Paradigm redux: The fresh meal case

Store Equipment & Design, July, 2000

By now we've just about tried it all when it comes to fresh prepared foods. We've all watched the supermarket fresh prepared foods program grow up over the past decade or more. Its infancy began with a few hot items and simple sandwiches in the deli, before going through the adolescence of food courts. It later grew into meal solutions and wokeries. We've had Boston Market-envy that fed into the rediscovery of rotisserie chicken which supermarkets pioneered in the first place! Then we decided to rescue culinary school trained chefs from the long hours of servitude in restaurant kitchens, while putting in sushi bars, European pizza programs, crusty breads, sit-down catering, all the way up to the long search for the mythological HMR.

We've seen all this come into the supermarket and much of it leave again. Sure, we've all gotten much better at offering prepared foods, but most of us haven't gotten good enough!

Let's face it, there are just two kinds of operators when it comes to offering fresh prepared foods made fresh instore--those who can do it well and those who simply cannot! You all know which category you fall into. There's no gray area. "Yes, but we do some things well" simply won't cut it anymore--your program either works at all levels or it doesn't! The point is that you're judged by your entire program. You don't have to make everything, but everything on your program has to be made well, no matter where it's actually made.

Traveling around the country you can definitely see a rededication among some retailers to the finest of fresh prepared foods programs. Great stores are popping up all over the place. The vast majority of operators, however, have begun to pull back from food preparation. Probably a wise decision, but one that shouldn't spell the end to their prepared foods program.

I've spent many years, perhaps too many years, speaking to various consultants in the fresh foods and foodservice industries, some of whom I greatly respect and consider to be close friends, some I have no respect for and consider to be close friends, as well as many others. Once you can see through all the black smoke that clouds many of these conversations, which can be pretty thick at times, I've found one piece of advice as being almost universal--"if you can do it really well, then do it. If someone else can do it better for a reasonable price, then buy it."

Supermarkets have to be more willing to farm out their production. I know that outsourcing is a dirty word to many operators, but if you can't do it well and smoothly within your operation don't kill your employees and unnecessarily tax your systems. Find somebody who can do it up to your standards. Whether it be a manufactured foodservice product or one that is produced exclusively for you, as long as the quality, consistency and taste are there it will bring no shame to your foodservice program. In fact, it may well enhance it. You can still offer variety and free up your resources for the products you do make well.

I'm beginning to lean in favor of at least some central production in fresh prepared foods. Whether it be fully prepared foods or semi-prepared ready to be finished in store products, there is a greater degree of control, consistency and resource allocation that can be achieved through central production. This doesn't mean that you have to rush out and find an old factory building that you can convert into a multi-million dollar commissary kitchen. This is something that even the smaller operator can achieve if he gets just a little creative.

If you've got a store with a larger-capacity kitchen than you currently need to service that store, use it to create products for several stores. If you have five kitchens in your five stores--let each of them specialize in producing a group of products for all five stores. This does require some transportation from location to location, but even that should not cut into your efficiency and the quality of the ensuing products.

Many operators have forgotten that the first job of the supermarket retailer is merchandising, not production. If production is a viable part of your merchandising and marketing scheme--fine. Customers care about the quality and taste of the products and the atmosphere in which they are sold. Assuming the product is top quality, no matter the price (if it is not top quality, then I have nothing further to say to you!) consumers want compelling merchandising and display. Merchandising that makes it easy for them to shop, suggests ideas for meals, gives them information, and at least some sense of excitement. It generally is enough for most shoppers to see some food preparation going to satisfy their sense of fresh, whether it be producing a limited number of products, finishing products or creating sandwiches and salads.

Last month in this space I suggested five guiding principles for a new food-marketing paradigm (see SE&D June 2000, page 6). Without reiterating them here, I believe that a well-thought out prepared foods program that draws on the best of what a retailer can logically do and what other resources are available will not only fit into those principles, but significantly improve most supermarket prepared foods programs' bottom line. It has to start, though, with an honest sense of what you want to accomplish and a critical look at what you're doing now and what it will take to get you to where you want to be.