The Bloomberg Businessweek issue for August 15-28 has a great cover shot for the “Popularity Issue” and inside awards its top spot to the Gluten-Free Diet which they say is being driven by those with celiac disease and the 15% of consumers who purchase these products and “help create a $2.6 billion market.” What has happened has occurred with an ease that often does not accompany most product rollouts which can be slow and focused on test markets. Now, big name manufacturers are vying for space alongside the stalwart G-F leaders such as Bob’s Red Mill and Udi’s. When you see 2 loaves of Rudi’s G-F multigrain bread at Costco you see a sea change, and a price drop. Let’s see, 2 loaves at the big box for about half the cost of a single one at the regular store!

The race is on.

More grocers are demonstrating their understanding of the growing numbers by integrating the G-F product line rather than isolating it into a small corner of the store. Sure shelves are often still marked with flip signs indicating a G-F product, but even that has somewhat lessened as consumers recognize the product labeling with the GF symbol. We’ve talked plenty about how obvious products are now quick to boast of their new popularity status. Lea & Perrin’s Worcestershire Sauce remains my best go-to example, but the Chex family should not get excluded from their big bold banners. Wait, now Rice Krispies has the bold banner.

If you think you’ve seen a lot of GF products at the grocers and been passed GF restaurant menus, you’ve barely scraped the surface. Who wouldn’t want to be part of this impressive marketing action?

Not a trend, but a lifestyle choice with a wide arena for traditional companies to make the jump into the G-F universe! Expect to see more such gotcha labels.

Besides ample room to negotiate the aisles, what else is new in this brightly lit environment? Where does one begin? Maybe with the fact that they have a butcher on site. That works for me as the profession has been slowly facing the death knell. To help the butcher have a bold presence, there’ll be no shortage of great aromas as the meat department has its own smoker for ribs and brisket, a Kosher selection, and dry-aged meats.

The fish and seafood counter may remind you a bit of the way hotels are reaching out and getting away from the front desk concept. In this department, the staff will come out from behind the counter and help you select your items. The more personalized, interactive, approach is something that will be evident throughout the entire store.

Name a department and put them to the test. They’ve got you covered. Start with take-away, prepared foods. You’ll be swimming in possibilities from the hot 850 degree pizza oven that promises a Neapolitan selection in 90 seconds to the new Arepas section for your cornmeal cake. Too daring, then step over to the burger and hot dog station. Some other changes right there: An organic salad bar. Now that takes the guesswork out of decision-making! They’ll even have smaller, more affordable prepared salads in the cases.

As for what’s truly different: Cooking Rockville promises to take the guesswork out of “How do I prepare this food, ingredient?” They have a staff of cooking coaches ready to assist in an inviting space with a wall of spices and grains as a backdrop!  This area should help more shoppers take the next step into adventuresome, reality cooking, what they call CIY, Cooking It Yourself. They’ll champion you.

The company seems focused on addressing an age-old problem: Affordability. They are conscious of what’s involved for every shopper and stress their new focus: competitive everyday prices, over 2,000 sale items per month, and plenty of weekly specials. When you add that up and throw in the emphasis on fresh, organic, and local,  you have followed the Market to its next step.

It’s always fun to go to a new grocer or restaurant preview. This outing was no exception. Yes, Whole Foods has shown that shopping does not have to be dull. Always fun to see new departments stretch the possibilities and respond to the latest trends.

Grab a basket. It’s opening day!

Simple rule of thumb: Know your prices. If you know the cost of the basics, then you know when an item “on sale” is truly a sale-priced item.

Step two: Plan menus around the sales. If this is the week that avocados are reasonable, then guacamole proves tastier. You can follow that rhythm through each department. Chicken thighs on sale; chicken thighs, it is.

There are few other strategies that work as well during the upward creep. Maybe the process is faster than a creepy crawl as a week does not go by without another commodity escalating upwards.

Coffee prices are up. Eggs are more expensive. Bread products continue to rise (pun intended). Name a food, a basic commodity, and you understand how the shopping scene has changed.

Besides the bread basket costs of grocery shopping, another effect is on restaurants. Consumers have only so much of their budgeted money for food, whether at the market or at a restaurant. The end result is the fast food and casual restaurants do much better while the mid-tier suffers. The end result is that the restaurant picture continues to struggle as many restaurants with higher price points cannot survive the slack sales.

As we all hold on tighter to our wallets, grocery shopping and dining out become the precious commodities. Increased pricing hits all of us hard.

We can’t afford heavy lifting.

This past week solidified the reality of shopping. Chicago area chain Dominick’s (aka, Safeway) fired a missile into the competitive marketplace with their recent roll out of personalized deals: Just for You. They do not have the exclusive handle on this strategy as most of the majors have figured out they need to get into our grocery baskets to help us earn savings for our regular purchases. Not invasive; just cost-saving as most of these grocery programs are limited to car-carrying loyalists!

On the East Coast, Giant Food (Stop & Shop) has been running a promotion with Shell gasoline. (Kroger, and its many affiliate names throughout the country, has a similar tie-in.)  Giant just upped the ante and tied specific purchases to higher gasoline discounts. The promotion was supposed to expire over the summer. Now that it’s October, the program seems to have moved into overdrive with numerous new promotions that come with high rewards: 200 points, for example, equals 20 cents off a gallon of gas. Simple math or a two-fer: grocery promos and gas savings! We may have to start watching Shell Oil to see if its sales climb, too, or see if Costco’s gas prices are impacted?

Not only businesses that call themselves grocers are in on the act. Look at Dollar General, Target, Costco, and Wal-Mart and you see an expansionary trend: Consumers buy what they can afford, and these companies want to be at the top of the list. Target plans to open stores with full-fledged food departments. If you think I’m making a small point, check out their 10/10/10 strategy; they’ll  open 10 new stores, all with a major emphasis on the grocery part of the business. That’ll be a date the company will remember!

Lest you forget, the big box guys as in Costco and Wal-Mart already realize the impact food purchases have on the bottom line. Neither is standing still and both plan major expansions and an increased emphasis on private labels and upscale goods. It’s tough out there as the consumer does the math and heads for the bottom line; no one wants the sidelines.

Even though the economy has not dealt us all a fair deck, grocers continue to fight with a vast array of new promotions.

None of the produce fared well. Remember this is the end of the tale. Within about a half an hour of unpacking and putting the kitchen in order, I noticed one very tiny flying thing. No, not one–wait they were everywhere. I had brought home the enemy: The Fruit Fly and his extended family which was increasing and multiplying by the second. I was devastated.

I know I have shared my general bug opinions before or as Woody Allen so eloquently stated, “I am at two with nature.” Things that fly belong outside. My house, especially my kitchen, is off-limits to the insect world. They must not have gotten the memo! They were everywhere.

Since I do not believe in small, tactical nuclear weapons, I resorted to the next level of defense. I quickly grabbed every item that looked safe and free of the fliers and popped them into the refrigerator. The tomato, which I suspected was the carrier as the guys were flying all around the section at the stand, did not survive such a decision. Its fate was sealed as were the bananas and the two-tier wire basket that had for such a short time housed the army. I tossed the bananas and the tomato and banished the basket to the driveway. It would learn its fate later.

I smugly returned to the kitchen, but then I learned the true theory of multiplication. They were everywhere, and they were quick. You couldn’t just grab one and be done with it. They were too fast for that. Time to resort to the number one kitchen cure-all: Vinegar. A small bowl, and I thought we would be done with the invasion.

OK, so a few took the bait. The others needed a few days without any food on display. They gave up; surrendered their position to a greater force: ME or maybe it was just the luck of time.

Meanwhile, the basket has been cleansed. I know it will make a return visit to my kitchen. Fruit just looks great on display; so inviting. The market season may have ended for me this past weekend. OK, maybe I’ll grab a pumpkin or two, but the fruit flies were too numerous and omnipresent to let me enjoy my purchases. Cold apples taste different than those staring at you from the counter.

Maybe I’ll just wait til the first frost. We’ll see who wins future matches!

Bulk purchasing is a case of simple math: Money saved today v. Money that’s out of pocket for a while or until the goods are used up. All depends on how you calculate savings. A simple message runs through these new big boxers: No need to pay a membership fee.

Grocers such as Wegmans decided a while ago that they could rearrange their stores and find room for big containers of everyday purchases such as toilet paper, paper towels, and dish detergent. They devote an aisle or two or a section of the store to these seductively priced items. Judging by the piled-to-the sky carts, seems it’s working.

Now, Target has decided it can be a major player in this multi-pak arena. The logic is quite simple: You’re here; let us capture those dollars; no need for you to run around. They call it “The Great Save.” The simple translation is:  Shop, spend, save. This is a limited time experiment (until the end of February) as in if it works, it will most logically be continued.

With the price of gas again on the upswing. Consolidated shopping seems to be more than a passing fancy. That’s why Target has also added to its grocery sections and continues to remodel its stores with greater emphasis on food items. At the same time, they are studying smaller in-city stores: Their new target audience.

Nothing complex here. Multi-paks save money.

Bring on the deals. We’ll figure out the math.

It’s that time of the year when every talk show and commentator has a piece on NY’s Resolutions. Somehow the apple, the circular fruit with plenty of maxims about its importance, winds up in numerous discussions. Eat an apple. An apple a day. Make it a small one, no bigger than a tennis ball. Assuming they mean a yellow tennis ball and the apple of your choice! Or is that the apple of your eye?

Is there a season of the year when the apple is completely out of favor? We have to backtrack a little as the apple of yore, I guess that would be a Red Delicious Apple, has been relegated to the back of the bus. Not thrown off, but hardly the darling of the crop anymore. Sure there are plenty of recipes that clearly state use a delicious apple, but the core of the extensive lineup has lots of competition these days, regardless of the season (unless of course you are only eating products within a 100-mile radius). Name a state, and you’ll be able to find an orchard to match your tastes.

There are the basic reds and Golden Delicious, the Macintosh, the once uber-popular, Fuji, and the new darling of the aisle, the Honeycrisp. As there are numerous apples, there are apple prices all over the bag. If you go with the weekly sales, you’re likely to find good buys almost year-round on the apple. If you only eat organics, then you pay the organic premium and have your selection limited by availability. 

What is it about the apple anyway? Is it the fact that it is low in calories, and has no fat? Is it some of the new research that gives it health benefits in staving off Alzheimer’s? Is it its ease of eating as it fits so comfortably into your hand? Yes, to all of these reasons and to its year-round affordability.

So with the emphasis on eating healthy in this new year, and with the reality that flu season has not hit in every part of the country yet, then the best Apple Resolution is from Ben Franklin: An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”

Whaddya got to lose?

Just the core–save it for the compost pile.

With all the hamburger anxiety and food recalls associated with the burger, it’s time to consider adding an attachment to the food processor or the mixer that will take the worry out of food preparation and bring back a secure feeling to a popular food. Grinding chuck roasts, for example, for hamburger is not that difficult if you have the right piece of equipment. Then you can again enjoy a burger without fear of what filler has been added to the basics. You are in charge of safety.

Green teas have been popular for years for all their antioxidant benefits and their soothing refreshment. Overall tea sales continue to impact the beverage category both in hot and cold selections. Why not enjoy tea service with your own leaves gently seeped in the cup with a tea infuser? Lots of design choices from the classic at the Museum of Modern Art to the more moderately priced variation. Great present; fun gadget.

Look for coupons to help a little with the purchase price. Sur la Table has numerous coupon offers and major kitchen shops such as Williams-Sonoma offer regular specials to entice you during these upcoming weeks. Don’t forget Amazon!

Don’t worry if the Internet posed its holiday difficulties, and you feared the crowds at the stores, you have time.

More to come.

Understanding what we’re reading complicates the issue. It seems we need to walk around with a dictionary to determine what the various additives mean or we could just skip the product all together and settle for those with few ingredients and simultaneously those that use familiar words such as “tomato” rather than “hydrogenated tomato puree” or one of its cousins. Language simplicity should be the key to product purchasing. If you are unfamiliar with the word or overwhelmed by the number of ingredients, move on.

Now there’s a new game in town: The Smart Choices Program. Its basic principle is to identify foods that are “smart,” AKA nutritious, selections and then designate them with an easily identifiable front-of-the pack green check mark. The goal is to cut down on precious shopping time; to offer us products that will help maintain a healthy lifestyle. Before a product qualifies for this distinguishable label, it must meet the nutrient standards as identified by the “Dietary Guidelines for Americans” which are published every five years (the next such categorization will be out in 2010). Look at what’s been done so far. You can get involved.

The Smart Choices Program covers 19 distinct categories including meats, dairy, produce, and snacks. If a product receives the Smart Choice check, the calorie count (and the number of servings per container) will be prominently displayed on the front. This program is the end result of a team effort of scientists, public health organizations, food manufacturers, and nutrition educators. Now it is up to more food companies to submit their products for review and help make that elongated grocery shopping experience quicker, healthier, and easier.

Yes, it’s true, this type of nutrition labeling designation is one more thing to consider when purchasing food and beverages, but for a product to qualify and earn the green check, much of the thinking has been done.

This quick visual read should help us make smart choices.

Here’s a simple way to test the concept and put more money into the grocery bag: Buy some store brands instead of some national brands. According to a Consumer Reports blind taste test (October 2009 issue) of 29 food products, 23 store brands  tasted as good or better than the more expensive national brands. They found this to be true with Costco’s (Kirkland) Organic Salsa, Target’s Archer Farms Chewy Soft-Baked Cookies, and Wal-Mart’s Great Value Whipped Topping. These three store brands beat out Old El Paso, Pepperidge Farm, and Kraft respectively.

No need to be shy about trying the store brands– the savings can be impressive, and many grocery stores are confident in their in-house branding approach that they offer a money-back guarantee if customers are not pleased.

In another Consumers Reports study just released, they ranked and rated 18-high fiber cereals and found 7 distinct products noteworthy including Kirkland’s Signature Spiced Pecan Cereal (Costco) which cost 33 cents a serving and proved a flavorful fiber choice. Archer Farms (Target) High Fiber delivers 10 grams of fiber a serving, and Wal-Mart’s Great Value Raisin Bran is considered a strong choice for raisin bran purists.The others were all national brands: Kashi GoLean Crunchy, Kellogg’s Raisin Bran Extra, Post Shredded Wheat Spoon Size Wheat ‘n Bran, and Barbara’s Bakery Ultimate Organic. Cereal can be costly, but you should be able to find sales either in a store’s circular ad or part of the Sunday newspaper coupons. Now that you have the fiber list, you can clip or do online grocery coupon savings.

There’s money in these aisles. Especially when someone else does the taste-test homework.

What do these new pricing strategies mean? As far as I can tell after a mini-aisle cruise, products are tagged with multiple layers of prices–what it used to cost v. the new price and what a nearby national brand competitor (often Safeway) is charging. The gloves are off.

In the Chicago area, it’s Jewel v. Dominick’s, and the focus is on rolled back prices.

No matter where you live, we are all in this grocery pricing life. With Wal-Mart, Target, Costco, and Trader Joe’s competing with traditional grocers, there is some hope for further reductions. As consumers the questions we should ask are: Why were the prices so high in the first place? How do we continue to get them to come down? Overpaying is the name of the game as purchasers continue to feed conglomerates. Some hope is on the horizon as lowered pricing continues to garner attention.

Maybe we just don’t shop the way we used to. Maybe we are smarter, and the chains are just starting to understand that consumers have become savvier and have learned to be more better shoppers; less impulsive.

Maybe, just maybe, the pricing wars will continue, and we, as consumers, will benefit from further reductions.

How to find a fresh mushroom when you refuse to take a chance on something growing near a tree? Not that complex. Stay away from the packaged store variety, especially the white caps that have been sliced. Yes, they’re easy, but they bear little resemblance to the real McCoy. Many farm markets have a mushroom stand or at least seasonally carry 1-2 types of mushrooms, and then there’s New York’s SOS Chefs. You enter a store in the East Village that looks more like a flower shop from the outside than a food emporium. Within seconds you are transported into a world of fine specialty foods. Immediately inquire about the mushrooms. They are in a walk-in temperature-controlled refrigerator in the back. You can purchase something that just arrived fresh that morning and you’ll forever change your perception of mushrooms. Many, due to unfamiliarity, look more like a painting than an actual food product.  With minimal preparation, they taste masterful, either with pasta or quickly sauteed with some fresh garlic and served as a side dish. Or…so many options.

This store exudes the meaning of the word “fresh.” What a fun experience. The mushroom varietal list includes many you may never have heard of, varieties you most likely have never seen; I hadn’t, but wow are they terrific. Don’t worry the store can make shopping for specialty foods an experience you’ll remember. There are spices galore, dried fruits, capers, olives, and teas to get you started fantasizing. This is the type of shopping that makes home cooking such a pleasurable experience. I came for the mushrooms; I’ll return for the catalog of possibilities.

You can play the role of the chef: What’s in today? Ok, that’s what we’ll plan our dinner around.

SOS Chefs: The name says it all, a true lifesaver.

Now there is a freshness indicator that will put our anxiety into check. Fresh Direct, the New York City full-service grocery delivery service has adopted a star rating system to help consumers select the best fish for the day they want delivery. The Daily Seafood Rating System (which is similar to their produce rating program) takes the guesswork out of selection and makes meal planning almost effortless. The company believes that more consumers will venture beyond their “regular fish selections” and depend on the rating system to try different products.

There are guides and an abundance of recipes to help us sort through the taste differences and cooking methods (click on the link for recipes) for a broad range of fish. Hopefully, in the not too distant future, a fish rating system will become an industry standard.

Then we can just select the fish and not ask the question.

On the Ciao Bella front, I found the product at Target. Sorry for the omission, but the Mango Sorbet should not be omitted.

On the grocery smart scanner input, not all is as it seems. Yes, it is definitely fun to get a free item when the price comes up incorrect on the scanner. It is just  a little confusing when the scanner offers you savings on products that do not match your profile. Let me say do not even approximate a match. Some of the offers today were so not for me that I hope whomever is typing in my card number is having fun. So kinks still need to be worked out, but as for fun, I’m still loving the scan and bag approach.

One final note on the grocers. It seems that tracking is so powerful that your absence from the aisles is actually a positive. I just received a survey questionnaire and 4 separate $5 off coupons from Harris Teeter. They miss me. That’s sweet. They wonder why I haven’t been there in a while. No problem. For the coupon savings, they have me at least 4 more visits. I love being loved; especially with a $20 savings.

Life goes on.

Change is in the air. A number of states or municipalities have tried to implement bag taxes, and they have gone nowhere.  The District of Columbia wants the belt notch that says first in the nation to implement bag tax. They say all those plastic bags are finding their way into the Anacostia River, and a true cleanup will never occur because of the sheer volume of plastic bags and the ultimate litter debris. 

Many citizens consider the implementation of a bag tax as a lazy solution to an overall River mess. They feel that less fortunate shoppers will be further penalized as their groceries or drugs or whatevers will now cost 5 cents a bag more. A lack of understanding does not create a true cause-effect relationship. Remember these are tough times, and consumers are already paying a heavy burden in helping cities move forward. Implementing this tax will not clean the Anacostia. 

The American Chemistry Council has started a major campaign to help cities and states understand the real environmental issues. They believe progress has been made in people’s awareness of bringing their own bags and recycling plastics. There are no shortage of places to drop off plastic bags. So many new, interesting products are being made from these efforts.

Skip the tax route. Be smart about this. The District does not have to be the FIRST for this type of program. There are better ways to win positive recognition than from this egregious program that solves little. 

It’ll take more than my nickel to solve this particular problem.

No, we are not forgetting that this is an important Holiday; patriotic spirit does fill the air, but it competes with the earthy smells of relaxation. There’s something soothing about the first foods of the season: Strawberries are so delicious at this time of the year–they make you question why you ever buy them out of season. Maybe we should take the winter frozen strawberry pledge–they have to be tastier than the plastic container version. Sign me up.

These jus’-picked beauties symbolize summer about as well as any other food. Sure, I’ve seen beautiful stalks of asparagus and great mushrooms, but strawberries say it so sweetly: It’s summer.

Maybe there are a few other signs besides the grills being fired up and the foods of the season emerging on every street corner. 

People are out on the streets again, in stores, looking like they are ready to rejoin the universe. All the gloom of winter has been peeled off. They’re ready to eat, to indulge.

I saw a small sandwich shop list its daily specials and include tuna sliders. They had me there–was it just the additional mayo that made them slide or was this little shop alot more creative and trend aware than I thought. Neither. They knew nothing about a national food trend that spoke of sliders. They knew what they had: Extra mini buns and a big batch of tuna: Ahoy mateys: tuna sliders. Think I’ll slide over to the beef aisle. 

Another sign of innovative marketing is a new hot dog stand that sits in front of a restaurant better known for afternoon cocktails and dinner. They bought a shiny stainless steel cart and have a more diverse menu than the basic dog. Condiments such as mango relish and mustard creme fraiche accompany the sandwich possibilities that include  lamb sausage, bratwurst, and crab cakes and some of the biggest chocolate chip cookies you’ve ever seen. Really, they’re about the size of a dinner plate!

It’s marketing, folks,whether we’re talking strawberries, the new grill we’re trying to put together, or the hot peanuts at the farm market. Everybody’s got an angle, and we are ready with the napkins.

Bon appetit, summer.

The beauty of the gun is that the shopping cart comes with a holster so you do not need to hold the upc reader as you go through the store. You find what you want, hit the bar code, as you do when you self check-out, and the item comes up on the screen with the amount. If you want to change your mind, you can just as easily remove the item.

Are we having fun yet? Maybe, but here’s the best. As you go through the store and see the posted prices, you can quickly spot an error, a price discrepancy with what it reads and what the advertised price is. Bingo–at the Giant, that discrepancy means the item is free. That’s a great big win.

So now it is even more imperative that you pay attention to the posted price, make certain it matches the scanned gun display, and hit the aisles. As you go along, you can bag so that when you get ready to checkout, you are basically just waiting for a printed receipt. Another handy timessaver, or as someone mentioned as I checked out my scanner: If there’s a line, while you’re waiting to check out, you can finish scanning the items you have not scanned yet. Multi-tasking (m-t), she suggested; she was speaking to the m-t queen!

I know some of you have had scanners for a while, but they are news to me! They’re not yet at all Giant Supermarkets, but they’re coming.

Oops, almost forgot to mention another plus: The scanner matches your frequent shopper card input with frequent purchases and generates frequent purchase coupon savings. Remember, I used to worry about those loyalty information cards, but that is so yesterday!

Loyalty, that’s what this all about. Oh, and time and money as you see the rolling total and know when to stop.

It’s love!

Some of the changes are obvious, in matters we’ve discussed such as consumers downscaling coffee purchases, and companies meeting them half way with lower prices and coupons.  

On the good news front: Target just announced that they see more of the future in food items and plan to add more fresh food and produce to remodeled or new stores. That’s great because their food prices are already impressive. Fill up the extra aisles!

Toys ‘R’ Us just added foods to some of its stores, like a mini store within the greater wonderland! That just makes shopping with young people in a toy store even more of a challenge–snack food and toys–may help their bottom line but up my pain threshold!

The anxiety coefficient still hits the nerve cycle. We are still looking for buys and bargains. Look at the various dollar stores–they’re getting a new type of customer looking for food products and overall savings. In turn, their bottom line is looking up!

We eat. it’s about food, baby, and how we can find prices that make it work.We need the boost. Pile on the opportunities.

Change the sentiment.