Page 38 - Deli Business June/July 2020

FEATURE
include guacamole or hummus with veg- gies or pita chips.
“People are starting to cook more from scratch, so they are looking for ingredi- ents,” says Dedic. “Everyone is going to be shopping differently; my products are a convenience item, and money is going to be more of a value than time.”
Analytics specialist Roerink also believes the numbers show more people were cook- ing at home by early April.
“Shoppers are preparing more home- cooked meals across all meal occasions, from breakfast to dinner,” says Roerink. “Additionally, students of all ages are home from school, evening activities are can- celled, and shoppers emphasize healthful meals. At the same time, economic pres- sure is building.”
George E. DeLallo Co. of Jeanette, PA. is featuring numerous make-at-home
Mediterranean meal options.
The company’s gnocchi kit includes
everything needed to make fresh potato and cheese gnocchi.
For the more adventurous connoisseur of Italian dinners, DeLallo offers a recipe to combine gnocchi with chicken, bacon and spinach.
DeLallo is also featuring the makings and recipes for five different pea and pasta recipes suitable for springtime dinners.
As a sign of the times, even before the pandemic, one of the IDDBA’s 19 trends was La Trattoria, Italian-themed eater- ies that offer the ability to eat a prepared meal at the establishment, buy a hot meal to take home, or buy cold, ready-to-warm or bake items.
Buying online skyrocketed during the pandemic, as consumers sought the safest ways to get their food, and this trend could
be here to stay and offer the supermarket deli new competition.
“Consumers are adopting short-term behaviors during the pandemic that, in some cases, will become permanent, including the transition to online ordering and the purchasing of new brands and food items,” says Jeremy Johnson, vice president of education for the IDDBA. “Consumers will emerge from COVID-19 in a new economic reality, which is likely to change grocery decisions even further. We will continue to track purchasing trends in the dairy, deli and bakery departments to try and get a handle on what may be that new normal.”
The rise of internet sales creates new opportunities as well as new competition for the deli.
“We have seen an increase in online sales for our retailers offering pickup and deliv- ery options and that also includes olives
OLIVES TAKE SHELTER IN CUPS AND JARS
Nicoise olives are only grown in low yielding orchards in the French Riviera and are largely sold and eaten domestically.
Possibly the only source of these intense black olives with a bitter, nutty avor in the U.S. is the George E. DeLallo Co., which began as an Italian market serving the working-class neighborhood of Jeannette, PA, and has grown into a major, but still family-owned, importer, producer and distributor of specialty Italian and Mediterranean foods
These days, Nicoise olives, like the 7-ounce pitted olive jubi- lee, which also includes kalamata and plump green olives, and the blue cheese stuffed green California Sevillian olives, are largely sold in cups, rather than at the olive bar.
“We have been working with our retailer partners to develop ways in which we can continue to offer olives and antipasti to the public,” says Giuliana Pozzuto, marketing director at DeLallo. “Because our retailers want to keep up the quality of their offerings and the consistency of consumer shopping habits, they are packaging our bulk product to sell in cups and display on the bar. Along with cupping our bulk product, we offer a pre-packaged line that has over 40 DeLallo Olive & Anti- pasti items. These items are packaged in our SQF-certi ed U.S. facilities. We have found that retailers are ready to take full advantage of this robust program, in addition to the bulk bar.”
Olives still capture 10 percent of all sales in the deli appetizer category, according to Madison, WI-based International Dairy Deli Bakery Association’s (IDDBA) What’s In Store 2020, even though they have lost some market share over the last three years as egg rolls, jalapeño poppers and tortilla chips increased.
But this mainstay among Mediterranean foods has tempo- rarily largely taken shelter in cups and jars, as many retailers pulledtheirfoodandoliveandantipastibarsbecauseconsum- ers are anxious about trying foods that other customers have looked over or even touched.
“A deli can create a Mediterranean destination for the con-
sumer by offering a full lineup of pre-packaged olives and antipasti to merchandise along with your specialty cheeses,” says Pozzuto. “Specialty cheeses, olives and antipasti are nat- ural complements. You can create a bar right there on the shelves. Merchandise olives and antipasti alongside cured Ital- ian sausages, bruschettas and spreads.”
The supermarket deli must nd new ways to merchan- dise the Mediterranean products that were previously sold in self-service food bars.
“During the last week of March, the deli department experi- enced year-over-year sales increases for cheese and meat, but deep declines for deli-prepared, as many stores had closed or limited operations of made-to-order counters, self-serve buf- fets, salad bars and hot bars,” says 210 Analytics president Anne-Marie Roerink, who is providing a weekly analysis of pan- demic and post-pandemic trends through the IDDBA.
It is still possible, however, to merchandise olives and anti- pasti in locations in the deli close to where consumers found them before the pandemic changed everything.
“One way we are merchandising bar items is to cup, label and place them into the existing olive bar pans,” says Pozzuto. “Customers are accustomed to visiting the bar for the items, so we recommend having them available in re-packed cups during this time. We also have been expanding our prepack- aged programs.”
Even though the pandemic has challenged olive and food bars for the foreseeable future, there are opportunities for pro- gressive retailers to offer bold displays of packaged items.
“Beginning with the olive bar, delis can choose to ramp up their offerings at the bar with complementary cheese spreads, bruschetta varieties, tapenades, focaccia toasts and Ital- ian-style cured salumi,” says Pozzuto. “Customers are looking for ways to grow and enhance their charcuterie plates and cheese boards.” DB
38 DELI BUSINESS JUN/JUL 2020