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Prepared meals: How dangerous are they?


November 19, 2008
  This morning I posted a story about how well grocery stores are faring despite the recession and rising prices: 


While groceries are more expensive -- up 7% from this time last year -- consumers haven't stopped stocking their refrigerators. That helps explain why the Retail-Super/Mini Markets group was ranked No. 4 out of the 197 industries ranked by IBD as of Tuesday's edition.

   Restaurants, on the other hand, are struggling mightily for customers:

Consumers cut back on eating out in a sagging economy. So supermarkets are tapping into shoppers' mood by offering more gourmet and prepared meals. That way, shoppers still get convenient, quality food, and it's less expensive than restaurant dining, said Marcia Mogelonsky, senior research analyst at Mintel International
   Last week, before a dentist appointment, I popped into Heinen's, a family-run chain of 18 supermarkets in northeast Ohio. It's an upscale-looking grocery store, to be sure, but not an intimidating one. Prices are competitive and, as a result, you usually see shoppers from various income levels, no matter the store location. 

Heinen's Kitchen Table
  Which means a lot of customers are exposed to the chain's "The Kitchen Table" program, which features tempting prepared foods displayed in expensive hotel pans.  

Heinen's Kitchen Table prepared foods

   The food looks like a bargain. The breaded chicken cutlets in the lower left-hand corner are $9.99 a pound, green beans and carrots go for $6.99, roast beef sells for $17.99.
   I was tempted to ask the counter person if she plates platters people bring in. Think about it; someone who wants to avoid the cost of a restaurant throws a dinner party instead. But since few people want to cook that someone hauls her best china to the grocery store. Out she goes with the food arranged.
   Or she takes her pots and pans to the store, setting them on cooks tops and in ovens at home and tying on an apron just ahead of her guests' arrival. 
   True, I didn't sample the items pictured above, which will sit in that case all day, stewing in their own juices. 




  



Posted by David Farkas on November 19, 2008 | Comments (0)


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