Reflecting New Shopping Trend, Stop & Shop Touts Organics

Typography
Traditional supermarkets see organic foods as one way to hold on to shoppers lured away by low-price wholesale clubs, convenience stores and other retailers that stock food.

The Stop & Shop supermarket chain begins a new advertising campaign on Monday, airing television and radio spots aimed at convincing a core group of shoppers -- moms -- that the stores can help make their lives easier.


The three-part "Solved" campaign, created by Wenham, Mass.-based Mullen ad agency, will continue at least through the end of the year, according to Judi Palmer, Stop & Shop's senior director of customer marketing.


The media spots, along with direct mail and in-store signs, will start showing up in Providence and other Southern New England markets. The first phase will promote "Nature's Promise," the private-label brand of natural and organic foods the chain introduced last year. Later ads will focus on Thanksgiving dinner and holiday entertaining.


"All-natural and organic foods are increasing in popularity with consumers," Palmer said.


Traditional supermarkets see organic foods as one way to hold on to shoppers lured away by low-price wholesale clubs, convenience stores and other retailers that stock food.


About 66 percent of American shoppers have bought organic food, including produce, at least once, according to the Organic Trade Association, and about 40 percent buy organic food occasionally.


That demand helped feed Whole Foods Market Inc., the $8.6-billion Texas company that operates 170 stores in 26 states, the District of Columbia and Canada.


Natural and organic foods are also a strong point for West Bridgewater, Mass.-based Shaw's Supermarkets.


Among some of Shaw's product lines are two legacies of recently purchased Star Markets -- Wild Harvest natural and health foods and its La Carte prepared meals. Albertson's Inc., of Boise, Idaho, cited those food lines among its reasons for buying the 209-store Shaw's chain last year.


Traditionally, organic produce sells for more than the fruit and vegetables grown with chemicals because growing all-natural items takes more time and effort. Crop yields are often lower, and only about 3 percent of the nation's farmland is devoted to organic growing, according to the Organic Trade Association.


Stop & Shop supermarkets, based in Quincy, Mass., and owned by Royal Ahold NV of the Netherlands, stocks Nature's Promise in all its 365 stores in the Northeast. The products are grouped in their own section, as well as spread throughout other food group aisles, Palmer said.


To see more of the The Providence Journal, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.projo.com.


Source: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News