The Theater of Food, Not Yet in 3D – Background and Questions

No blog readers this post is not a review of some avant-garde film that will be shown at the Sundance Film Festival. Rather this is an attempt on my part to bring the various interpretations of this relevant, yet overly hyped, retail food industry buzzword more clearly into focus while also suggesting what it really should mean to shoppers and retailers alike. No Kevin this is not a an attempt to steal yours or Michael’s thunder – for the non-industry reader see further below on this post on what I meant by this when I reference these industry observers, it is to look closer at the attempts to make food shopping more entertaining,

First though let’s define exactly what are the most important aspects of food shopping from the standpoint of today’s consumer and later we will delve into just what the retail food industry defines as the necessary components for their implementation of the Theater of Food marketing concept.

From the mainstream consumers standpoint the first requirement in food shopping is to purchase products that are compatible with their taste and dietary needs and if applicable those of their family, spouses or significant others. The second food shopping requirement, especially in today’s economy, is ability to purchase their food products at a reasonable net price. Now there are a few additional, yet mostly unspoken food shopping requirements, that most consumers have such as the cleanliness of the store that they shop at because after all it is where they are purchasing the food that they and possibly their families will consume – see my post on Nat Geo. Finally today’s mainstream food shopper is also interested in convenience, selection along with a reasonable level of customer service.

If you noticed that in the previous paragraph we used the term “mainstream consumer’s” standpoint to define a particular group of food shoppers. We then identified their requirements as it pertains their choice of retail supermarkets that they will patronize.

Please note that we will now be introducing a different group of food shoppers to this post and they are commonly referred to as the “Foodie”. The Foodie group of shoppers have additional food shopping requirements along with the previously noted ones of the American mainstream food shopper.

It is my position that the Foodie group of shoppers prepare a more eclectic non-traditional type of meal on a regular or semi-regular basis. Perhaps the Foodie group of shoppers are Food Channel viewers or even subscribe to some of the recipe-cooking websites and blogs. The Foodie shopper might also prepare their meals in a HGTV style kitchen or at least equip theirs in a Williams and Sonoma kind of way. While this might seem like a sweeping generalization to some it certainly does define, for the purposes of this post, the Foodie as a type of shopper who has more than a passing interest in food. It should also be noted that a Foodie can also be someone who shops at a store with a significant selection of already prepared foods. This way the “Pseudo Foodie” can eat from a varied menu yet have someone else do the prep work for them – the store.  More on this observation in another post.

The Foodie shopper is very much interested in new food products, emerging food trends, a variety of recipes, content awareness along with ingredients and a slight bias towards organic or natural food products. To a Foodie a trip to the supermarket is not so much a chore but more of a source of pleasure and interest as well as being a creative outlet for them to experience and enjoy. The Foodie is the type of shopper that likes to be entertained when they go to the supermarket and therefore seems to be the main targeted audience for the food industries “Theater of Food” concept or hype, which ever the case may be. Perhaps the food industry is really aiming at the wrong target audience and should focus more on entertaining the mainstream food shopper.

At this point in our post we have identified the two groups of food shoppers that are marketed to in today’s American supermarket while at the same time suggesting that the Foodie group of shoppers are more predisposed to pay admission to the food industries Theater of Food featured showing.

Now let’s continue our discussions by bringing in a non-consumer group of participants and of course this group is made up of the Retail Supermarket Industry along with their associated experts and pundits.

To the best of my knowledge the term Theater of Food was first used back in the mid to late 1980’s. In basic industry speak it is the concept that retail food stores practice to make the shoppers everyday food shopping experience less routine and more interesting thereby creating more profitable sales opportunities for the retailers.

In the 1980’s retail food industry experts, read former managers and executives of retail food or CPG companies, found sanctuary in advisory positions as retail industry consultants. These consultants waxed on poetically about the need to spice up the consumers food shopping experience through the use of visual as well as other sensory oriented marketing ploys. Their sage advice suggested that any costs associated with investing in the implementation of a Theater of Food concept in the supermarkets would be recouped through increased and more profitable product sales.

As a side note I should also mention that in the late 1990’s another group of industry observers joined the fray in touting the need for enhancing the food shopping experience. One particular observer’s credentials include previous writing stints for trade publications.  This industry observer also briefly served as Farah Fawcett’s body guard and today dazzles the food industry lemmings with his opinions with an attitude – his saying not mine, daily postings on his website, serving as a moderator at food industry conferences and self promoting his coauthored book about “Essential Business Lessons from the Movies”. This was the reference that I made at the beginning of this post. Actually if one can simply scan online general and industry news sources and then write a few sentences of commentary about them instead of writing 1,000’s of words from scratch it must be a great gig.

So these industry, consults, pundits and observers recommend that retail supermarkets do the following to enhance the customers food shopping experience therefore making their respective stores a Theater of Food for customers to be entertained in:

1. Change the stores interiors to be more colorful and theatrical. In some cases make their stores reminiscent of old world food markets or little markets within a larger store type layout.

2. Implement Broadway style departmental accent lighting to provide a featured look atmosphere to product displays.

3. Install gleaming bakery ovens and prep tables in areas visible from the sales floor. The thought is that the smell of fresh-baked products wafting throughout the store will entice their customers to put these products into their shopping carts. The store staff should prepare these bakery products in their hospital white colored uniforms as customers passing by watching the action of the bakers. The customer can see the flour gently tossed across a prep table and then a roll of dough is manipulated into a shape destined for one of those gleaming bakery ovens. What theater! Funny growing up I remember smelling bread being baked in my supermarket and it was industry experts of the day back then that said to get rid of this process in the store and centralize this work to save money. What goes around comes around.

4. In the Produce Department the retailer need replace the traditional multi-deck metal produce cases with Vegetable and Fruit style wooden carts reminiscent of a farmers market. Make it seem fresh from the farm so to speak. Cascade the displays of the particular fruits or vegetables over these wooden carts to make the shopper think that they are walking through some produce market in France or Italy. Also they are to make sure that there are 10 – 15 types of peppers on display, fresh looking bunches of ginger, plantains and more and more because this is a performance of produce.

5. The Deli Department should not just have a lot of  lunch meats and cheeses in a glass case with some tuna salad in a bowl for customers to see no progressive retailer, sorry to the trade journal for using this term, rise to the occasion make it seem like the old neighborhood deli of yesteryear. How? First the Deli department should now have a product prep area that looks more like a kitchen in some bright open retro style restaurant. The workers in this department should be attired in more of a gourmet chef style uniform – complete with those huge leg clown looking pants, striped of course. The customer should know that those appealing looking entree’s and side dishes are just as good as the one that they can get down the street at their local bistro along with being quick to warm up and eat.

6. Salad bar you do not need a salad bar no the experts chant what you need to have is a Sushi bar. The store also needs an Olive bar and a Cheese bar. Let’s not forget those appealing looking cauldrons of soup containing your special selections of Curry Chicken and Rice along with organic Broccoli and Cheese amalgamations.

7. Samples, samples and more samples. There should be bowls and trays of products for the customer to try because the experts say that sampling increases sales. No do not worry if you just put a collection of small chunks of cheese on a paper doily with some tooth picks for the customer to clean their teeth with because in the end it is the art of sampling that sells product. Slap it out there without thought as to sanitary conditions or integrating these products with other sales. Nope samples sell and you really do not need a plan to do this. I would like to mention how the Uzzi family stores do sampling. First they will find dated products like cookies and crackers that they will get full credit for the empty box from the supplier for. Next they take a basket that might have been laying around under the cabinets in the office of the store then take a paper towel and pour these stale cookies or crackers into it. Finally put this basket on the counter where everyone can put their hands in to get a sample and there you have it product sampling.

8. Seafood displays should include everything but the salt spray from sea itself. A wide selection of fresh looking fish that just caught the red eye in from the Boston Seafood Market so that they can be displayed in your supermarket is where it is at. Costs? Do not worry about the costs because the experts say that you will recover you costs as a retailer with enough left over to by your that 85 foot Sea Ray cruiser so that you can catch your own fish.

A dose of reality here if you ever find yourself in the Cincinnati Ohio area and are a Foodie then spend a day at Jungle Jim’s International Market in Fairfield Ohio because there you will see a real seafood department and marvel at the extensive effort that Jim went to in bringing the Theater of Food to his customers.

9. A restaurant or cafe area is necessary to have a Theater of Food feel in your store. We are not talking a Big Gulp dispenser and a Hot Dog warming machine no we are talking about a selection of international style foods, drinks – beer and wine would make it even better along with a nice seating area perhaps over looking the sales floor. I do not know about you but buying my food to take home as opposed to eating food at a table in the supermarket just does not make me want to buy more product to take home. I know that the experts can phrase it better than I can here but none the less we must have a area to eat our food in at the supermarket.

10. Wait a minute we almost forgot to mention that a retailer should be offering cooking classes or at least have some bar or high stools that slide right up to the table where Sushi, assorted entree’s or other things are being prepared by the in-store food expert.

So now we have identified the type of shoppers that one might find in their local supermarket, their shopping needs and finally we have heard some of the key ingredients, sorry I had to use that line, necessary to create a Theater of Food from the industry experts. So all that remains in this post is to ask potentially two questions. The first question is does the Theater of Food concept work or not even after 15 years of use in terms of boosting profits and sales in the supermarket? The second question is if the concept worked for the retail food industry does it satisfy the shopping needs of both types of today’s food shoppers? If the answer to this question is no than a followup question is necessary which is what will it take to make this overly hyped concept work for today’s supermarket customer?

The answer to these question will be presented in a future post….

AB

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