“how are you going to operate it—lean and mean, or are you going to operate it like you’re intending to be in the food industry?”

— Matthew Troyak, Stan Morgan & Assocates

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Unfortunately for foodservice operators, it’s not always taste that sells—at least not

at first.

The law of acquisition requires that a customer must first be swayed to buy your food before he or she can actually taste its worth. Fortunately, we humans often eat with our emo-tions rather than any sort of logic. That’s why effective merchandising is paramount to making the foodser-vice sale.

FINDING INSPIRATION Look outside your channel and take notice: the increasing number of action stations at parties, open kitchens in fine-dining operations, the Chipotle-model fast-casual store, even the tantalizing images on a McDonald’s menu. Custom-

ers react to sensory stimulation, and the first steps to effectively merchandising your food program is to draw visual inspiration from other retail concepts.

This is just what Ann Marie Solomon, vice president of Merchandising Strate-gy & Creative Services for Philadelphia-based Aramark, and her team did when creating the company’s merchandising

program, coined “Merchology.” There are principles for retail merchandis-ing, and principles of food plating, but Solomon found no set rules for the retail foodservice establishment. “We needed to make this transition from the foodservice mind-set to a retail food mind-set,” she explains.

The proprietary Merchology program is sort of a five-volume textbook—di-vided by salad, sandwich, pizza and pasta, grill and entrée—given out to the operators in all of Aramark’s 5,000 footprints. So far, says Solomon, the program has been a success: In the sites her team “test-merchologized,” they saw a 10% lift in sales thanks to enhanced merchandising.

Before implementation, the Aramark merchandising team explored super-

CREATING THE SIGHTS, SCENTS AND SOUNDS TO MAKE THE SALE

BYABBIE WESTRA

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T H E M A G A Z I N E F O R F O O D S E R V I C E A T R E T A I L • W W W. F A R E M A G A Z I N E . C O M 21

markets as well as leading-edge gour-met delis in New York City. Why the Big Apple? “They have a lot of mom-and-pop or one- to two-location stores, like Europa Cafe, Balducci’s, Dean & DeLuca and Mangia, that display food this way all the time,” Solomon says.

Solomon even looks to clothing stores for color-blocking cues (break up blocks of pale colors [provolone slices] with brighter colors [Cheddar]) and window-display inspiration. While your opera-tion might not have a floor-to-ceiling window, translate that idea into a small display table near the front door with your foodservice offerings and free samples.

THE RIGHT EQUIPMENTYou don’t want your customer to have to walk all the way to the rear cooler to find a single sandwich wedged between energy drinks and bottled water. A wide variety of cases, counters and other display equipment is available to the foodservice retailer, from wall and shop-around units to islands and coun-ters with various temperature zones.

“Open-air display merchandisers and coolers are one of the greatest profit centers, but yet it’s also a very upscale look that’s going to set your store apart,” says Matthew Troyak of Stan Morgan & Associates, Excelsior, Minn., which offers store layout and design services and sells equipment to stores.

“We are designing these cabinets to show product exceptionally well, whether it’s behind a glass partition in all display pans with the product being visually enhanced by lighting and glass and openness and customer friendli-ness, or really designing equipment into the cabinetry that has a complete and finished look to it,” says Troyak.

Good units aren’t enough, though. Placement is crucial. Near the door and checkout, for instance, drives impulse purchases and underscores the impor-tance you are placing in your offering.

At a new “flagship” Cumberland Farms convenience store in Farmington, Conn., brightly lit, open-air merchan-disers are strategically placed and fully stocked with a variety of grab-and-go foods.

SAYING THE RIGHT THINGSome descriptors help to trig-ger a customer’s appetite. Oth-ers ... not so much. Following is a list of the most appealing and unappealing menu descriptors, from Aramark.

MOST APPEALINGFreshHomemadeRoastedBakedFarm-FreshGrilled/Charcoal- GrilledCharbroiled/BroiledBarbecued/MarinatedHearty

LEAST APPEALINGRawBlackenedPureedDeep-Fried/FriedInfusedPoachedAt Cumberland Farms, grab-and-go

merchandisers are poised for the impulse buy.

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Practice sequencing—placing food in order of its use—and keep vessels full and fresh.

•Foodserviceistheater:Createsensory stimulation to make the sale.

•Looktoallotherretailandfood-service channels for merchan-dising inspiration.

•Strategicallyplaceopen-airandother display cases in custom-er’s line-of-sight, and in smart relation to one another.

•Keepfoodfreshandwell-stocked from the first customer to the last. Practice fronting or shallowing tactics to keep food waste down.

•Yourcustomerwon’tknowhowgood your food is if they haven’t tasted it. Sample frequently and aggressively.

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The goal, says Cumberland Farms presi-dent Ari Haseotes, is “to create an envi-ronment in the store [that] represents and communicates our commitment to delivering really great, quality food products, beverages and food items.”

That commitment sure shows, from the numerous display cases of sandwiches, the multiple placements of fresh fruits and the voluminous assortment of bakery products. A wall-length open-air cooler filled with isotonics, bottled water and energy drinks provides the air of a supermarket set, complete with eggs, butter, cheeses and luncheon meats.

The new store also features chocolate milkshakes, flatbread breakfast sand-wiches, personal pizzas and extensive roller-grill and coffee programs.

But not everyone can afford to invest in all new equipment, especially if you

have multiple stores. When implement-ing the Merchology program, Aramark operators were forced to work with older styles of equipment models—a challenge that didn’t deter Solomon: “A lot of Merchology is how you can revolutionize by adding to existing equipment.” Instead of replacing steam tables, they added tile trays and sauté and roasting pans with top and bottom heat through other means, “to make it look a little more retail.”

EYE CANDYMerchandising goes beyond the perma-nent fixtures. There’s also practicality, like your utensils and vessels.

“If I can’t pick up lettuce at a salad bar with the tongs they give me because they’re really bad tongs,” Solomon says, “that’s a bad experience.”

Proper lighting is another crucial ele-ment. Experiment with different types

of bulbs, make certain lighting is aimed at the food or signage and change any burned-out lights.

Sequencing is another term used often at the Aramark headquarters. In made-to-order areas, ingredients should be stocked in order that the dish—be it a salad or sandwich—is built. For grab-and-go cases, sequence products by main item such as sandwich, sides such as carrot sticks or chips and then add-ons like soup or a small salad.

In made-to-order sections, be sure to block less appetizing ingredients from a customer’s view. Lettuce, tomatoes and onions are less appealing on a grill station than they are at the salad bar, so keep those out of eyesight.

Speaking of eyesight, consider where your gaze naturally falls when stock-ing a grab-and-go display. The top shelf should have your premium or high-margin items. If there are more than two shelves, the center of each shelf will have more impact than the sides.

And for items such as pasta and vege-tables that are served with sauces, keep the sauces in a separate pan and add them to order to keep the item from becoming soggy and unappealing.

PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHERAlong with having the right equip-ment is properly placing them in smart relationship to each other. Any type of

Stock a station with everything a customer needs for a meal, from entrée to side, drink to dessert.

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“We needed to make this transition from the foodservice mind-set to a retail food mind-set.”

— Ann Marie Solomon, Aramark

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made-to-order station—be it pizza or subs—should be placed so it is easily spotted from the entrance of the store, but also out of high-traffic areas to avoid congestion. Similarly, stock the made-to-order areas with a variety of chips, fruit, cookies and other items for customers to contemplate buying while waiting for their subs.

Bakery cases should be strategically placed, Troyak says, “so the customer has to go buy their cup of coffee, and lo and behold there’s a bakery case sitting there plump-full of color, with pastries in it that hopefully are enticing to the customer.”

Solomon recommends to Aramark op-erators they provide a nice mix of self- and full-service areas, with an express checkout for those who are grabbing-and-going.

She also focuses on “not making people swim upstream,” placing, for example, coffee lids by the condiment counter (as opposed to the cup dispenser) so customers don’t need to remove and replace their lids after adding cream and sugar.

STAYING STOCKEDThe perception of poor quality and freshness is a hurdle many prepared-food operations must face. When you have prepared foods on display, it is vital they are fully stocked and nicely packaged from the first customer to the very last.

“Utilize your equipment throughout the day, not just for a certain time frame of the day,” says Troyak. Fill the bakery case with bagels, doughnuts and

scones in the morning, and cookies and breadsticks after noon.

“Operators are very cost-conscious. We don’t have the margins that retailers generally have. So sometimes they start skimping on the amount of food they put out there, especially when they get closer to closing time,” says Solomon.

“So we give them techniques on put-ting out less food but giving the same impression. And it’s not food waste if you get somebody to buy it. I will tell you nobody is going to take the last bit of lettuce in a bowl.”

Create build-down strategies for when service winds down to maintain the appearance of a fresh, fully stocked station, without exorbitant food waste.

“Fronting” means pushing all prod-ucts to the front of a grab-and-go case, or—in the case of a steam table—replacing full-size pans with half pans and plac-ing them in the

front half of the well. Fill the other half with a clean, empty half pan.

Practice “shallowing” by replacing deep vessels with smaller, shallower ones that take less food to fill, and, “collapse to the middle” ingredients on a sand-wich prep table.

MAKING THE SALEAs many retailers will attest to, the golden ticket for more food sales is frequent and aggressive sampling.

“The misconception is that it’s going to sell itself,” says Troyak. “ ‘Hey, if I install a new soda machine with flavor options on it, that pop machine is going to sell itself.’ I don’t necessarily agree with that—you’ve got to promote, you’ve got to advertise, and take samples to the customers and show them that we’re not just your average food store. We’re selling an upscale, good product for a good price. We want to be considered your location to swing by and get some-thing to eat … seven days a week.”

And don’t forget the retail side of the coin and the importance of good pack-aging—especially if you aren’t making food right in front of the customer.

Displays, lighting, packaging, signage—it is all about creating visual cues of freshness, abundance and deliciousness.

“Food is and certainly could be a strong profit center; it’s just a matter of how are you going to operate it—lean and mean, or are you going to operate it like you’re intending to be in the food industry?”

Keep your packaged foods fully stocked from your first customer to your very last.

Consider where your gaze naturally falls when displaying high-margin foods.

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Hatco Corp.’s new line of refriger-ated drop-in wells for salad bars, buffets and cold food displays match nicely with the company’s popular heated wells. State-of-the-art controls keep

food at safe serving temperature. The wells are all 27 inches with an angled, stainless-steel inside wall for a clear view and easy access to food. The units accommodate a variety of configurations of full-, half- and third-size food pans. www.hatcocorp.com; (800) 558-0607

The new demo/sam-pling cart from Cadco Ltd. puts the theater of foodservice on wheels. Prep food on the maple cutting board, bake/cook/retherm in the quarter-size convection on the lower shelf, cook on the glass-ceramic drop-in range, and keep prepared food samples hot for hours in the top warmer. Equipped with five pan slides for extra storage. Front and sides are covered with black skirting. www.cadco-ltd.com; (860) 738-2500

Structural Concepts’ new Oasis MI4R Mul-tipurpose Refrigerat-ed Island Merchandis-er allows customers to shop from all four

sides of this 4-foot unit. The self-contained, slide-out refrigeration system

can be toggled between 38° and 41°F at the flip of a switch. Available in stainless steel as well as a variety of paint and laminate colors. www.structuralconcepts.com; (800) 433-9489

Presence From Innovation LLC (PFI) creates cutting-edge merchandising equipment for retail operations, from POP products to fixture solutions. It work with retailers (such as Casey’sGeneralStores,shownhere)tocreatecustomizedkiosks, merchandisers, cases and counters for each stores’ unique needs. www.pfinnovation.com; (314) 890-1628

The Blu refrigeration system from Kairak introduces a low-pressure, steady flow of liquid coolant through each hollow divider bar without the need for cop-per piping, delivering high-capacity coolant throughout the system. The Blu line includes sauté stations (shown here), prep tables and drop-in pan chillers. www.kairak.com; (800) 833-1106

ThenewDirector’sChoiceVIP (Visual in Place) Display System from Eagle Group can be attached to Eagle cold or hot food units and scattered throughout the store to reduce customer wait-time. Prewired system reduces field cost and instal-lation, and color and lighting configurations are endless. www.eaglegrp.com; (800) 441-8440

Merchandising and prep equipment