Easy Street?
Whole Grain Medley with vegetables is a convenient side dish under the Safeway Select brand, in a convenient microwave pouch.
Convenience foods? Sure! But a lot of people may want more than just convenience, even if they're pressed for cash as well as time in a troubled economy.
It’s eat-and-run more than ever these days. Maybe even eat-and-stay, for people who’d rather watch football or a movie on TV than make a big fuss about fixing lunch or dinner. But they still want something good to eat, even if they’re in a hurry.
Convenience foods used to mean a few staples like macaroni and cheese and skillet dinners. But while those are still out there, although often in updated packaging – as witness Lasagna skillet meal with an Italian-style sauce mix at Giant Eagle, Pittsburgh, PA, or Stroganoff with Egg Noodles under the Best Yet brand from C&S Wholesale, Keene, NH – they aren’t where the growth is.
Even in those standard categories, some retailers are setting a new standard. Under its Archer Farms brand, for example, Target, Minneapolis, MN, markets a whole slew of variations on conventional macaroni and cheese dinners: Classic Cheddar, Four Cheese Florentine, Creamy Tomato, Mushroom Cavatappi, Buffalo and Porcini Mushroom – some with whole wheat macaroni. But at the other end of the spectrum are items like Clear Value shells and cheese from Topco Associates, Skokie, IL. Unified Grocers, Commerce, CA, similarly offers a Special Value version.
Some of the most basic convenience foods are also the oldest. Want a quick lunch? All you need is sliced bread and sliced luncheon meat. Bread is one of the very largest categories in private label, with sales of $1.753 billion for the 52 weeks ended 10/4/2009, up 3.8%, according to Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), Chicago, IL. Sliced luncheon meat sales in store brands were $536.1 million, up three percent.
Store Brand Innovations
Just because they’re time-honored, however, it doesn’t follow that they aren’t open to innovation. Honey whole wheat bread, for example, is a healthy eating option from Target under the Archer Farms Simply Balanced sub-brand. Under its Market Pantry brand, Target offers a new zip pack option for standard luncheon meats like smoked turkey and honey ham. Going beyond those standard items are vacuum-packed sliced sandwich meats like Peppered Salame [sic] under the Primo Taglio brand from Safeway, Pleasanton, CA; and Prosciutto under the Culinary Circle brand from Supervalu, Eden Prairie, MN.
Canned meat and meat spreads, possibly because of the economy, have been showing extraordinary growth in private label: up 57% to $74.7 million for the 52 weeks ended 10/4/2009, according to IRI, and canned lunch meats are up 31.4% to $33.3 million. Some retailers, such as Kroger, Cincinnati, OH, with its Kroger Value brand, are adding canned meats to economy lines. Canned tuna is also showing rapid growth, up 21.6% to $142.6 million. IRI’s canned meat listings probably include chicken, which isn’t broken out separately. But all these items are used in sandwiches and, to a lesser extent, salads to whip up quick yet nutritious meals.
Instant potatoes, long a kitchen staple, are still making gains, but not as rapidly as sandwich fixings: they were up 6.7% to $52.4 million, according to IRI. It’s much the same with several other tried-and-true convenience foods. Chili is up 2.4% to $26.5 million, and dry dinner mixes (“add meat”), i.e., skillet dinners a bare two percent to $23.2 million. Prepared pasta dishes did better, up 6.4% to $43.5 million; but dry salad and side dish mixes posted a bare 0.6% increase, to $19.3 million. On the other hand, macaroni and cheese dinners were up 8.3% to $118.4 million, and fully-prepared shelf stable salads jumped 37.5% to $11.8 million.
In the dry grocery sector, Target offers such off-beat items as Sesame Teriyaki and Creamy Chipotle cold pasta salads, and entrees like Smoky Bacon & Parmesan Cheese, while in the frozen food department its “guests” (Target won’t call them shoppers!) can find items like bistro-inspired Cherry Walnut Chicken Pilaf. Even where they don’t have refrigerated sections, some Target outlets have coolers next to in-store restaurants that offer fresh sandwiches like Turkey Club and even ready-made salads like Chicken Caesar.
Supervalu’s Culinary Circle line also includes refrigerated entrees like Chicken Marsala, while the Meals Made Simple line at Kroger offers convenience items like seasoned beef tips in gravy. Topco’s Dining In line similarly features convenience foods like braised beef in wine sauce, Buffalo-style chicken tenders, flame-broiled lightly-seasoned meatballs and stir-fry shrimp. Corned beef products from Topco come under yet another brand, Buckley Farms.
New forms of convenience packaging also play a vital role in private label programs. Under its Safeway Select brand, for example, Safeway offers rice side dishes and a Whole Grain Medley with Vegetables in microwave pouches: “Excite your taste buds and nourish your body with this perfectly seasoned medley of whole grain brown rice, lentils and wholesome barley, with colorful, flavorful vegetables. A dash of saffron makes it extra special, so it will perk up any plate or be made a meal in itself. Made delicious in 90 seconds.”
Target beats Safeway’s clock with an Archer Farms Indian-inspired Cashew Saffron Basmati Rice in the same kind of packaging, that can be microwaved in 45 seconds to a minute; or, alternately, heated in a skillet with two tablespoons of water. Trader Joe’s, Monrovia, CA, offers a Multigrain Pilaf imported from India that substitutes soybeans for rice and also includes pearl millet and cracked wheat, along with tomato, onions, garlic, chiles and spices; it zaps in two minutes.
Trader Joe’s also offers such convenience items as ready-to-eat shredded pork and chicken, Chinese-style barbecue seasoned pork, cooked beef Tri Tip in Korean-style BBQ sauce, and even seasoned Rack of Lamb (“Free range,” the packaging points out.).
