A study by the Natural Marketing Institute found retail sales within the U.S. foodservice and consumer packaged goods’ health and wellness industry hit $102.8 billion in 2007, representing 15% growth since 2006, adding that there doesn’t seem to be any signs of a slowdown in this sector. NMI predicted that double-digit growth of the health…
Building Brick by Brick
At a quick glance it makes for a dismal picture: Killer interchange fees, nightmarish margins on gas, ever-rising tobacco taxes thanks to the whimsies of politicos. There’s a host of potholes marring the road to profitability, and few convenience chains on the market can afford to bankroll a multimillion dollar facility to optimize their foodservice…
Prepackaged Options Expanding
Prepackaged food sales are booming nationwide and new choices are springing up to help convenience store retailers grow in-store sales. Successful prepackaged food merchandising is all about display, said Jerry Weiner, vice president of foodservice for Rutter’s Farm Stores in York, Pa. “Grab-and-go sales have tripled since we moved products from four-foot open-air cases to…
Ethanol and Biodiesel: What You Need to Know
Ethanol is a renewable fuel made primarily by distilling grains such as corn, wheat, barley and other food crops. It is an alcohol that is mixed with gasoline when used in vehicles. Cars can run on a mix of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline, but typically ethanol is only used as a fuel additive in…
Green and Envied
Scott Zaremba grew up in the fuel business. As president and CEO of Zarco 66, the petroleum company his father founded in 1968, Zaremba is battle-tested in the trenches and has the scars to prove it. But what motivates this savvy industry veteran every day is the opportunity to push the boundaries of creativity and…
Breakfast, The Daypart That Delivers
In March, Rick Pajak and his team rolled out a new breakfast sandwich program under Wilson Farms’ self-branded Fresh N Ready label. The sandwiches come in four varieties produced by Lettieri’s, a division of Hot Stuff Foods, which was able to tailor the menu according to the chain’s tastes. The previous program required employees to…
Condiments: The New Category
Rick Pajak breathed new life into Wilson Farms’ hot and cold dispensed category by treating condiments less as an afterthought and more as a category of its own. “We look at the condiment section as one of the longest stops in the store,” he said. “Why not give them the right space and right opportunity…
Fertile Ground
WILSON FARMS TIMELINE * 1960: Tops Markets is co-founded by Savino Nanula and Armand Castellani. 1969: Tops Markets opens the first Wilson Farms Neighborhood Food store in Tonawanda, N.Y., naming the store after a company-owned farm in Wilson, N.Y. 1978: Wilson Farms expands in N.Y. to Rochester and later to Syracuse. 1980s: Tops Markets is…
Taking Stock in Kieler
Ashley Cullen doesn’t fancy himself a holy being among retailers, but he does know that dropping an occasional bag of Combos onto a gondola doesn’t make for the crowning achievement in inventory management. “When I first got here, we were lucky if we got $200 a day in deli,” Cullen said. “Now we’re averaging $450…
The $10 Test
Mel Kleiman offers the $10 test: Give your applicant a $10 bill and tell him to buy something in the store—a sandwich, a fountain drink, anything of his choosing—and ask him to return the next day with an assessment of the experience. The applicant will do one of three things: • Take the $10 and…