ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 23, 1995 TAG: 9512250026
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
HOME IS WHERE THE FANCY FOOD is being consumed, and gift-givers are following the trend toward working and entertaining where we live.
This Christmas season, food is proving to be more than just the way to a man's heart.
Edibles - the gourmet variety, anyway - seem to be a foolproof cure for cases of last-minute shopping panic.
"It's safe," said Karen Hunter, owner of Provisions Kitchen Gourmet in Roanoke, where there's been a rush in recent weeks on goodies including pasta, chocolate and wine. "Everybody wants food; everybody likes food."
Sales of specialty foods - in gift baskets or separately - are way up from last Christmas at the kitchenware and food shop, perhaps a result, Hunter says, of a new emphasis on home life.
"More people are entertaining at home," she said. "More people are cocooning."
In Roanoke and around the nation, gourmet food has been one of the few retail bright spots for merchants this season. While clothing retailers languish in sluggish Christmas sales, local gourmet shops and mail-order food companies are cashing in on the boomlet.
In the area of mail-order foods alone, sales are growing by 10 percent annually. According to Mail Order Foods Market report, this year's sales likely will top $1.9 billion. By 2000, sales will exceed $3.1 billion.
Total sales of gourmet foods climbed to about $30 billion in 1993, from $22 billion in 1989, according to the National Association for Specialty Food Trade.
The trend, experts say, stems from the explosion of low-interest home buying in the early '90s. It's also a byproduct of the home-based office revolution, which has people working as well as entertaining at home. As more Americans leave downtown offices and restaurants to become homebodies, gifts become home-centered.
For others, it's a one-size-fits-all solution to holiday shopping decisions.
``You can get somebody a really wonderful collection of fruit preserves or relishes, and they're never the wrong size or the wrong color,'' said Justin Rashid, founder of Petoskey, Mich.-based American Spoon Foods Inc. ``Food is something everyone has in common.''
American Spoon Foods, a retailer and catalog marketer, sells gourmet mushrooms, jellies, soups and relishes.
Another reason for the growth of gourmet food retailing is the toll-free number. Companies often credit 800 numbers for turning a sluggish store into an international success.
``We are totally 800 driven, no question,'' said Dan Zawacki, founder of a mail-order seafood and steak company best known by its phone number, (800) LIVE-LOB.
Zawacki calls himself ``senior lobster consultant'' at Lobster Gram, the Boston-based company he started eight years ago. The company branched out a few years ago, and Zawacki operates Chicago-based Filet Gram, which sells mail-order steaks.
The company receives a majority of orders from upper-middle class professionals ages 25-54. Lobster Gram and Filet Gram ship about 10,000 packages a year - 4,000 in December alone.
But highbrow mail-orderers are not insulated from problems that plague other retailers this season. Consumers have postponed spending, and that creates particular problems for stores that sell perishables.
``This is the busiest week we've ever had,'' said the senior lobster consultant, who used to be a computer salesman. ``People are waiting longer.''
Knight-Ridder Newspapers contributed information to this story.
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: WAYNE DEEL/Staff. Thayne Reneski with gourmet breads andby CNBother selections at Provisions Kitchen Gourmet.