ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 7, 1996 TAG: 9604050134
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: 5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: PENFIELD, N.Y.
SOURCE: BEN DOBBIN ASSOCIATED PRESS
As the day winds down, there remains that inescapable, often vexing question: What's for dinner tonight?
Supermarkets have a new answer. Instead of just providing a superabundance of ingredients, many grocery stores are doing the cooking too.
Americans' dining habits have changed dramatically in a generation, principally because more women have left home for the workplace. That leaves less time to cook and much more business for company cafeterias, fast-food joints and restaurants.
But until recently, supermarkets did not share in the boom - in fact, their whopping 65 percent share of food sales shrank to 50 percent over the course of 30 years. So now the big supermarkets are enticing shoppers back with nutritious, tasty, freshly prepared meals.
The grocery store deli has been reinvented. Instead of just salads, lunch meats and cheese, supermarkets are laying out meal solutions - hot and cold entrees to eat in-store or take out, and uncooked dishes that can be finished quickly in the microwave.
``We see supermarkets excelling in food that customers would make at home if they had time to cook,'' said Howard Solganik, a supermarket consultant in Dayton, Ohio. ``We still want to eat the same things our parents fed us when we were kids, and have our children eat the same way.''
Making dinnertime as effortless as possible is no passing phenomenon.
Supermarkets are fighting competition from discount Wal-Marts or even drugstore chains offering an increased variety of packaged foods and Boston Market and other chains offering home-style cooking to go.
So far, up to 30 percent of supermarkets have ventured into the business of home meals, Solganik said. ``I think in the next three years, you will see an explosion of interest.''
``If supermarkets don't begin to offer what the customer is asking for, which is prepared foods, they won't be around much longer,'' said consultant Brian Sodus of Midlothian, Va. ``This is critical to their survival.''
Recognizing this, the Food Marketing Institute will hold its first Meal Solutions convention in Phoenix in September.
``That's where the effort is now focused,'' said the trade association's senior vice president, Karen Brown. ``How can we make it easier for consumers to think about the supermarket as a place to come and get meals, as opposed to just boxes and bags they take home and create a meal from?''
Already, there are answers. Stores like Bread & Circus in Boston and Queen Anne Thriftway in Seattle occasionally invite in food-demonstration chefs. The new Eatzi's in Dallas caters to the takeout crowd. And the 23-store Ukrop's chain in Richmond has seven 125-seat atrium cafes and offers 125 takeout items daily. In Roanoke, Harris Teeeter has hired a chef at one of its stores to produce ready-to-go foods and other chains have prepared foods in their deli departments.
Wegmans, an upscale chain with 48 one-stop-shopping emporiums in New York and three in Pennsylvania, seems to allow space for every new experiment in prepared foods.
In its Penfield store, the Fresh to Go section stocks soups, salads and pasta sauces alongside precooked fish, chicken and Chinese - ``a combination of things you can quickly cook, reheat or eat cold,'' said Wegmans spokeswoman Jo Natale.
At the fish stand, any of 87 varieties imported from as far off as New Zealand can be broiled, fried, baked or grilled in the store at no extra charge.
At the self-service Chinese food buffet, Kung Pao chicken, shrimp Singapore and fried rice is sold by weight - $3.99 a pound. Another counter offers made-to-order pizza, Buffalo wings and calzone and yet another an assortment of dishes ranging from alfredo marinara to pesto.
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Joann Peters (right) makes a sandwich at Wegman'sby CNBCafe in Amherst, N.Y. Supermarkets like Wegman's are not only
selling groceries but also preparing meals.