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.]

Editorial: How Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO Tim Mason Can Fix the 'Side by Side' Wine Promotion FUBAR

Displays of "Side by Side" wines, like the one pictured in the photograph above which was taken in a Fresh & Easy market in Southern California on June 16, are now being built in the grocer's stores.

Standing 'Side by Side'

On May 24, 2011 Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market advertised a new wine brand - "Side by Side" - in two varieties - Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay - for $5.99 bottle, in its "friends of fresh & easy" promotional flyer (view here), which is e-mailed to customers who sign up for the "friends" program.

As part of the promotion - which hasn't happened until now because there hasn't been any "Side by Side" wine in the stores - Fresh & Easy is donating $1 for each bottle of wine sold to the Azalea Charities' "Aid For Wounded Warriors" program.

On May 25 we wrote this story - 'Side by Side': Wine at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Aids America's Wounded Warriors - about the new wine brand and the promotion, which was targeted to begin on May 24-25, leading up to the Memorial Day weekend and holiday, the following Monday, May 30.

Beginning two days after we published our story, it started getting comments (see here) from readers saying they couldn't find the "Side by Side" wines in Fresh & Easy stores.

After getting a few such comments, we checked the situation out and couldn't find the wine in any of the stores we called or checked on in person.

We also put out a message to the numerous Fresh & Easy store workers who read the blog, asking them about the availability of the "Side by Side" wine with the donation to the wounded warriors' program. Not one of the employees had even heard about the wine brand, telling us it wasn't in the stores where they work.

Over the Memorial Day weekend Fresh & Easy Buzz correspondents checked numerous additional Fresh & Easy stores in California, Nevada and Arizona. No "Side by Side" wine in any of the grocery stores.

Memorial Day came and went and none of the 175 Fresh & Easy stores had the "Side by Side" wine in stock."

In fact, it wasn't until Tuesday (June 14) or Wednesday (June 15) that the first stores started receiving the wine, which is three weeks after Fresh & Easy advertised it in the May 24 "friends of fresh & easy" e-mailer.

We got a heads up from a good source on June 16 that the "Side by Side" wine was being shipped to the stores.

We checked a number of stores on Thursday and today, and all of them we checked had the wine, featured in the stores' wine departments on tower displays like the one at top, which is in a Southern California Fresh & Easy grocery market.

We aren't going to go into the details of what we've learned about the screw up because it doesn't make all that exciting of reading.

But its safe to say Fresh & Easy's corporate marketing and buying departments committed what the U.S. Military, which created the term, and others call a FUBAR.

A grocer shouldn't advertise a product, particularly when its one being promoted as a way to help wounded warriors, unless it has the product in the stores.

Such things can happen, of course. And if it was two or three days between the time the advertisement came out and the product hit the stores it wouldn't be a FUBAR. Instead it would be a mistake of a lessor magnitude.

But that's not the case. It's been three weeks from the time Fresh & Easy advertised the "Side by Side" wine and the product is starting to arrive in the stores.

Had the "Side by Side" wine been available during the week leading up to Memorial Day when it was advertised, we suspect shoppers, seeing that $1 a bottle is being donated to the wounded warriors' charitable organization, would have, because military service members are very top-of-mind leading up to Memorial Day, bought a considerable amount of the wine as a way to do their part to help the cause and wounded warriors, while at the same time getting some wine for the three day weekend.

The "Side by Side" wine is now available, at least in the stores we've checked and verified. That's good news in terms of its starting to generate some donation money via sales for the Azalea Charities' "Aid For Wounded Warriors" program.

But the non-profit group that helps wounded warriors and their families is out three weeks' worth of donations from sales of the wine because of Fresh & Easy's corporate headquarters FUBAR.

Therefore, we suggest Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's CEO, Tim Mason, who's also the deputy CEO of Tesco and its chief marketing officer, make things right by making a donation in the name of Fresh & Easy to the Azalea Charities' "Aid For Wounded Warriors" program.

We think a corporate donation of about $3,000 would be fair to make up for the three weeks' of lost sales between the time (May 24, 2011) the "Side by Side" wine was first advertised in the "friends of fresh & easy" e-mailer and this week, when the wine finally started arriving in the stores.

Why $3,000? It represents average sales of 5-6 bottles of "Side by Side" wine per-store, per-week between May 24 and June 15, which we think is a fair average sales assumption, considering it's likely sales of the wine would have been brisk from May 24-May 30, had it been in stores that week leading up to Memorial Day, which was May 30.

Mr. Mason might also suggest to the senior executives responsible for the "Side by Side" wine FUBAR that they reach into their pockets and pony up a donation of $100 or more to the good folks at the organization that helps wounded warriors. If they do so, they'll remember next time to be bit more careful and not advertise a product that's not available to ship to the stores until three weeks later. In fact, as CEO Mason could set an example for them by making a similar donation out of his pocket to the Azalea Charities' "Aid For Wounded Warriors" program.

Making the 3,000 corporate donation would be a good way for Mason and Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to demonstrate it's standing "Side by Side" with the Azalea Charities' "Aid For Wounded Warriors" program and the wounded warriors' and their families the no-profit organization helps.

Kroger Co. Aiming to Raise $5 Million For Hunger Programs With Promotion and Campaign

Grocers Doing Good

Food and Grocery retailing company Kroger's two- week Bringing Hope to the Table chain-wide promotion and fundraising campaign to raise millions of dollars for Feeding America food banks across America is into its second week. The program started May 29 and ends June 11.

Kroger Co., which is the second-largest retailer of food and groceries in the U.S. after Walmart Stores, Inc., says its goal in the two-week campaign is to generate a whopping $4.5-$5 million worth of financial and food product donations for over 80 Feeding America food banks in regions and cities where its numerous grocery chains are located, including in California, Nevada and Arizona, where Tesco has its 175 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market stores.

All of the retailer's grocery chains in California - Ralphs and Food 4 Less in Southern and Central California; Foods Co. in Northern California - Arizona - Fry's Food Stores - and Nevada - Smith's and Food 4 Less - are participating in the program and promotion, along with all its other divisions and chains located throughout the U.S. (Kroger's Los Angeles-based Food 4 Less chain also has stores in Illinois and Indiana.)

Vendor Partners

The May 29-June 11 promotion is a partnership between Kroger and a number of its vendors, including Kraft Foods, General Mills, Pepsi/Frito-Lay, Clorox Co. and others, including the brands and products pictured above.

How it works: Products from these consumer packaged goods companies are identified on shelves throughout the stores with the Bringing Hope to the Table yellow shelf talkers pictured below. When shoppers purchase these brands and items, the companies make a donation as part of Kroger's campaign to raise money for Feeding America and its local food banks.

Additionally, the participating vendors are also supporting the Kroger campaign financially by giving money when shoppers download certain digital coupons from Kroger's website, as you can see here.

Kroger Co. has also set up a special website (here) where individuals can locate and make a donation to their local Feeding America food bank, using the form on this page.

The two-week Bringing Hope to the Table promotion is part of Kroger's (and its associates) on-going campaign and commitment to raising money and food donations for Feeding America and it food bank network.

For example, in Southern California employees of Kroger's Ralphs' chain visit a local Feeding America food bank in San Diego twice each month to fill bags of food for the BackPacks program for children. The kids take the free backpacks filled with food home with them as a way to ensure there's enough food on the table, not only to bring them hope but to fill their stomachs and help keep them alert at school.

Additionally, each year on the weekend before the famous Rose Bowl parade in Pasadena, California, employees of Kroger's Ralphs' and Food 4 Less chains in Southern California participate in  "Operation Gobble Gobble," which is the city of Pasadena's annual holiday hunger outreach project.

The program annually provides full holiday meals for about 400 local families. The Ralphs' and Food 4 Less stores in Southern California donate turkeys, stuffing mix, vegetables and pumpkin pies for each of the meals. In addition, numerous associates volunteer their time along with other community members to fill the food boxes and distribute them to the participating food banks and pantries.

Employees at a number of Kroger's other U.S. grocery chains are donating their time to help the hungry just like the associates in Southern California are.

Ralphs' president Mike Donnelly says the Southern California food banks benefiting from the Bringing Hope to the Table campaign are: Feeding America San Diego; FIND (Indio); Food Bank of Santa Barbara County; Food Share (Oxnard); Los Angeles Regional Foodbank; Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County; and Second Harvest Food Bank Serving Riverside and San Bernardino Counties.

Last year Ralphs-Food 4 Less combined provided over $4 million in financial and food assistance to local food banks in the states and regions where its stores operate, according to Donnelly.

According to Kroger Co., all its chains combined provided about $11.5 million in financial assistance and more than 65 million pounds of food to local food banks in 2010.

Kroger Co. has also been operating a food rescue program since 2008, called the Perishable Donations Partnership (PDP). Under the program, the retailer's supermarket chains can donate fresh meat, produce, dairy and bakery items that can no longer be sold to local food banks.

Last year the PDP program resulted in millions of pounds of perishable food that otherwise would have been thrown away being donated by Kroger-owned chains to the food banks.

Last year, Kroger raised about $4 million - $3 million in cash and $1 million in food product donations - in its two-week Bringing Hope to the Table promotion and campaign. [Read our June 10, 2010 story here: Kroger Co. Launches Two-Week 'Bringing Hope to the Table' Campaign; Commits $4 Million to 'Feeding America'.]

Over the last decade Kroger Co. says it has donated the equivalent of 560 milon meals to food banks in the parts of the U.S. were its supermarket chains and stores operate.

That, and all the above, is an example of a "Grocer Doing Good" on a significant and meaningful scale.

Click here to learn more about Kroger's Bringing Hope to the Table campaign.

Below are a few facts about hunger and food insecurity in America from Feeding America:

>37 million American's don’t know where they'll get their next meal.
>14 million of them are children
>3 million of them are senior citizens.
>36% of these households have one or more working adults.
>48% of these households are in rural and suburban areas.

 Click here to learn more at Feeding America's website.

'Side by Side': Wine at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Aids America's Wounded Warriors

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is offering something extra as part of the introduction of its new "Side by Side" brand Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay wines this week.

For each bottle of wine sold, the grocer is donating $1 to Azalea Charities' "Aid For Wounded Warriors" program, which helps U.S. soldiers who've been wounded or injured in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The wine is being introduced in Tesco's 175 Fresh & Easy stores in California, Arizona and Nevada this week and is priced at $5.99 bottle, $1 of which goes to the fund to aid the wounded warriors.

The non-profit group assists soldiers who've been wounded or injured in Afghanistan and Iraq in variety of ways.

For example, the all-volunteer organization purchases specific items weekly for the wounded warriors, at the request of U.S. Military and Veterans Administration Medical Centers and Fisher House rehabilitation  facilities throughout the country. Many of the items bought are things not provided to the men and women as part of their military and veterans' medical care.

The Azalea Charities' project, which is based in Northern Virginia near the nation's capital, also provides financial support to the CrisisLink Program, which is a telephone hot line for the wounded warriors and their families.

You can learn more about Azalea Charities' "Aid for Wounded Warriors" program here. There's also a link at the page that can be used to make an online donation.

We're approaching Memorial Day weekend, which includes cookouts and picnics but is really about honoring those who've made the ultimate sacrifice for their county.

We honor their families as well on Memorial Day, along with all those still living who've served.

And among those who've served and are still living, as a people and country we owe more to them than we're currently giving, particularly those wounded warriors who seldom if ever complain - in fact many want to get back to Afghanistan or Iraq and rejoin the brothers and sisters they left there - and define the term the "American Spirit."

We invite those of you reading this to join us in making a donation this week to whatever organization helping wounded warriors or veterans you choose.

For example, along with Azalea Charities' wounded warrior assistance program, there's the "Wounded Warrior Project," which offers a myriad of programs and services to aid wounded warriors and their families, as you can learn about at the group's website here.

Most of us can afford to donate $10, $20 or more to programs helping those who've served and were wounded or injured doing so.

There's no better time to help than now, a few days before Memorial Day.

If you don't think you can afford a small donation, look at it this way - just spend $10 or so less at the grocery store (sorry grocers) while stocking up for your backyard cookouts and Memorial Day picnics this weekend. Then donate that $10 or so to one of the two wounded warrior assistance programs mentioned in this story, or to any other organization assisting active duty soldiers or veterans.

Take our word for it, in the grand scheme of things doing so will make you feel even better than having that extra beer or two, second hamburger or hot dog and extra serving of dessert this weekend will.

And with the money you saved buying (and eating) a little bit less at the grocery store for your weekend party, you'll have enough to donate whatever amount you can afford to help those Americans who should be on our minds and in our thoughts not only on Memorial Day but throughout the year.

Gluten-Free at Fresh & Easy For Celiac Disease Awareness Month

The Celiac Disease Foundation has chosen this month as Celiac Disease Awareness Month, and throughout May is doing a variety of things to shine a spotlight on the condition in which people who suffer from it are unable to tolerate gluten and therefore should avoid any and all foods that contain it

Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley and rye. People with Celiac Disease are intolerant to gluten and must remove it from their diets. It's estimated that in the United States about one in seven people are gluten-intolerant. Celiac Disease affects over 3 million Americans, according to research reports.

You can learn more about the condition and Celiac Disease Awareness Month at the foundation's website here.

Tesco's Fresh  Easy Neighborhood Market is taking positive advantage of May being Celiac Disease Awareness Month to announce it's added 15-30 new food items without naturally-occurring gluten ingredients to its stores.

In the announcement, which you can read here, Fresh & Easy also said it's "creating additional displays" to highlight the range of gluten-free products, which it says equal 500-plus SKUs, in its 175 fresh food and grocery stores in California, Nevada and Arizona.

Tesco' Fresh & Easy, as are a number of other food and grocery retailers, has partnered with the Celiac Disease Foundation to help the organization shine that spotlight on the condition and how living a gluten-free lifestyle can improve it.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market offers a guide, which you can view here, to the products it offer in its stores that are gluten-free.

The grocer also identifies its gluten-free offerings in the stores with the shelf-talker sign pictured at the top.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Launches New Meat, Poultry, Veggie 'Grill-Pack' Items; 'Bigmista' Going 'On the Road Again'

Private brands, promotional merchandising and adding value (and margin) to food items

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is launching 26 new marinated and ready-to-grill beef, pork, poultry and vegetarian items under the fresh&easy "Let's Grill" brand in its 175 stores in California, Nevada and Arizona in advance of the upcoming summer grilling season.

The new "grill-pack" items, which contain no artificial colors, flavors, high-fructose corn syrup or added trans fats (some have preservatives though) are an expansion of an existing line of "grill-pack" meat items Fresh & Easy offers in its stores.

The new 26-SKU "Lets Grill" line ranges from meat items like Peppered Beef Filet Tips, Ginger and Garlic Petite Sirloin steak, Adobo Beef Steaks, Pollo Asado and Stuffed Red Bell Peppers, to Southwestern-Style Pork Tenderloin, Sausage & Vegetable Brochettes, Tequila & Orange Chicken, Stuffed Portabello Mushrooms and Tangy Tomato Meatball Kabobs.

The retail price-points for the new "grill-pack" items noted above range from a low of $3.99 - Pollo Asado - and $4.99 - Stuffed Red Bell Peppers - to $8.99 for the Peppered Beef Fillet Tips.  A number of the items are being offered at a mix and match price of 2/$5.49, based on purchasing a minimum of two SKUs.

You can view all 26 of the new "fresh&easy "Let's Grill" items, along with the retail prices, here.

As part of the introduction of the 26 new "grill-pack" items, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market said today Neil Strawder, who's known around grilling circles in Southern California as "Bigmista," will be going on the road to various stores again this year, as he did in 2010, offering summer grilling tips - and free BBQ - to Fresh & Easy customers.

Fresh & Easy hasn't announced which stores the grill-master will be visiting first or when his road show will begin. But, according to our sources, the first store barbeque will be in early June, with a series of other store cookouts happening throughout the month and into July and August. At the events held outside the stores, Fresh & Easy serves free barbeque and side-dishes to all who attend.

"Bigmista" recently competed in "The Ultimate BBQ Showdown." The event is being broadcast on CBS May 28th (Memorial Day weekend).

Strawder, who's sworn to secrecy about who won, competed against fellow grill masters Myron Mixon, Tuffy Stone and Bubba Latimer - great names all. The winner receives the "Kingsford Cup" (as in the charcoal briquet brand from consumer products-maker and marketer Clorox Co.) and a cash prize - along with bragging rights, of course.

We reported on and wrote about Strawder's store tour last year. Read those stories here - June 7, 2010: 'Bigmista' Hits the Stores in Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets' Free Barbeque Road Show; and July 9, 2010: 'Bigmista' Hits the Road Again For Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's Free Neighborhood BBQ Road Show.

In our June 7 and July 9, 2010 stories we complimented Tesco's Fresh & Easy for coming up with the "Bigmista" road show. However, we offered what we felt was a well-deserved critique of the grocery chain's marketing head and department for not promoting the events in any significant way, which they didn't.

Our critique included noting here that Fresh & Easy missed a perfect opportunity to tie-in the grill-pack items it was promoting at the time and Strawder's store road show with a promotion the grocery chain was doing with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Read about that promotion here - June 3, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Teams Up With The Los Angeles Dodgers in 'Game & Grill Sweepstakes' Promo.

Fresh & Easy tied-in the launch of the 26 new grill-pack items with "Bigmista's" road show in the press release it issued today though, something it didn't do last year, which shows it's learning, as well as perhaps reading Fresh  & Easy Buzz closely.


Neil 'Bigmista' Strawder at the grill on the Fourth of July 2010 at the Fresh & Easy store on Eagle Rock Boulevard in Los Angeles' Glassell Park neighborhood.

The ready-to-grill vegetarian items are a new addition to the grill-packs for Tesco's Fresh & Easy, having focused on beef, pork and poultry previously.

Speaking of our 2010 stories, we suggested in this one on June 7 that adding some vegetarian options to its "grill-pack" line would be a good idea for the grocer to do.

Here's what we said in the last paragraph of our June 7, 2010 piece: "Meanwhile, who doesn't love free barbecue? 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."

Fresh & Easy has done just that - adding vegetarian options to its "grill-pack" line less than a year later.

Our humor columnist, Earl Grey, also offered his unique take on the subject back on January 29, 2009, shortly after Tesco's Fresh & Easy introduced its first meat "grill packs." Read his piece at: Earl-Grey-At-Large: Fresh & Easy Buzz's Sometime Humor Columnist Drops in For A Bit Of Pre-Super Bowl Musing On 'Carnivores' V. 'Vegetarians.'

The 175-store fresh food and grocery chain has also launched six different salad kits, which you can see here, to tie-in with the ready-to-grill items.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is planning to introduce additional items to the "Let's Grill" line this summer, according to our sources. The first new SKUs should hit the stores in June, our sources tell us, followed by a few more in the July-August period.

The already-marinated, ready-to-grill meats and veggies, which can be prepare either on an outdoor grill, grill pan on the stove, or in one of the ubiquitous electric grills (George Foreman anyone?) found in nearly every kitchen in America, are part of a trend we call "ready to cook," which means everything is done for the consumer, all he or she has to do is grill it, fry it, or pop it in the oven.

"Ready-to-cook" differs from "ready-to-heat" because in the latter case all a person has to do is warm the food product - entree, side-dish - up in a microwave or conventional oven. In contrast, with "ready-to-cook," consumers have to put in slightly more effort, such as making sure they don't over or under cook the meat, poultry or vegetable items.

U.S. grocers and butcher shops have been adding value to meat items for over 30-years,

And from a merchandising and margin perspective, that's exactly what Tesco's Fresh & Easy (and all grocers) is aiming for by offering the value-added meat, poultry and veggie items.

Fresh & Easy can sell the marinated steaks, chicken, pork and veggies for a much higher price, without a huge expense because the marinades and seasonings don't cost much, than it does the same items in their natural state. The desired result: A higher gross margin on the items, which Tesco hopes, along with other efforts it's making, will help lift its operating margin for Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market from its current negative-38% to at least plus-1% as soon as possible.

To put Fresh & Easy's negative-38% margin in perspective, it's difficult t find a U.S. grocery chain or independent that's profitable without a margin that's a least a positive-20%.

And Whole Foods Market, which Tesco's Fresh & Easy positions itself against with the marketing tag-line - "wholesome food that doesn't cost your whole paycheck" - currently has a positive-36% margin, the highest among all U.S. grocery chains.

Fresh & Easy has fun with the Whole Foods "Whole Paycheck" ad slogan - a nickname people are using for the super-successful natural grocery chain much less these days since it's improved its pricing structure and value proposition over the last two years. But we suspect if Whole Foods Market co-founder and co-CEO John Mackey offered to arm wrestle (and he's done stranger things) Fresh & Easy's CEO, Tim Mason - winner gets the other chain's margin - Mason might be tempted to take Mackey up on the proposition.

But grilling and not arm wrestling season is upon us so, to quote "Bigmista" from one of his Fresh & Easy store road show events last year - "Let's Grill."

Related Stories

April 20, 2011: Raley's Supermarkets Introducing New 'Raley's Tonight' Fresh Heat-and-Eat Gourmet Entrees

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

June 3, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Teams Up With The Los Angeles Dodgers in 'Game & Grill Sweepstakes' Promo.

May 16, 2010: Two Grocers, Fresh & Easy and Raley's Offer Two Very Different Approaches to Ready-to-Grill Fresh Meat Merchandising

January 29, 2009: Earl-Grey-At-Large: Fresh & Easy Buzz's Sometime Humor Columnist Drops in For A Bit Of Pre-Super Bowl Musing On 'Carnivores' V. 'Vegetarians'

Will Plants and Flowers For Mother's Day Help Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Blossom and Bloom?

Analysis/Commentary

Tesco's Fresh  Easy Neighborhood Market is using an assortment of fresh floral bouquets and live plants as its promotional leaders this week, in a effort to entice consumers to shop for mom at its stores in California, southern Nevada and metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona

The week leading up to Mother's Day on Sunday has become an extremely competitive period between grocers and other format retailers, ranging from drug chains like Walgreens and CVS and club stores like Costco, to mass merchandisers like Target and Walmart and many others, all wanting to get consumers' bodies in their store aisles and shoppers' dollars in the cash register tills.

In its weekly advertising circular, which started yesterday and runs through May 10, and in its stores, Tesco's Fresh & Easy is offering four fresh floral arrangements, all at value prices.

The arrangement, all pictured at top, are: A dozen roses, priced at $8; a Rose and Alstromeria Bouquet, at $10; a mixed Mother's Day Bouquet, for $15; and at the higher end, a Hand Tied Bouquet for $15.

Along with the four different varieties of floral arrangements, the grocer is offering two plant specials -  a four inch Mini Potted Rose, for $4, and a blooming Hydrangea plant, at $14.

The promotion and weekly ad also ties in fresh strawberries - at 98-cents for one pound - with the fresh flowers and live plants, along with offering wine, chocolate and Fresh & Easy's "retreat" private brand of body care products (20% off), all at promotional prices for mom.

Along with using the fresh flowers and live plants at the lead horses in this week's Mother's Day promotion, and cross-promoting the related consumable goods and "retreat" brand body care items, the 175-store fresh food and grocery chain is also promoting a selection of its "fresh&easy packaged food items for Mother's Day, using the tag line: "A brunch with mom is the best gift of all."

Among the 10 items being promoted under the Mother's Day brunch theme are: "fresh&easy" brand orange juice; pancake mix, premium coffee; and bacon. There's also a fresh, ready-to-heat quiche, packaged bagels, and four other 'fresh&easy' brand items. You can view all the items here.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market also this week distributed an online coupon good for $10-off purchases of $50 or more, which is good through the Mother's Day holiday, along with including coupons offering $3-off purchases of $20 or more, in some markets, and coupons with a $5-off purchases of $20 or more value, in other markets, in its paper advertising circulars, which it mails to resident's homes.

The dozen roses we saw in Fresh & Easy stores we visited today looked of good quality, a real value at $8.

At the $8-dozen promotional price the rose bouquets are basically a "loss-leader" (as are a couple of the other floral arrangements) for Tesco's Fresh & Easy, meaning after taking the wholesale cost of the roses, adding what it costs to handle them (human labor, distribution to the stores), and including the shrink factor - the number of bouquets Fresh & Easy will have to sell for a discount, usually at 50% or more off, the day after Mother's Day - the grocer will be happy if it breaks-even on the promotional offering, or loses just a few cents per dozen.

However, if the $8 dozen rose bouquets bring in customers who normally wouldn't do any of their Mother's Day shopping at a Fresh & Easy store or get shoppes to fill their baskets with other goods sold in the stores, then a loss leader like the roses can be well worth it, unless of course those shoppers just buy the roses and nothing else.

Even worse is if they buy three dozen ($24 plus tax) roses, and nothing else, and use one of the $5-off-$20 coupons to make the purchase, resulting in getting the roses for a mere net $19, or slightly over $6 a dozen.

Remember our loss-leader discussion above? The coupons, which are used regularly by shoppers at Fresh & Easy, also bite into that loss on the dozen roses. For example, the scenario described above with the $5-off coupon adds to the margin loss on the roses for Fresh & Easy, making a loss-leader item (the roses) a potentially big loss-leader item.

But - such are the risks grocer's take every day. And the super-competitive Mother's Day promotional week is certainly not an exception to that rule. In fact, it kicks the risk factor up a notch or two because its become such a highly-competitive promotional period among retailers.

It's a very competitive, multi-channel, multi-format retail market in California, Nevada and Arizona, which is something United Kingdom-based Tesco has been learning the hard way over the last three-and-one-half years  with Fresh & Easy, as it struggles to stem the loss at its 175-store Fresh & Easy chain, which were over $300 million for the recently-ended 2010/11 fiscal year (February 26, 2011), on sales of $800 million.

The first Fresh & Easy stores opened in November 2007. Tesco has lost nearly $1 billion since then on Fresh & Easy. That doesn't include the start up costs.

You can bet Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's CEO, Tim Mason, who about five years ago moved out of Tesco's corporate headquarters in the United Kingdom where he was head of marketing to Southern California to start up Fresh & Easy in El Segundo, doesn't think a $300 million loss is anything to write home to mom - or mum - about.

Instead Mason, who as of March added the title Tesco deputy group CEO, a position just below CEO Philip Clarke on the organizational chart, to his Fresh & Easy CEO title, is more likely hoping droves of shoppers in California, Nevada and Arizona rush to his Fresh & Easy stores this week, excited by the hot promotional prices on the flowers and plants, and in the process buy a basket full of other food and grocery items, particularly those that offer decent gross margins to the Tesco-owned fresh food and grocery chain.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Celebrates the Royal Wedding In-Store With Cupcakes Fit For A Princess

Promotional & Special Event Merchandising

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, which is owned by United Kingdom-based Tesco, celebrated its British pedigree and heritage today by featuring "fresh&easy princess cupcakes" in its 175 fresh food and grocery stores in California, Nevada and Arizona, in honor of the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, who are now officially know as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

The Fresh & Easy stores we visited today, as well as others in the chain, were displaying the cupcakes - which are white cake, with pink icing and pink curls, and contain no artificial colorings or flavors - prominently.

Point-of-purchase signs touted the hand-held sweet treats' connection to today's Royal Wedding.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has sold the pink "princess cupcakes" in its stores since 2008. It's a product ready-made to merchandise and promote for today's big event, if ever there was such a product. 

Some customers we observed and talked to in the stores today thought the "fresh&easy princess cupcakes" were created by the grocer specifically for Kate and William's wedding today. They were surprised when told by store employees that not only are they available year-round in the Fresh & Easy stores but have been for quite some time.

Therefore, not only was it a good idea for Tesco's Fresh & Easy to promote the "princess cupcakes" today, in order to have some fun, create a little in-store excitement and grab some impulse sales, it also, at least where we observed it, served to introduce a number of shoppers to a ready-to-eat sweet treat they weren't previously aware was available at the grocery chain.

Additionally, knowing the pink cupcakes are always available in the stores might just bring some of those shoppers back to Fresh & Easy to buy them for their own special - and not so special - occasions, particularly if there's a "princess" or two - or even a budding Kate Middleton - living in the house. After all, part of being a princess is getting what you want, when you want it.

Fresh & Easy store workers also served as human billboards for the "fresh&easy princess cupcake" promotion today, wearing shirts like the one pictured above.

The message on the shirts: "The Royal Couple is Here;" featuring a picture of two "princess cupcakes" below it, is eye-catching and, as we observed more than once today, led a number of shoppers to ask: "Where are the princess cupcakes?"

The human billboards therefore served a positive merchandising purpose, along with creating some fun and excitement in-store around the Royal Wedding.

'Shop for Schools 2010': Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Raises $1.3 Million For Local Schools

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has raised $1.3 million in its third annual Shop for Schools fundraising program - nearly double the amount raised last year - which it's giving to participating schools in California, Nevada and Arizona, where the fresh food and grocery chain has its 173 stores.

About 2,000 kindergarten through eighth grade schools participated in the 2010 school fundraising program, according to Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market. The program ran from September-December 2010.

Any kindergarten through eighth grade school located within a three-mile radius of a Fresh & Easy store can participate in Shop for Schools by signing up in advance of the program's start. For every $20 spent by customers at a Fresh & Easy store from September 15 to- December 31, 2010, participating schools received a $1 donation. In addition to collecting receipts, which the schools then submit to the grocery chain, registered schools can also participate in Fresh & Easy Shopping Nights, which are four hour (4 p.m.-8 p.m.) designated shopping blocks, organized for each specific participating school. Fresh & Easy donates 5% of all purchases made during the shopping night to the school. [Click here for the program's official rules.]

The three winning schools this year, one each in California, Nevada and Arizona, are:

>Southern California: Sunset View Elementary - which raised $10, 815 (first place)
>Arizona: Christ Lutheran School - which raised $8,114
>Nevada: R.E. Tobbler Elementary School - which raised $7,707

In addition the getting the amount of money they raised, Tesco's Fresh & Easy awarded each of the three winning schools a $5,000 bonus for raising the more money thn all the other participating schools.

This year's first place win is a repeat for Sunset View Elementary, which also took first place honors in last year's  Shop for Schools program. Watch and listen to the reaction of the school's Shop for Schools coordinator, Tori Curtis, and some of the Sunset Elementary students, in the brief video here, as they're told they've won for the second year in a row.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market first launched Shop for Schools  in spring 2009, raising more than $130,000 for schools in California, Nevada and Arizona. Last year (fall 2009) Fresh & Easy and its customers raised $670,000 for the participating schools. [See the stories linked at the end of this piece for details about the 2008-2009 programs.]

This year's record $1.3 million raised is due to a combination of factors, including: greater participation by schools, parents, teachers and students; more schools signing up for the program; the designated shopping nights; and the fact Tesco's Fresh & Easy opened numerous new stores in 2010, which expanded the geographical reach of the program.

That geographical reach will be even greater for the 2011 Shop for Schools program, which Fresh  Easy Neighborhood Market plans to kick-off in mid-May, because the grocery chain has now expanded into Northern California, where its opened eight stores so far this year, with three additional new units opening on April 27.

Additionally, for the first time Fresh & Easy is planning to offer schools the ability to register for the fundraising program online, which should make it even easier for more schools to get involved.

Numerous grocers are raising money for local schools. Among the major chains doing so include: Walmart Stores, Target, Safeway Stores, Inc., Kroger and others. Numerous local smaller chains, such as Mollie Stones Market's in Northern California and others, also regularly donate money to schools in their market regions.

The need by schools for supplemental monies from grocers and others continues to grow, particularly in states like California, Nevada and Arizona, where school budgets are being challenged do to serious financial stresses being experienced by state and local governments and public school districts.

For example, John P. Cole, a public school trustee in Clark County (Las Vegas) Nevada says about Fresh& Easy's Shop for Schools program and supplemental aid to schools in general: "I am thoroughly impressed that Fresh & Easy uses such an innovative and productive approach to becoming a welcome partner in its communities through assisting local schools. Although programs such as this should never be considered as a replacement of any of the state's responsibility to adequately fund education, it does allow local schools to raise funds for a wide variety of program uses. These kinds of community partnerships are a much needed boost in difficult times such as these," Cole says.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market will be posting information on its website in Mid-May about its 2011 Shop for Schools program.

Related Stories

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

May 14, 2009: Fresh Buzz - News & Notes About Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market: Fresh & Easy to Give $131,145 to Area Schools

February 9, 2009: Grocers & Community: 769 Schools in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona to Participate in Tesco Fresh & Easy's 'Shop For Schools' Program

January 23, 2009: Fresh & Charitable: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Extends Deadline For Schools to Register For School Fundraiser Program

December 17, 200: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Launches 'Shop for Schools' Fund-Raising Program to Aid Schools Near its Stores

There's Nothing Pie-in-the-Sky About Trader Joe's 'Elegantly Simple' Pie Recipe Contest

Private Brand Showcase
Private Brands and Promotional Merchandising

Among the various ingredients that make Southern California-based Trader Joe's so successful are its unique use of humor and its "elegant simplicity," by which we mean that in all aspects of its operations, from the design and day-to-day operation of its stores to its private brand development, merchandising and marketing communications, the iconic grocery chain always keeps things simple, clear and understandable to the consumer, doing so with its own private brand of whimsy.

A perfect example of how Trader Joe's regularly combines these various elements into a seamless whole is a new recipe contest the grocery chain just launched which is as easy as, or as simple as, pie.

In fact, that's what the recipe contest focuses on - pie.

Specifically, Trader Joe's is challenging Americans to "Create a recipe for pie that is easy as pie." The contest is part of TJ's "2011 HiiP (Highly innovative ingredient Pairing) Recipe Showdown."

In terms of the pie recipe contest Trader Joe's keeps it simple rather than taking a pie-in-the-sky approach. Here's the "elegantly simple" criteria for the recipe contest:

EASY AS PIE HiiP RECIPE GUIDELINES

• An Easy As Pie HiiP Recipe uses up to 5 Trader Joe’s products. Nothing else. Binders (i.e., salt, pepper, butter, cooking oil, etc.) do not count as ingredients.
• And just to be fair to all of our chefs under the age of 21, the use of alcohol is not allowed in Easy As Pie HiiP Recipes.
• Easy As Pie HiiP Recipes must take 20 minutes or less for preparation; the actual cooking can take longer.

The instructions on how to enter the pie recipe contest are equally simple.

HOW TO ENTER

• In an e-mail, list ingredients and explain cooking steps as concisely as possible.
• Include your name and preferred method of contact (in case your Easy As Pie Recipe is selected).
• Send to hiiprecipes@traderjoes.com by April 1, 2011.

That's it - as easy as pie.

The winning criteria are also "elegantly simple," as you can see below under the "REWARDS" heading. Innovative, yummy and - "as easy as pie." That's it. And really, when it comes to pies is there really anything else that matters?

The recipe contest winners also will be rewarded by Trader Joe's in a simple but meaningful way, as the grocer spells out plain and clear in its "elegantly simple" one-page contest entry form here).

REWARDS, REWARDS, REWARDS!

• Pie Recipes will be evaluated first by the Trader Joe’s (R2 ) Recipe Review Panel. Pies will be judged on how highly innovative the ingredient pairings are (HiiPness); how "easy as pie" the recipe is; and, naturally, how yummy it is.
• 5 Easy As Pie HiiP Recipes will be selected for further judging by the Trader Joe’s community (to be announced in our May eNewsletter), who will vote on 3 winning Easy As Pie Pies.
• Aside from the honor of having your culinary art recognized on our website for millions of Trader Joe’s community members to enjoy, the creators of the 3 selected recipes will each receive a Trader Joe’s Gift Card in the amount of $25 dollars + one of our hip reusable bags + a super

There you have it, a pie recipe contest that's as easy, or as simple, as pie. Take some Trader Joe's private brand frozen pie crusts, add some fresh peaches (or apples perhaps) from TJ's, along with the grocer's own brand milk, sugar and butter (plus a few more things), and you have one version of a simple and easy yet potentially yummy peach or apple pie. It's not a very innovative one. But its simple and therefore makes for a good illustration.

And as you can see here, Trader Joe's is offering numerous suggestions about the potential universe of pie recipes that budding bakers entering the contest might want to create. For example, there are your basic dessert pies - apple, peach, berry and cream, for starters. But there's also custard, mince, chess, pizza, savory, meat, curry and even...pie-in-the-sky.

There is one ingredient that if used in a pie will send a potential winner to pie recipe purgatory. That ingredient, or class of ingredients: alcoholic beverages of any kind.

But before you think the booze prohibition is because Trader Joe's is exercising a moral prerogative, think again. Rather, the prohibition against the use of adult beverages in the pie recipes was instituted in order to create a level playing field for those budding pie-maker/contestants who happen to be under the legal drinking age, according to Trader Joe's.

Arguably the most important "elegantly simple" criteria for Trader Joe's in its "easy as pie" recipe contest is this one: "An Easy As Pie HiiP Recipe uses up to 5 Trader Joe’s products. Nothing else. Binders (i.e., salt, pepper, butter, cooking oil, etc.) do not count as ingredients."

After all, from a simple product sales standpoint Trader Joe's is going to get numerous consumers to participate in the recipe contest, particularly as word-of-mouth spreads the yummy news. As a result, the iconic grocer is going to be selling a whole lot of those up to five Trader Joe's ingredients used to make the pies, along with a considerable amount of those "binders" - the salt, pepper, butter, cooking oil, etc. that although aren't among the up to five main ingredients for the pies must be used to hold them together and give some added flavor.

Look at it from an average market basket sales perspective. The ingredients - apples, pie crust, cinnamon, nutmeg - and those binders - milk, sugar, brown sugar, butter, ect. - needed to make an apple pie to enter in the recipe contest would, if all the items were bought at a Trader Joe's store, easily add $10 or more onto a customer's average market basket purchase. In other words, if Jane Jones planned to spend $40 at her local TJ's but decides to enter the recipe contest and pick up what she needs to make her pie, the $40 purchase can easily turn into a $50-plus buy one. The bigger the average market basket purchase size the happier a grocer is. The contest encourages incremental sales. And it does so in a soft-sell and fun way.

But even more important, the simple and easy pie recipe contest hangs a lantern on Trader Joe's private brands, reinforces the grocer's humorous and whimsical style, operations, merchandising and marketing approach, continues to create buzz for the chain, which spends little or nothing on traditional advertising already, and further positions its private brand products as being equal to or even better than manufacturer national brands.

After all, many moms will be making pies and entering the recipes in the contest. And as we all know, mom would never make a pie without using the "best" brands and ingredients.

Readers

Click on the following links - private brand showcase, Trader Joe's, Trader Joe's store brands, store brands, private label brands, promotional merchandising - for a selection of related stories. Click on the "older posts/newer posts" links at the bottom of the linked pages for additional pages/stories.

Southern California-Based '99 Cents Only Stores' Has A Valentine's Day Ad 'Frugal Romeos' Can't Refuse

Commerce, California-based retailer 99 Cents Only Stores, which offers a strong assortment of perishable foods and grocery items in its 281 stores in California, Nevada, Arizona and Texas, appeals to men with its clever and funny Valentine's Day advertising circular (above) - "Attention All Romeos: Valentine's Tips From Your Friends at 99 Cents Only Stores - this week. View the full advertising circular here.

Valentine's Day offers a great selling opportunity for food and grocery retailers, particularly because it provides an opportunity in mid-February to sell many types of products in significant volume that, were it not for the special occasion, would move off the shelves at a slower, normal velocity.

Many of these products - gourmet candy, high-end floral bouquets, champagne and wine, steaks, seafood, non-food gift items and the like - are high-ring items that also in many instances have higher than average gross margins. A high item-ring plus higher than normal gross margin equals music (hear the cash registers ringing) to retailers' ears.

More music to retailer's ears: Compared to last year, the average shopper is expected to spend about 12% more on Valentine's Day gifts - an average of about $116 - than he or she did last year, according to retailing prognosticators who track holiday period sales.

Food and grocery retailers are well aware of the benefits Valentine's Day offers to both their top and bottom lines. That's why you see merchants go all out starting a couple weeks before the holiday, featuring Valentine's Day-themed in-store displays throughout every department. If its heart-shaped, for example, you'll see it in-store for Valentine's Day.

Nearly every food and grocery retailer in America also focuses its weekly advertising circular on Valentine's Day in the week leading up to today. Cookies, cupcakes, adult beverages, flowers, balloons, candy, gifts and cards, meats, seafood, gourmet foods, ready-to-heat gourmet meals and more are advertised at promotional prices beginning on the Tuesday or Wednesday before Valentine's Day, leading up to today.

As we do for each major merchandising holiday here at Fresh & Easy Buzz, this week we reviewed dozens of Valentine's Day-themed advertising circulars put out by grocers, mass merchants, dollar stores, drug chains and other format retailers located throughout the U.S.

The collective output is impressive, not only in the sheer number of items offered by retailers, but also because of the excellent prices offered this week for food, beverage and non-food items, all geared towards Valentine's Day.

But one retailer's ad circular stood out among the many we reviewed leading up to today, not because it's "better" than all the others but rather for its use of creativity and humor, tied-into its offering of various inexpensive gift items geared to male shoppers looking for Valentine's Day gifts for their sweethearts.

That retailer is the fast-growing Southern California-based dollar store format chain 99 Cents Only Stores, which this week took a clever and humorous angle in its Valentine's Day-themed ad, offering a variety of gifts "Romeo's" should consider buying for their sweethearts.

Unlike most other dollar store-format chains, 99 Cents Only Stores offers an assortment of perishable foods - meats, produce, dairy/deli - along with frozen foods and a strong selection of packaged food and grocery items (including gourmet and organic) in its 281 stores, which are located in California (75% of the units), Nevada, Arizona and Texas.

In the ad (pictured at top) headlined: "Attention All Romeos: Valentine's Tips From Your Friends at 99 Cents Only Stores," the retailer created two columns - "Good Choice" and "Bad Choice...but still a great deal" - each featuring items "Romeo's" should buy at the stores for their sweethearts.

Among the items in the "Good Choice" column include: chicken of the sea oysters, live flowering plants, condoms, whipped topping, a chocolate rose in a box and lady's lingerie, all for just 99-cents each.

Conversely, the "Bad Choice...But Still A Great Deal" column features items such as anti-wrinkle patches, a pregnancy test (see condoms in the good choice column) deodorant, diet tea, a mop and a broom, powdered Butt Aid and, perhaps as a companion item to the Butt Aid...douche. All of the "Bad Choice" items are also a mere 99-cents each, which demonstrates, at least in this case, that good choices cost the same as bad ones do.

[You can view the full ad circular and all the items here.]

The ad ends today. However, perhaps anticipating a rush by "Frugal Romeos" to the stores, 99 Cents Only has extended its stores hours, as noted in the circular.

But...back to that estimated average consumer spend of $116 this Valentine's Day, mentioned in the beginning of this piece. "Frugal Romeos" take note - and you still have time before the 99 Cents Only stores close today: You can purchase every single one of the items for your sweetheart on both the "Good Choice" and Bad Choice" lists featured in the 99 Cents Only Stores' ad circular - and still have plenty of cash left over for dinner out tonight at a decent restaurant.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Launches 'Extra-Low Every Day Low Price' Merchandising Program

Private brands & grocery merchandising
News/Analysis

Tesco-owned Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market today launched a new everyday low-price-oriented merchandising program in its 156 stores in California, Nevada and Arizona, in which it's guaranteeing the shelf prices on a selected number of its private brand items for an extended period of time. Fresh & Easy is calling the shelf prices on the selected group of items: "extra low every day."

Among the first batch of products included in the program include: 'fresh&easy' apple juice, in a 64 ounce bottle ($1.99); a multi-pack of 'f'resh&easy' brand bone-in loin pork chops ($1.99 pound); a multi-pack of 'fresh&easy' chicken breasts (1.99 pound); and assorted varieties of 'fresh&easy' packaged pasta (99 cents each).

Additional private brand items in the new everyday low-price-oriented program include various varieties of fresh&easy brand packaged cheese, ice cream, pre-packaged fresh lettuce items, and bagged vegetable steamers.

The shelf prices on the first batch of private brand items in the new everyday low-price-oriented merchandising program, which have shelf signs featuring the item price and the words "every day" below it, are guaranteed for about two months - from today -to- March 22, 2011. After March 22 Fresh & Easy reserves the right to raise the prices on the products, although it may or may not do so.

Based on our research, the shelf prices on the items listed above with the "extra low everyday low-prices" listed are the same as they were before Tesco's Fresh & Easy launched the program this week. That's not to say the price points are good or bad. Rather, its to say the price points on those specific items weren't lowered from what the shelf prices were a few weeks ago. The pasta price of 99 cents a unit everyday is excellent, for example. On the other hand, a number of the other items are about the same as what nearly all of Fresh & Easy's competitors offer on their respective private brands of the same variety.

The key proposition in the new merchandising program though, in our analysis, is the "price guarantee," in which the grocer is pledging not to raise the "extra low every day" shelf prices on the selected items for a given period of time.

EDLP, high-low, or both?

At first blush Fresh & Easy's new everyday low-price-oriented (EDLP) merchandising program looks like a move by the grocer to become more of an EDLP operator, rather than the hybrid EDLP/high-low grocer it currently is.

However, that's not the case. In addition to launching the merchandising program in the stores this week, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market also distributed a spate of its deep-discount store coupons today, which included a $6-off purchases of $30 (20%-off) or more coupon online and a $5-off purchases of $2o (25%-off) or more in its direct-mailed paper advertising circular.

The grocer also continues to distribute an online and direct-mailed weekly promotional circular, which features various items at reduced prices for a one week period of time.

The deep-discount store coupons, which can be used by shoppers on any of the retailer's private brands or manufacturer brands offered in the Fresh & Easy markets - the coupon amount is taken off customers' total grocery order purchase - is a promotional device and therefore part of high-low food and grocery retailing philosophy and practice - particularly because Fresh & Easy uses the coupons regularly - rather than a merchandising philosophy normally associated with EDLP grocers.

Many high-low retailers, such as Walmart and WinCo Foods, to name two that operate in the same markets as Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market does, use promotional mailers, coupons and other promo devices occasionally, but not on a regular basis like Fresh & Easy does. These retailers focus primarily on everyday low shelf pricing, using promotions at times as a device to stimulate customer draw and sales.

Fresh & Easy, on the other hand, is what we call a mixed or hybrid EDLP/high-low operator because the grocer uses the EDLP philosophy and practice and the high-low promotional variant equally in its stores.

It is our analysis though that Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO Tim Mason and his senior executive team, at least conceptually, have launched the "extra low every day low prices" merchandising program in the hope if it's successful down the road it could allow the grocer to stop distributing its deep-discount store coupons on a regular basis, as it has been doing chronically since 2008.

The 20% and 25%-off coupons take a big bite out of the fresh food and grocery chain's overall margin, which currently is in the cellar, at a negative-38%. Mason and company must get this margin up significantly, say at least in the low plus-twenty percentile, in order to have a chance of ever making a profit with Fresh & Easy, in our analysis.

Tesco has set the end of its 2012/13 fiscal year, a little over two years from now, to break-even with Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market. Tesco lost $151 million on Fresh & Easy in the first half of its current fiscal year - 2010/11. The current fiscal year is over at the end of February 2011.

Significantly reducing the frequency of, or eliminating completely, the deep-discount store coupons will be a tough slog for Fresh & Easy though because, by using them so regularly, the chain has created a perception among shoppers that the vouchers, and the 20%-25% discount (if used to buy the minimum dollar purchase required) they offer, is a normal part of the grocer's pricing policy. In other words, a perception exists among customers, in our observation and analysis, that without the coupons the prices at the Fresh & Easy stores are too high.

The evidence of this phenomenon is two fold: When in the past Fresh & Easy tried to not use the store coupons for a couple months in 2009, sales in the stores dropped, and customers complained about the lack of coupons to the grocer in huge numbers, many saying that without the coupons they were not shopping in the stores or buying much less when they did shop at Fresh & Easy.

The retailer responded to these twin developments in 2009 by resuming regular distribution of the discount coupons, something its continued on a regular basis ever since, including this month.

Extra-low - everyday

Obviously it's too early to offer an analysis on the efficacy of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's new everyday low-price-oriented merchandising program, since it is just starting. However, we can see pitfalls with the program, as well as some potential positive opportunities.

Overall though, it's our analysis right now that the program isn't going to have any material benefit on Fresh & Easy's sales. Even more important - and obvious - it will do nothing directly to help increase the grocery chain's gross margin.

The program could over time possibly help create a better overall customer price perception of Fresh & Easy. However, a true picture of how the stores can do will not come until the grocer stops - and perhaps it never will - using the deep-discount store coupons on a chronic basis.

For example, Fresh & Easy seldom lets more than two or three days pass between the expiration date of a batch of coupons and the distribution of a new batch. A good test would be to issue the coupons for just one week out of each month. Then we could see how the stores do for the other three weeks out of the month when the coupons offering 20%-25%-off shoppers' total grocery purchases aren't available.

We don't see this happening though. Why: Because it's our analysis that without the regular distribution of the coupons as described above, sales at the Fresh & Easy stores would drop substantially, despite the fact the everyday prices in the stores are decent, and despite the fact the chain distributes a decent promotional circular each week.

It's not too early to offer this, however: What we call the "Fresh & Easy coupon conundrum"and the associated issues described above is something incoming Tesco CEO Philip Clarke, who takes over the corner office at Tesco's corporate headquarters in the United Kingdom in early March, should be very concerned about.

Related Stories

Click on the following links - corporate merchandising, deep discount coupons, grocery merchandising, private brand showcase, promotional merchandising, store discount coupons, Fresh and Easy promotional-ad flyer, Fresh and Easy $6-off store coupon - to view a selection of related stories in Fresh & Easy Buzz.