fresno after offering a quick tour of the facility and takes a trip to one of Fresh & Easy's seven stores in the Fresno area, where he talks to some of the store's customers about the sweet treats he crafts for the 184-store fresh food and grocery chain, along with offering the shoppers a free taste or two on his dime.

Consumers are increasingly interested in where the food they eat comes from, regardless of the product's brand.

Is it locally-grown or produced? Is it imported from another county? If so, where? In the case of chocolates and coffee particularly, is it Fair Trade? Is it Organic? If not, are a lot of pesticides used in its production?

These are just a few of the numerous questions consumers are asking about the food products, including store brands, grocers are offering for sale.

When it comes to a food and grocery retailer's own-brand products, telling shoppers where the products and the ingredients used to make them come from and how they're produced can be even more important and significant since the names of the companies that produce grocers' private label brand products are generally treated as top-secret information, largely for competitive reasons by the retailers.

For example, Do you know the names of the numerous food companies who make your favorite Trader Joe's branded products? How about just the names of the producers of your two favorite TJ's branded items?

What about knowing the name of the company that produces Safeway Store's O' Organics organic olive oil and the scores of other products under the brand? Do you know? You most-probably don't. It's nearly top-secret. It's also not easy to find out from Safeway.

And, do you know the names of the food companies behind the many other fresh&easy private brand food and grocery products, other than those FResh & Easy Neighborhood Market has in the past highlighted in a similar storytelling way for marketing purposes?

Do you care if some are huge global food companies? Would it please you to know that many are entrepreneurial companies, like Fresno-based confection-maker Go Pure Foods?

Questions, questions.

Today consumers are demanding much more transparency from food retailers when it comes to their own brands. And smart retailers are using this to their advantage, telling the stories behind some of their private brand products, like Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is doing with its holiday confectionery items.

Storytelling is one of the most powerful marketing tools available to retailers, used well of course.

Video technology like YouTube provides retailers with an inexpensive way to tell those stories and potentially reach a whole lot of customers and potential customers, as the two minute video featuring chocolate-maker Guy Debbas telling the story behind some of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's private brand holiday chocolates demonstrates.

Related Stories

November 29, 2011: Raley's Using High-Tech and High-Touch Tools to promote its Stores For the Holidays

November 18, 2011: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Combining Big Seasonal Foods Assortment With Promos and Discounts to Lure Holiday Shoppers

Raley's Combining High-Tech and High-Touch Tools to promote its Stores For the Holidays

Above: Inside the Raley's superstore on Colusa Avenue in Yuba City, California. The 'Raley's Kitchen' in the photo offers in-store, chef-prepared entrees, sides and more, including meats hand-carved to order by the chef. It's part of the extensive deli and fresh-prepared foods offering in the store, which is a category Raley's is noted for. Photo courtesy I-5 design. March 3, 2011.

Turkey & Technology -- Grocers, new technologies and holiday promotions

West Sacramento, California-based Raley's Family of Fine Food Stores is using a combination of high-tech digital and high-touch low-tech tools to create promotions it hopes will drive shoppers into its stores in Northern California and Northern Nevada during the crucial-for-grocers mid-November to December 31 holiday food and grocery sales period.

Text for a discount and chance to win

On November 16 (and running to December 31) Raley's kicked off a promotion in which shoppers are invited to send a text message to the number "678678 Save" in order to receive $10 off any purchase of $100 or more in one of the grocer's Raley's (superstores) Bel Air Markets and Nob Hill Foods (supermarkets). Raley's operates a handful of discount warehouse stores under the Food Source banner. The promotion doesn't apply to the Food Source stores.

After sending the text message, consumers get a confirmation code back, which they give the store clerk at checkout in order to get the $10 discount of their purchase of $100 or more.

Sending the text message also enters shoppers into a contest, which offers the chance to win a free deli party tray.

Raley's is giving away 10 of the deli party trays, which include: two Spinach Dip trays valued at $19.99 each; four deli meat and cheese trays (valued at $29.99); and four Quesadilla Party Trays, which have an estimated value of $44.99, according to the grocery chain.

Participants must be 18-years-old or older in order to enter the text message-based contest.

The drawing for the deli party trays, which is being conducted by the Pocketshop LLC firm for Raley's, takes place December 15. Any remaining prizes will be rewarded on December 31, according to the grocer.

Raley's promoted the send-a-text-for-a-discount promotion and contest on the front page of its November 16-24 weekly advertising circular, which is direct-mailed and inserted in daily newspapers, and distributed to homes throughout Northern California and Northern Nevada.

The grocer also promoted the send-a-text-for-$10-off promo using Twitter's Promoted Tweet program, doing so during the week running up to the Thanksgiving holiday.

Raley's is currently promoting it on its Facebook page, on Twitter and in its stores.

We like the text-for-a-$10-dollar discount for three main reasons.

First, it requires shoppers to do a little work in order to get their $10 discount, unlike merely putting a coupon in the weekly ad circular or posting it online. And since text messaging is so common and popular, it's second nature for consumers to take a few seconds and text for their discount, which helps to ensure a higher participation level (than say sending an e-mail to get the discount) in the promotion and contest because it uses what's become a fast to use and near-ubiquitous digital technology.

Additionally, having shoppers send a text in order to get the $10 off and participate in the contest also has the added marketing benefit of capturing all those phone numbers from which the texts are sent. Such a data base could be used by Raley's in the future, say to send out special text-based promotions our other communications, for example.

Lastly, the text-for-a-deal promotion and contest creates some excitement among shoppers who participate.

It also offers the potential to generate some good word-of-mouth PR for Raley's. For example, it's likely some people sent a text messages to family members and friends telling them about the $10 off deal and the contest, and in turn those folks might have sent text messages to others, sharing the message.

Using social media - Twitter and Facebook - to communicate the promotion also has the potential to create additional virally-spread excitement around it, resulting in even more word-of-mouth buzz for the text message-based promotion.

Retweet to help the hungry

Speaking of social media and creating buzz, on Monday Raley's launched a charitable promotion for its Food For Families program, which donates food and cash to food banks in the communities where it operates its stores.

Using Twitter - both the Promoted Tweets program and its own Raley's feed - along with its Facebook page, the grocer posted this tweet yesterday, November 28: "Giving goes viral! Please RT this message and @raleysstores will donate 25 cents to Food For Families. Visit us here at Facebook."

As the tweet says, for every RT, which stands for retweet and is a way people can share other users' tweets with their followers on Twitter, Raley's is donating 25 cents to its Food For Families program, and thus to the food banks, every time the tweet, and additional ones like it, are retweeted on Twitter.

Like the text message promotion, this donation-backed, cause-related promotion also offers Raley's a solid opportunity to have a considerable amount of buzz created around its brand and stores, along with doing good at the same time. The grocer obviously realizes the potential, as it hopes it's giving offer goes viral.

Raley's also has an additional - and generous - promotion going on for its Food for Families program for the holiday season.

The grocer is offering grocery bags of food for the hungry in its stores for $10 per-bag. Between now and Christmas, for every bag customers buy to donate, Raley's is doubling the offer, donating another $10 bag of groceries to local food banks, for a total of $20.

Shoppers don't even have to visit a Raley's-owned store to donate. They can do so online here, and Raley's will match the donation. The grocer will then donate the groceries directly to the food bank closest to where the person lives.

Free black coffee on Black Friday

On Friday November 25 (Black Friday) Raley's put away the high-tech tools and used old fashion human-power and shoe leather to promote its stores in its hometown Sacramento area, offering a touch of warmth and much-needed caffeine to early-bird holiday shoppers.

We call the approach high-touch, as compared to high-tech.

The privately-held grocer, which has sales of about $3.1 billion annually and is owned by Joyce Raley-Teel (daughter of founder Tom Raley and the company's chairwoman) and headed up by her son, CEO Michael Teel, sent street teams armed with hot cups of Peets Coffee and discount coupons out to numerous jam-packed malls and shopping centers in Sacramento and the nearby cities of Folsom, Roseville and Natomas on Black Friday (and the following Saturday and Sunday).

The Raley's ambassadors armed with free hot coffee and the discount coupons were "warmly" received by the early bird Black Friday shoppers on what was a fairly chilly late night/early morning in the Sacramento region, according to a Fresh & Easy Buzz reader from Sacramento who wrote us and said she was out shopping with her daughters on Black Friday and received a much-appreciated free hot cup of Joe (or in this case Peet) from members of the Raley's street team.

A Christmas tree lighting meets Foursquare 

The street team promotion on Black Friday came just two days before what is a big annual event for Raley's and the Sacramento area.

That event, held the night before Thanksgiving on November 23, is the annual Raley's-sponsored Theatre of Lights Christmas Tree lighting in Old Sacramento, which is an historic and popular part of the city that dates back to the California Gold Rush era of the 1800's. [Kati Garner, a writer for the local Sacramento Press blog has a write up and great photographs of the event, which was attended by over 4,000 people, here]

Raley's Stores, which also uses the Foursquare social media site in addition to Facebook and Twitter, offered consumers a $5 digital coupon if they checked in on their smart phones at its Foursquare home while attending the tree lighting event on November 23.

'Tis the season

The less than two month Thanksgiving through New Year's Day holiday selling season offers a huge opportunity for food and grocery retailers in the U.S. The three holidays are numbers one, two and three respectively in terms of the amount of money consumers spend on food, compared to all other holidays, for example.

But this opportunity, like most do, also comes with challenges, the big one for grocers being the fierce competition out there during this time of year. Every grocer knows, after all, what we just told you, which is that the period from mid-November to the end of December is a time when grocery shoppers are spending big. And each grocery chain wants the majority of those holiday food dollars to be spent in its stores, which generally means heavy promoting.

And, usually, to the victor go the spoils.

Beyond the season

Raley's is currently conducting a number of promotions in addition to those we've highlighted. One of the things the Raley's promotions we've discussed in this piece have in common is that each one also offers a secondary marketing/branding element to them for the chain, although we doubt the grocer planned it that way.

For example, the new-school digital and social media promotions help better brand Raley's as a modern and high-tech savvy of grocer, while the old-school street team event is a reminder of the high-touch aspect of the retailer.

And the generous food drive and assistance program to help the hungry, both in its digital and non-digital aspects, continues to brand Raley's as a caring grocer that helps people in the communities where it has its stores.

Raley's has been struggling financially for the last three or so years. Last year Michael Teel returned as CEO of the 75-year-old-plus family-owned grocer founded by his grandfather and owned by his mother, and has since been leading a reorganization strategy.

It's difficult to know how the plan is working because being closely-held Raley's does not release revenue or profit/loss information. Teel previously was CEO of Raley's in the 1980's-90's. He left to persue a variety of other business interests.

On the cost-cutting side of the balance sheet Raley's has so far gotten by fairly lightly, laying off about 300 people at its corporate headquarters and closing a few stores, in addition to most-recently announcing it will no longer pay health benefits for its retired except employees. Store-level workers, which comprise the vast majority of the grocery chain's employees, belong to the UFCW union. Therefore the move doesn't affect those already retired or future retirees.

As part of the restructuring which began last year when Teel took over as CEO, he flattened the organizational structure, eliminating many senior-level people, including in the marketing, buying and merchandising departments at the corporate headquarters in West Sacramento.

The move seems to have worked in our observation and analysis because since then Raley's marketing, merchandising and promotional activity has gotten not only better but more creative, along with becoming much more aggressive, as evidenced in part by the programs featured in this story.

The retailer has also sharpened its everyday pricing profile since early 2010, along with offering improved promotional prices on the items it advertises in its multi-page weekly advertising circular, among having made a number of other changes for the better.

The competition in Northern California, where the majority of the stores are located, is only going to get tougher, beginning next year, so Raley's will need to, among other things, continue sharpening its pricing pencil, along with continuing down the path it been on for a little over a year in developing, launching and implementing creative and effective promotions, both for the holidays and everyday, in order to meet the new challenges and increased competition coming its way.


[Editor's Note: It's a brave new high-tech, digital, social media world out there for food and grocery retailers. And the new tools offer retailers a myriad of new ways to promote their stores for the holidays. Between now and the end of December we'll be running a number of stories focusing on many of these new technologies, using the theme in the sub-head at the top of this story - Turkey & Technology to identify the stories. This piece about Raley's is our first.]

A Natural & Organic Kind of Thing: Finding Love at Whole Foods Market

Whole Foods Market is famous for offering nearly everything under the sun that's natural and organic, from fresh foods and grocery products to beer, wine and clothing made from organic cotton, all with a focus on customer service.

But despite being a foremost expert in hooking up shoppers with all things natural and organic, Whole Foods Market hasn't in the 30-years it's been around been able to figure out how to offer one of the most natural and organic aspects of life - love - in its 304 stores in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom ... until today.

That's right, today the Austin, Texas-based natural-organic grocery chain is announcing in the must-view video at top that love - a natural and organic process that's a bit harder to explain than organic farming, for example - is now available at Whole Foods Market. And like all things at Whole Foods, finding love is a team effort, even on April Fool's Day.

Employee Creativity Runs Rampant at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's Halloween Great Pumpkin Carve-Off

Halloween is a holiday that employers and employees can and do celebrate in a number of fun and creative "out of the box" ways in the workplace.

For example, there's the employee Halloween costume contest, which can include office "trick or treating," although one has to be careful about the trick part, since everybody has to work together once Halloween is over. Plus, HR likes to keep a close eye on those tricks.

And of course there's what just might just be the most creative Halloween workplace event of all - the pumpkin or Jack O' lantern carving contest, which allows employees or teams of employees to test their creative juices by designing something from a blank slate - a pumpkin or a gourd. Along with being a creative exercise this "out of the gourd" Halloween tradition is also a good team-building - not to mention fun - exercise.

It was just this festive Halloween-themed event, a pumpkin carving contest - the "Fresh & Easy Great Pumpkin Carve-Off," to be precise - that employees who work at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's corporate headquarters office in El Segundo, California engaged in last week, as a lead up to Halloween today.

The employees broke up into numerous teams for the contest. The judges named one first-prize winning team, and four employee teams received runner up honors. All the pumpkins are very creative pieces of work. Since pictures most often speak louder - and in this particular case better - than words, we present the winners below.

"The Pie Man" (above), who by all indications looks to be a Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market shopper and follows the grocer's weekly advertising circular closely, took first place in the pumpkin carve-off contest. It looks like it was a solid (as opposed to custard) team effort.

This Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market headquarters office employee team transformed its pumpkin into a Fresh & Easy fresh food and grocery store, complete with the green "Now Open" sign above the entrance. We aren't sure who the man in front is - perhaps the store manager? But the three-wheel bicycle heading to the "store" is a version of a real three-wheeler Fresh & Easy uses as part of its "green" retailing marketing and promotion.

Similar to the team above, this employee team used its pumpkins (the only team of the five using more than one) as a canvas on which to etch facsimiles of Fresh & easy grocery stores. But as you can see, this team added some mock fresh&easy private brand products as a way to play up its "Haunted Fresh & Easy" store theme. We're betting there were at least a couple Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market buyers/merchandisers on this team, hence the product inclusions.

Our first thought when we saw this photograph was that an executive from Tesco's global headquarters in the United Kingdom was paying a visit to Fresh & Easy's corporate office in El Segundo. The suit does have a Savile Row look to it after all. But on second look we determined it's more likely the "Ghost of Halloween and Christmas Past," based on the combination of the white pumpkin for his head and the Santa hat on top. This team was doing some real "out of the gourd" thinking.

This Fresh & Easy employee team incorporated Fresh & Easy's signature clock logo in its witch-themed design. We wonder if they were shooting for a vote from Tesco director and Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO Tim Mason, who it's said is a huge fan of the clock logo.

Beverage Company Reed's and Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Launch Month-Long Cooperative Radio Advertising Campaign

Listen to the Reed's/Fresh & Easy 30-second radio spot here.

Promotions & Promotional Merchandising

Los Angeles, California-based beverage and natural products company Reed's, Inc. has launched a cooperative radio advertising campaign in Southern California in partnership with Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market for its Reed's Ginger Brew and Virgil's Root Beer.

The radio advertisement is a 30-second spot focusing on a new in-store promotion at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to support literacy. Winners get books donated to their public schools of choice.

The radio advertising campaign, which is a first for Reed's, runs October 27-November 23 on Clear Channel's Los Angeles 104.3 MYfm radio station.

Chris Reed, founder and chairman of Reed's, Inc., says he hopes the radio campaign will reach four million listeners via Clear Channel 104.3 MYfm during its nearly month-long run.

"This is the first time we will advertise our brands on the radio. We’re thrilled to be working with Fresh & Easy and Clear Channel Communications, the largest radio station owner in the U.S. for this media campaign, Reed says. "We are highlighting our relationship and a program with Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market. Their focus on quality and freshness is a perfect fit for Reed’s and Virgil’s all natural beverages with their refreshing, delicious and wholesome great taste. We’re excited to be working with Fresh & Easy as they position themselves to become one of the top supermarket retailers in the United States."

Displays in selected Fresh & Easy stores feature the free books for school promotion, which is being touted in the Reed's/Fresh & Easy radio spot. (Listen to the spot using the link at the top.)

The free books for schools promotion ties-in with Fresh & Easy's 'Shop for Schools' program, which is currently going on in all the retailer's stores.

Reed's, Inc. brews six flavors of its Reed's Ginger Brew soda: Original, Extra, Premium, Raspberry, Cherry, and Spiced Apple. There are four varieties of Virgil’s soda's: Root Beer, Cream Soda, Black Cherry Cream Soda and Real Cola Connoisseur.

The company also makes and markets a variety of other beverages products, including: China Cola, Sonoma Sparkler, Energy Elixir, Reed’s Rx. Reed's also produces and sells Ginger Candy and Ginger Ice Cream.

Reed's Ginger Brew and Virgil's sodas were introduced in the 168 Fresh & Easy stores in California, Nevada and Arizona in August.

The cooperative radio advertising campaign, which is funded by Reed's, along with the in-store free book promotion, is a good example of leveraging external media, in this case radio, with in-store promotional merchandising, which is something we first started suggesting Tesco's Fresh & Easy needs to do on a regular basis about a year and a half ago. (See the stories linked at bottom.)

Beginning this year Fresh & Easy has been doing just that, conducting promotions, including leveraging various media sources with in-store promotional merchandising on a much greater scale than it did in 2008 and 2009, which we've noted in a number of stories in Fresh & Easy Buzz, like those linked below.

Related Stories

October 2, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market and American Express Launch October In-Store Promotion

August 2, 2010: Arizona 'Tweeps' Treasure Hunting in Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's Twitter-Trivia Contest

July 19, 2010: Twitter Trivia + In-Store Treasure Hunt Promo Next Up On the 2010 Promotional Hit Parade at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market

June 23, 2010: Integrated Retail & Twitter Wine Promotion Rates Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market A Gold Medal

February 8, 2010: 'I Taste Therefore I Tweet': Fresh & Easy Set to Hold 'Twitter (Wine) Tasting' Tomorrow Night

May 11, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Promotion Benefits America's Wounded Warriors

April 19, 2010: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Joins Kroger Co. in Holding Earth Month-Earth Day Reusable Bag Design Contest

June 17, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Picks Eight Finalists in its Reusable Bag Design Contest; Website Voting Through June 30

March 23, 2010: Fresh & Easy Kicks Off Three Week 'From Grapes to Gold Medals' Wine Promotion Tomorrow

April 25, 2010: Thousands Get 'Cheesy' at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Co-Sponsored Grilled Cheese Competition in Los Angeles (Note: This promotion was initiated by a Fresh & Easy store manager.)

June 7, 2010: 'Bigmista' Hits the Stores in Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets' Free Barbeque Road Show

July 9, 2010: 'Bigmista' Hits the Road Again For Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's Free Neighborhood BBQ Road Show

September 16, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Launches 2010 'Shop for Schools' Program; Shopping Nights Add Foot Traffic & Sales

Look Out California Happy Cows, A UK Dairy Farm is 'Rapping' About its Contented Cows and the Organic Milk They Produce

'Yeo... Wassup at Yeo Valley?'

The fun, humorous and effective Happy Cow videos and television commercials produced for California dairy farmers just got some serious competition from an organic dairy farm - Yeo Valley Organic - in the United Kingdom.

Yeo Valley Organic, an innovative and sustainable family-owned organic dairy farm and company in England's West Country, has released the world's first rap music video about an organic dairy farm and its organic dairy products - milk, creams, yogurt, fruit compotes, butter, cheese and ice cream.



Since rap was invented in California - west coast - and New York - east coast - now that across the pond Yeo Valley Organic has pioneered the rap genre for milk, we wonder if we'll soon see a rapping

Yeo Valley Organic's milk and organic other dairy products are know for their high quality among British retailers and consumers, and the company's environmental standards are high. Their motto: 'Live in Harmony.' And they refer to the dairy cows as friends.

The rap video, "Yeo Boyz," was shot in...where else, "Yeo Valley."

It stars three hard- working "yeomen" and one "yoewomen," all workers at Yeo Valley Organic.

The video is professionally produced by Canadian rap video director Julien Lutz, who's also known as "Little X."

Lutz says "Yeo Boyz" is the first time he's worked with farmers. See this behind-the-music video in which "Little X" talks about the making of the first ode to organic dairy farming and milk. Producing a rap video, particularly with first-timers, is...well, "yoemen's work." But Lutz has done it well.

We think doing the rap video was an utterly great idea. It's very well done, fun and different. We hope Yeo Valley Organic "milks" it for all it's worth.

Just Like Mr. Rogers Did, Save Mart Supermarkets' Doesn't Just Talk the Talk, it Walks the Walk in the Neighborhood

Modesto, California-based Save Mart Supermarkets is currently running a television commercial (which you can view in the video above), titled, "People in Your Neighborhood," on broadcast and cable TV stations throughout Northern California and the Central Valley - from Bakersfield in the south, up the Central Valley to Modesto, over to Sacramento, and into the San Francisco Bay Area - where the grocery chain has its 244 stores.

The commercial uses the Sesame Street "People in Your Neighborhood" sound track and in many ways takes its inspiration from Mr. Rogers' neighborhood. But it gets it's philosophical and practical grounding from Save Mart's core values - localism, community and neighborhood - along with the grocer's two mission statement-oriented positioning strategies, which are - Save Mart Supermarkets: "Your Life. Your Town. Your Store." and "Save Mart Supermarkets: The People in your Neighborhood."

Watch the 60-second video at top, then read the profile below.

Modesto, California-based Save Mart Supermarkets, which began with a single store in the Central Valley city of 205,000 residents 58-years ago, is today one of the approximately five-largest privately-owned supermarket chains in America. Only a handful of other U.S. family-owned grocery chains - Meijer Inc., H-E-B and Wegmans, for example - have higher annual sales than Save Mart's about $5 billion in yearly revenue.

Save Mart, which is majority-owned by Chairman and CEO Bob Piccinini, who's father Mike and then partner Nick Tocco opened the first Save Mart store in Modesto on January 17, 1952, today operates 244 stores throughout California's vast Central Valley region, in the San Francisco Bay Area, and in Northern Nevada. The chain's banners are: Save Mart, S-Mart Foods, Lucky (supermarkets), and FoodMaxx (discount warehouse stores) banners.

The primary if not sole reason for the existence of the S-Mart banner, which is only used for the grocer's stores in Stockton, California, is because a local, family-owned multi-store independent in Stockton has operated a handful of stores under the Save Mart name in the city since the days of Bob Piccinini's father, Mike. As a result, the families made an agreement long ago that Modesto-based Save Mart Supermarkets would use the S-Mart name on its stores in Stockton for as long as the local family operates there stores of the same name.

Not long after taking over Save Mart as CEO around three decades ago, Bob Piccinini bought out the interest in the company held by the Tocco family and became the majority-owner of what then was a very successful local grocery chain with about 45 stores.

He's been there ever since - although for a time Piccinini gave up the CEO title and focused on real estate acquisition as chairman. But after a number of years he took the CEO title back. These days though Bob Piccinnini has lots of capable help in the day-to-day running of the chain from president and coo Steve Junqueiro.

Save Mart is a self-distributing grocery chain. In addition to its stores, the food and grocery retailing company owns and operates: Smart Refrigerated Transport (perishables distribution/transportation), Yosemite Wholesale Warehouse in Merced (produce distribution), Vacaville Distribution Center, Roseville Distribution Center (both grocery distribution centers), and is a voting partner in Super Store Industries (SSI). SSI owns and operates a distribution center in Lathrop, California near Modesto, Mid Valley Dairy in Fairfield, California, and the Sunnyside Farms ice cream plant in Turlock, which is also near Modesto.

Save Mart's partner in SSI is its competitor, Sacramento, California-based Raley's. Both grocers pull grocery and perishable product from the facility for their stores, in what is a very unique distribution partnership between two competitors. Like Save Mart, Raley's is a family-owned chain. It has sales of about $3.2 billion annually, making it among the largest privately-owned food retailers in the U.S. as well.

A hallmark of Save Mart's success for 58-years has been its lazer-beam like focus on being a part of the communities and neighborhoods it serves with its stores. It was "local" long before local became a food and grocery retailing trend and buzzword. And for 58-years, the word "neighborhood" has been a major part of the Save Mart Supermarkets' name, not on its store signs or stationary - but in its every practice.

If you ask the leader of any community or non-profit organization in Modesto, California, where the chain is based, to name the two businesses they first go to whenever they need assistance of some sort - donations, sponsorships, ect. - they will tell you this: Save Mart Supermarkets and E.J Gallo Winery, which like Save Mart is a family-owned company that calls Modesto home.

It's the same case in an ever-growing way in the other Northern and Central California communities where Save Mart has its stores, including increasingly in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the family-owned grocery chain has only been doing business for just a little over three years.

In 2007, Save Mart CEO Bob Piccinini made the biggest deal in his long career owning and running the supermarket chain - he acquired the 128-store Albertsons chain in Northern California from Albertsons LLC, which was owned by the Cerebrus private equity firm.

The deal nearly doubled Save Mart's annual revenue, and for the first time in the company's history put the grocer into the highly competitive nine-county San Francisco Bay Area market, which has been comtrolled from a market share standpoint by Safeway Stores, Inc. for...well, forever. Albertsons, now rebranded Lucky by Save Mart - its old name in the Bay Area until Albertsons Inc. changed the banner to Albertsons in the 1980's after buying the old Lucky chain from American Stores, Inc. - is (and was then) the number two market share leader in the nine-county Bay Area, home to about 7 million people.

Here's just a sample of the charities, non-profit groups and community organizations Save Mart supports on a regular basis:

MDA, City of Hope, Children's Hospitals, The Salvation Army, American Cancer Society, the Center for Human Services, March of Dimes, American Heart Association, United Way, local food banks, all public and private schools, health agencies in their market areas, and many more local civic organizations.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, and doesn't do justice to the long list of people, groups and organizations the grocer helps. But we don't have enough space in this piece to list all the entities - large, medium and small - the grocer supports in various ways.

If we had to (and apparently we are going to try) sum up the keys to Save Mart's success in a few words it goes something like this:

>Local. To paraphrase the late, long-serving Democratic Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Thomas P 'Tip' O'Neil, who famously said: "All politics is local;" Save Mart's mantra is: "Grocery retailing is local," regardless of how big you get.

>Community and Neighborhood. Save Mart looks at each of its stores not as an extension of the corporation but rather as independent, neighborhood supermarkets that have the added advantage of being a part of a large chain. In other words, the whole can only exists if the sum of its parts serve each of the neighborhoods and communities in which they sell groceries in. Store Directors operate by a strong set of corporate rules. But they also have much more independent ability than their peers at most grocry chains do.

Save Mart's two mission statement positioning lines are: "Your Life. Your Town. Your Store." and "Save Mart Supermarkets: The People in your Neighborhood." The latter being the focus of its current television commercial, which is posted at the bginning of this profile. The grocery chain does an excellent job of having all it does flow from these to premises. They're mission statments and strategic markers, rather than mere positioning elements.

>Tradition. Customer service still reins supreme. And all of the male store clerks are still required to wear a white shirt and a tie, a tradition Mike Piccininni and Nick Tocco started with that first store in 1952. The same dress code applies at Save Mart's corporate headquarters in Modesto.

>Value. Save Mart isn't the low-price leader with its Save Mart and Lucky banner supermarkets, which comprise the vast majority of its 244 units. (It's FoodMaxx discount warehouse format - 45 stores - does position itself as the low-price leader though, including offering to meet any price offered by its competitors.) However, the grocery chain does a great job in delivering value, which although competitive prices must be part of any value equation, aren't the sole indicator.

>Measured Progress. Save Mart has never been the leading innovator in its markets. However it's always been innovative. The grocer innovates though in what we call a measured way, taking into account its core elements - localism, community, neighborhood, tradition and the offering and sustaining of value to its customers.

Based on its 58 year track record, we think Save Mart gets the Mr. Rogers seal of approval for its focus on "the neighborhood" and its extensive efforts in the communities where it does business, while at the same time being able to make a profit selling food and groceries, along with employing thousands of people, paying them excellent wages and offering them top-flight benefits. In fact, that's sort of what "neighborhood" and "community" should be all about in the neighborhood we call America, isn't it?

'Bigmista' Hits the Road Again For Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's Free Neighborhood BBQ Road Show

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's first free BBQ (pictured above) this summer was on June 4 at the Glassell Park store in Los Angeles, California, which is one of the first six Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market stores Tesco opened on November 8, 2007. [Photo credit: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market.]

Promotions & Special Events

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has added nine new store locations to its free summer neighborhood BBQ road show.

Read: June 7, 2010 - 'Bigmista' Hits the Stores in Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets' Free Barbeque Road Show.

At the event's, Bigmista's Barbeque, which is owned and operated by the husband-and-wife team of Neil and Phyllis Strawder, grills an assortment of beef, chicken, sausage and at times other meat items for customers all for free. Various fresh & easy store brand side-dish items are also served with the grilled meats.

All of the stores are in Southern California. The nine stores, and the dates when 'Bigmista" will be grilling up free BBQ for all comers are:

>Friday, July 9, 2010 - 4 pm - 6 pm: Fresh & Easy at Sunrise & Tahquitz, 102 South Sunrise Way, Palm Springs, California

>Friday, July 16, 2010 - 5 pm - 7 pm: Fresh & Easy at Camino Santa Fe & Mira Mesa, 6755 Mira Mesa, San Diego, California

>Saturday, July 17, 2010 - 4 pm - 6 pm: Fresh & Easy, at Catalina & Canon, 955 Catalina Blvd., San Diego, California

>Friday, July 23, 2010 - 5 pm - 7 pm: Fresh & Easy at Moulton & Ridge Route, 23719 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California

>Friday, July 30, 2010 - 5 pm - 7 pm: Fresh & Easy at Rosecrans & Studebaker, 10930 Rosecrans Ave., Norwalk, California

>Friday, August 6, 2010 - 5 pm - 7 pm: Fresh & Easy at Wendy Drive & Old Conejo, 727 N. Wendy Drive, Newbury Park, California

>Friday, August 13, 2010 - 4 pm - 6 pm: Fresh & Easy at Main & Ammunition, 1101 S. Main, Fallbrook, California

>Saturday, August 21, 2010 - 4 pm - 6 pm: Fresh & Easy at Main & Raymond, 2121 W. Main St, Suite 300, Alhambra, California

>Saturday, August 28, 2010 - 4 pm - 6 pm: Fresh & Easy at Tampa & Nordhoff , 19350-A W Nordhoff St, Northridge, California

Neil 'Bigmista' Strawder works the grill on June 4, 2010 at the Glassell Park Fresh & Easy store at 4211 Eagle Rock Blvd in northeastern Los Angeles, California. [Photo credit: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market.]

Good promotional event

In Fresh & Easy Buzz's analysis and opinion, the free BBQ road show is a good promotion by Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market for a number of reasons. Here are four below:

The "neighborhood" aspect of the event ties-in well with Fresh & Easy's mission of being a neighborhood market, for example. As such, the promotional events reinforce that message, in our analysis.

Additionally, the free BBQ's at store-level tie-in well to items Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is promoting for the summer grilling season - fresh meats and poultry, side-dishes, beverages, condiments, fresh produce and other related items.

There are few things better when it comes to promotional events than allowing shoppers to see, smell and taste the products a grocer is promoting in its stores. On that level the events add a sensory - see, touch and taste - element to the food, beverage and non-food items Fresh & Easy is promoting over the summer.

The events also add excitement at store level. 'Bigmista' is a vocal guy and draws people to him. And there's nothing like a little fire to get people's hearts pumping - not to mention the smell of meat and poultry cooking on the grill. When a grocer can draw a crowd around a store, even if many of the folks aren't shopping, it has creates excitement - which often can lead to purchases, if not on that particular day, on another one.

Lastly, it hard to get any better than free when it comes to promotions. And who doesn't love free BBQ. Such events can generate considerable goodwill for a grocer among consumers. Good will is a good thing to create - even if it costs a few bucks in terms of 'Bigmista's' fee and some product for the BBQ's.

In summary, it's our analysis that the store-level free BBQ roadshow promotional event is solid and integrates well into the neighborhood grocer mission of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, as well as the summer grilling season product promotions the grocer is offering in its weekly advertising circular and in-store.

New Fresh & Easy Clock Logo-Shaped Candies Are A Pretty Sweet Idea

Private Brands Showcase: Confections Category

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is introducing a new line of fresh & easy store brand fruit candies (pictured above) in the shape of its clock logo, which it features as part of its corporate logo on all of the "Fresh & Easy" signs on its 159 stores in California, Nevada and Arizona.

The fresh & easy clock-shaped candies are set to be in the stores on July 7.

We don't yet know how the candies taste since they haven't hit store shelves yet - but we like the product concept, in large part because in addition to serving the primary role as a product in the confections category, the line has the potential, at least in concept since it's obviously too early to tell, to serve a secondary function as an incremental branding element for the Fresh & Easy brand, which the clock plays a central role, and should play a greater role, in.

We like dual elements in product design, when they make sense, here at Fresh & Easy Buzz. This one makes sense.

The clock has the potential to be a strong branding element for Fresh & Easy if marketed well, in our analysis.

Regarding the clock as branding element, here's a suggestion: Have a bunch of those temporary tatoos kids love so much made up in the F&E clock design. Give them out to children in the stores as premiums for various occasions like grand openings, special events, or just semi-regularly for fun. It's simple. But we think it would serve as a part (elements of that incrementalism) of a whole in terms of various and multiple tactics as part of an overall strategy to build the brand, using the clock as a key element.

And besides, who've been told that at least one, and perhaps more than one, member of the Tesco Fresh & Easy corporate family has an actual, not temporary, tattoo of the F&E clock on their body. That's what we call real "branding."

[Private Brands' showcase is a semi-regular feature of Fresh & Easy Buzz. In it we highlight various Fresh & Easy private brand - and private brands from other grocers - products: the good, the bad and the ugly, offering analysis and commentary on the brands, items and related aspects.]

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Spent $7.5M on Radio Advertising in Q1 2010; A Nine-Fold Increase Over 2009

Fresh & Easy Buzz first suggested in this February 21, 2008 piece that Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market should launch a targeted, spot radio advertising campaign, combined with outdoor media like billboards. [click here to read other past posts on the topic.]

In September 2009, Fresh & Easy did just that, launching a series of radio ads (and billboards) in parts of Southern California, Metropolitan Las Vegas, Nevada and Metro Phoenix, Arizona, the three markets where its stores were located. Since then the grocer has added the Bakersfield and Fresno metro-markets in California to its current portfolio of 159 stores.

The radio spots feature "real customers" telling brief stories about why they shop at Fresh & Easy stores. You can listen to one of the Fresh & Easy radio ads featuring "Vinnie" here, and another featuring "Kim" here.

$7.5 million Q1 2010 ad-spend for Fresh & Easy

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market ran a rather moderate flight of radio spots from September 2009 to the end of 2009, the first quarter in which the grocery chain launched its radio advertising program. According to the Radio Advertising Bureau, the industry trade group which among other things tracks how much companies and other organizations spend on radio ads, says Fresh & Easy spent just $783,000 on radio advertising in the three markets mentioned above.

However, Fresh & Easy's radio advertising expenditures exploded in the first quarter of 2010 (ended in April 2010), according to a new report by the trade industry organization.

In the first quarter of 2010, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market spent $7.5 million on radio advertising - nearly a nine-fold dollar increase from the 2009 period - according to the study conducted for the Radio Advertising Bureau by the accounting firm of Miller, Kaplan, Arase & Co. All the numbers in the study are in quarter-to-quarter revenue comparisons.

That's a mega-increase for Tesco's Fresh & Easy. United Kingdom-based Tesco, Fresh & Easy's parent company, reported its fiscal year 2009/10 sales and profit numbers on April 20, 2010. [April 20, 2010: Strong Group Revenue & Profit For Tesco... But $253 Million Loss at Fresh & Easy]

Tesco's 2009/10 fiscal year ended on February 27. As such, Fresh & Easy's sales (and loss) numbers in the story linked above represent two months of that $7.5 million in radio advertising spending - January and February - with two months - March and April - not being accounted for in the Radio Advertising Bureau report, which is for first quarter 2010 radio ad spending.

Tesco is projecting a loss for Fresh & Easy in its 2010/11 fiscal year, which ends in early 2011, of about the same amount, in the $250 million range. Therefore it appears last year's sales and loss figures, and the 2010/11 sales and projected loss figures, include the $7.5 million in radio advertising Fresh & Easy has spent so far this year, plus whatever additional amount it will spend in the remaining months, from May -to- December 2010.

In the April 20, 2010 sales and earnings report, Tesco CEO Terry Leahy said he expects an overall sales increase of 50% in fiscal year 2010/11, over fiscal year 2009/10. This increase includes the opening of 50 new stores.

Based on the data supplied by the Radio Advertising Bureau, we can now also see the prediction by CEO Leahy includes a very healthy increase in radio advertising spending by Fresh & Easy, from a mere $750,000 in September-December 2008, to the $7.5 million in just the first four months of 2010. It will be interesting to see if Tesco's Fresh & Easy maintains this level of spending radio advertising for the rest of the year.

If they do maintain this level, or even 60% of it, and don't achieve the estimated 50% sales increase in 2010/11, over 2009/10, predicted by CEO Leahy, it will be a very poor sign of performance for Fresh & Easy, in our analysis, since combined with the grocer's opening of 50 new stores in this fiscal year, it's regular use of the 20% off ($6 off purchases of $30, ect) store coupons, it's weekly promotional advertising circulars, outdoor media (billboards) advertising program, and other marketing and merchandising expenditures, it should easily be able to achieve that 50% year-to-year overall sales increase predicted in April of this year by Mr. Leahy.

Competitors, other grocers up radio ad spending budgets

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market wasn't the only food and grocery chain spending big dollars on radio advertising in the first quarter of 2010. In fact, a number of its competitors in California, Nevada and Arizona, saw their respective first quarter national (not just in the three states) radio ad-spends increase significantly as well.

For example, Walmart Stores, Inc., the number one retailer of food and groceries in the U.S., increased its corporate spending on radio advertising by a whopping 74%, to $13.7 million. Note though that Fresh & Easy spent well over half ($7.5 million) of what Walmart spent ($13.7 million), even though Fresh & Easy only has gross annual U.S. sales of about $450 million, while Walmart had 2009 U.S. sales of $258 billion, about 51% of it in food and groceries, in 2009.

Fresh & Easy competitors Safeway Stores, Inc. and Kroger Co. also saw substantial increases in the amount of money they spent on radio advertising in the first quarter of 2010, according to the Radio Advertising Bureau's study.

Safeway, which ranks overall as Radio’s fourth-largest Q1 2010 advertiser at $60.5 million, increrased its corporate spend by over 63% from 2009. Safeway operates about 1,300 stores in the U.S. and Canada, including over 600 Vons, Vons Pavilions and Safeway banner supermarkets in California, Nevada and Arizona.

Kroger, the third-largest food and grocery retailer in the U.S. after Walmart and Costco Wholesale increased its radio advertising spending by 14% , for a total of $27.7 million, in Q1 2010, over 2009. Kroger operates about the same number of stores as does Safeway in California, Nevada and Arizona. Its banners in the three states where Tesco's Fresh & Easy has its 159 stores are: Ralphs and Food 4 Less (Suthern California, southern Nevada) Smith's Food & Drug (Nevada) Fry's Supermarkets (Arizona) and FoodsCo (Northern and Central California).

Supervalu, Inc., which operates the Albertsons supermarkets in Southern Caliornia and southern Nevada, increased its national radio ad-spend by 4%, to $13.7 million.

Lastly, but far from least, iconic specialty grocery chain Trader Joe's increased the amount of dollars it spends on radio advertising significanly in the first quarter of 2010. TJ's, which many would suggest needs no radio advertising, spent $7.1 million on radio spots from January -to-April of this year, a 29% increase over 2009. Trader Joe's is headquartered in Southern California. The highest percentage of its about 315 stores are located in California.

Three other grocery chains, neither with stores in California, Nevada or Arizona at present, rounded out the top grocer radio advertising spenders for Q1 2010:

>Aldi USA, which has about 1,100 stores in the Midwest, Texas, Florida and the eastern U.S., had a huge radio ad-spend increase in percentage terms, buying $3.1 million worth of radio spots in the first quarter of this year, compared to a spend of just $119,000 in the 2009 period.

>A&P Supermarkets increased its spending on radio advertising six-fold, to $5.1 million in the first quarter, over the 2009 period.

>Meijer, which operates mega-combination grocery and general merchandise stores similar to Walmart's supercenters, increased its radio ad-spend in Q1 2010 by a whopping 53%, spending $3.2 million.

Big rise in radio ad-spending a positive economic sign

The Radio Advertising Bureau says the first quarter of 2010 delivered the best results in quarter-to-quarter radio advertising revenue comps since the first quarter of 2007, with a
6% overall increase to $3.687 billion in spending. In fact, the gain represents the highest posted in nearly a decade, the trade groups report notes.

The bureau says the substantial first quarter increased radio ad spending suggests in its analysis a significant improved in the overall U.S. economy because historically when the group tracks such significant spending bumps it means not only that the economy is on the mend but that businesses have increased confidence and therefore are willing to spend more of their marketing budgets on consumer-focused advertising rather than devoting nearly all of it on promotions, as have been the case during much of the recession.

Fresh & Easy on the radio

For Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, its $7.5 million worth of radio ad spending in the first quarter should have allowed it to achieve at least some increased awareness in its markets. $7.5 million can buy a considerable amount of ad impressions over four months.

We've recently heard radio ads for Fresh & Easy in Southern California, southern Nevada and Metro Phoenix, Arizona, which means the grocer is continuing running the spots. It will be interesting to see if the fresh foods and grocery chain maintains the frequency of radio advertising it started the year out with for the rest of 2010.

'Bigmista' Hits the Stores in Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets' Free Barbeque Road Show

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is taking its free summer barbeque road show to three stores in the next two weeks, one each in California's Central Valley, Las Vegas and Phoenix, Arizona, following its first store-level event on June 4 at its Fresh & Easy grocery market in Los Angeles' Glassell Park neighborhood, at 4211 Eagle Rock Boulevard. [See a selection of photos from that event here.]

See our June 3 story: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Teams Up With The Los Angeles Dodgers in 'Game & Grill Sweepstakes' Promo

At the event's, Bigmista's Barbeque, which is owned and operated by the husband-and-wife team of Neil and Phyllis Strawder, grills an assortment of beef, chicken, sausage and at times other meat items for customers, all for free. Various fresh & easy store brand side dish items are also served with the grilled meats.

Here's what's on tap and where it's happening:

>Fresh & Easy, Shaw & Willow, Clovis, California. Date: Friday, June 18, 2010, 5-7 p.m. Address: 790 West Shaw Avenue, Clovis, CA

>Fresh & Easy, Fort Apache & Desert Inn, Las Vegas, Nevada. Date: Saturday, June 19, 2010, 4-6 p.m. Address: 9475 W. Desert Inn Road, Las Vegas, NV

>Fresh & Easy, West Indian School & 7th Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona. Date: Saturday, June 26, 2010, 4-6 p.m. Address: 635 West Indian School Road, Phoenix, AZ

During the time periods listed above at each store - as supplies last - Grill Master Neil 'Bigmista' Strawder serves up free barbeque to all comers.

Strawder has gained a reputation in Southern California as the "go to guy" for barbeque - be it ribs, chicken or brisket. In addition to doing events for Tesco's Fresh & Easy, Bigmista and his wife and partner Phyllis also do serious barbeque business at Southern California farmers markets, operate a food truck and do catering. The couple's website is here.

The free summer barbeque road show is a way for Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to promote its 14 varieties of "grill packs," which are packaged fresh meat items featuring various meats, including combinations like its chicken, pork sausage and quarter-pound beef patty combo pack.

The grocery chain also introduced eight new value-added grill pack items right before the beginning of the Memorial Day grilling season. It's currently promoting those items, along with the other grill packs, in its stores. [May 16, 2010: Two Grocers, Fresh & Easy and Raley's Offer Two Very Different Approaches to Ready-to-Grill Fresh Meat Merchandising]

Additionally, Fresh & Easy has launched a summer grilling season sweepstakes promotion with the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, which ties into its store-level free barbeque road show. [Read our story on the promotion - June 3, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Teams Up With The Los Angeles Dodgers in 'Game & Grill Sweepstakes' Promo.]

Interesting, the tie-in conclusion is our reporting, not from Fresh & Easy. The grocer hasn't tied the two events into a marketing message, nor publicized it as such, despite the fact it's an excellent summer promotional event waiting for a marketing person at the grocery chain to put some effort into. It would be a real missed opportunity not to combine the related events and promote them comprehensively in order to create real excitement (and incremental sales) and get all the bang for the buck out of the promotional expenditures as possible, in our analysis and opinion. Perhaps it's coming?

Meanwhile, who doesn't love free barbeque? The answer: Hardly anyone - although vegans might like some grilled veggies to be available. Therefore, we suggest 'Bigmista' stock up for his road show next week, and get a little rest before it starts.