H-E-B
COURTS KIDS WITH KITS ON COOKING
By:
Lucia Moses, 27-Jun-05
SAN
ANTONIO -- H.E.B. Grocery already offers a popular cooking
course for kids through its upscale Central Market format.
Now, Central Market is hoping to give them another reason
to travel down the grocery aisles by stocking several cooking
kits designed for young foodies.
New
in the aisles this month are candy-making kits
from Verve, a Providence, R.I.-based company, and lemonade
stand and ice-cream-making kits from Chicago-based Sassafras
Enterprises. Central Market is merchandising them in the
candy and housewares aisles, along with child-sized chef's
aprons and toques.
Central Market has sold kits before, during the winter holiday
season. Those, from Color-A-Cookie, contained food coloring
"pens" for decorating and tended to have seasonal
themes. While the recent additions are expected to be popular
in the summer, when kids have more free time to fill, the
hope is to sell them year-round, said Rex Howell-Smith,
specialty-foods buyer.
As children share in the growing popularity of cooking,
more supermarkets like Central Market see an opportunity
to cater to young chefs in training. To that end, they're
offering cooking kits, accessories and cooking classes for
kids in an effort to carve out a bit of this tiny but expanding
business that's traditionally been the domain of specialty
stores.
ShopRite, Stop & Shop, Jewel-Osco and Food Lion also
carry Color-A-Cookie kits, while Albertsons, Food Lion and
Giant Eagle are selling Crayola-licensed Crafty Cooking
Kits, according to the kits' makers.
In addition to Central Market, Dierberg's in St. Louis and
Boulder, Colo.-based Wild Oats are among retailers that
have extended their cooking-class programs to kids.
Howell-Smith sees the Central Market initiatives as a way
to extend to children its efforts to inspire shoppers' love
of food. To that end, the banner also recently introduced
prepared meals designed for young diners. Along with familiar
fare like meatloaf, the menu includes coconut chicken tenders.
"We're more than just a food source for people,"
he said. "Some people see us as a Disneyland of food,
and kids relate to the spectacle."
He
liked the educational nature of the Verve candy-making kits.
Billed as "food for thought," the kits come in
chocolate, chewing gum and gummy bear versions and contain,
respectively, information about the origin of cocoa, chicle
and carrageenan.
"They're more traditionally sold in a museum gift shop,
but we thought it was a great match for us in the way we
try to involve children and adults in food and sourcing,"
Howell-Smith said.
Kids' interest in cooking isn't surprising, considering
the proliferation of cooking shows that use celebrity and
entertainment to demystify cooking for the masses. Food
expert Emeril Lagasse and the Food Network are courting
kids with cookbooks and Web sites. In addition to cooking
kits, kids can find scaled-down cookware designed just for
them.
"The Food Network has done so much to inspire kids
and get them enthused about food," Howell-Smith said.
As a result, kids are more sophisticated, he said. Scout
den mothers have come in the store and asked for unusual
items like escargot, and their charges are likely to react,
"Oh, I saw that. I'll try that," he said.
Retailers may be cultivating future customers with such
marketing efforts, but they also see a more immediate benefit
to targeting a group that's exerting increasing influence
over what goes in the cart.
"We know that children drive parents' purchase on many
items," Howell-Smith said.
Source:
www.supermarketnews.com
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