Stores struggle with balanced diet in snacks - Food Merchandising

Discount Store News, Oct 7, 1996

Retailers, like consumers, are still struggling with finding the right diet.

For consumers, of course, the issue is what to eat: low-fat or full-fat snacks: but for retailers the question is more complex: how much of each to carry and how to merchandise them, low-and full-fat together or apart.

Currently, retailers are split. Some merchandise healthy snacks with similar full-fat products; others separate the mix.

Consumers, it seems, want both. The Snack Food Association's 1996 study found snack food consumption at record levels, with traditional full-fat offerings leading sales gains and low-fat choices growing only a few percentage points.

According to Information Resources Inc., sales of chips and snacks last year totaled $6.4 billion, up 4.9% from 1994.

Despite this, retailers expect a bonanza of healthy snack food sales, thanks to a host of new low-fat options and some merchandising changes.

Bradlees, for example, is re-merchandising its food department. Besides upgraded presentations such as gift-type olive oil, the chain has committed to healthy snacks and will have signs touting lighter fare from both SnackWell's and Frito-Lay.

"We're upgrading the selection in our stores and we think healthy snacks will fit nicely with the smart shopper we're reaching out to," a spokesman said.

Genovese Drug Stores is also linking up with SnackWell's, said Allan Patrick, executive vp. "In stead of us creating our own area for good-for-you-snacks, we're testing a SnackWell's floorstand that incorporates all of their items," he said.

Andy Horn, buyer for Harco Drug, also wants to appeal to a more health-conscious shopper. He carved out a 4-ft. section in his grocery aisle to make low-fat options a "destination area." His set includes Planters, and SnackWell's breakfast bars and crackers.

"In drug stores, where people don't expect to see as much food, you have to give it an identity," he said. Horn also is creating a space for granola bars and breakfast bars, an area where he's seeing dramatic interest in lower-fat options.

Frito-Lay, according to group manager, national accounts Brian Barnes, is providing signs for its new Tostitos Reduced Fat and Baked Lays products. Retailers said both products are "blowing out of stores." Added Horn, "Consumers are finally finding low-fat items that don't short-change them on taste."

Not all retailers are convinced of the need for a separate low-fat area. In Kmarts new Pantry format, low-fat products such as rice cakes, chips and cookies, are merchandised with like products.

Rodney Sensebe, buyer for K & B, Inc. in New Orleans noted: "When the [low fat] products are together, they lose their appeal because people view it as a dietetic area."