In co-ops across the country, prepared foods sales are down as a percentage of overall store sales from where they were before the pandemic began, even as overall store sales rebound. Many co-ops that have resumed prepared foods operations in some manner are encountering a slow recovery. At other co-ops, delis are still closed.

While co-ops try to return to “business as usual,” daily routines for many customers remain anything but “usual.” Shopping habits have changed over the past year — and unfortunately, that appears to be having a negative effect on prepared foods sales. Because our customers’ needs have changed, the deli will need to change, too.

Carefully assess what your customers are looking for now. What’s different about their shopping and eating habits? How can your prepared foods department meet their changing needs, drive traffic into the store and grow sales?

Now may be the time to do something different from what you’ve ever done before to get customers excited to visit your deli again. Your co-op may need to take risks in order to revive prepared foods sales — calculated, strategic risks.

This doesn’t mean you should attempt to change the entire department all at once. Far from it! Instead, pick one key area to focus on, experiment with different strategies and then evaluate the results. Here are a few ideas co-ops may want to consider trying for a period of time to get customers back in the door.

Soup’s On: Tasty Promotional Tactics

Employing new tactics to promote your soup program can produce more sales for the prepared foods department.

• Soup Day — Choose a day of the week with low deli sales, like Tuesday, and offer a deep discount on one “Soup of the Day.” For example, a cup for $2.99 instead of $4.99.
• Loyalty Program — Pick a specific size soup cup (12 or 16 ounces), create a punch card and incentivize repeat purchases with a loyalty offer, such as “buy 8 cups, get your next one free.”
• Bundle and Save — Offer a combo of soup with a sandwich or side salad for a special price, or bundle soup with free bread sticks. Promote a family-style meal solution by offering a larger container of soup plus a large green salad and a baguette at an attractive price.
• Limited Time Promotion — For one week only, run a chili special or a special on a seasonal soup.

Consider how you could apply these same promotional tactics to other items, like bakery items or signature sandwiches.

Pizza Programs: Out with the Old, In with the New

As you look for ways to reinvigorate prepared foods sales, think about what is not working well and evaluate your current menu. Eliminate the less popular offerings in a category, such as signature salads, and focus on a smaller variety of your best sellers and executing those well.

Along with a menu revamp, your strategy could involve adding a high-demand item like take and bake pizza. Once you reduce the variety of grab and go salads, turn that shelf space over to a pizza program. Doing so minimizes the extraneous (e.g., salads that are labor intensive, require many ingredients and don’t sell well), allowing you to focus on one thing and excel at it. You’ll realize higher margins on each pizza sold than on the salads, too.

More Offers that Shoppers Love

• Meal Solutions — In lieu of a self-serve hot bar, offers like heat-and-eat family-size meals, combos featuring an entrée plus two sides, and 3 for $30 grab and go bundles provide simple dinner options for shoppers who don’t want to prepare a meal at home.
• Kids Eat Free — Parents whose time and budgets are stretched thin will appreciate this family-friendly meal solution. Promote it on a low-traffic day of the week for your deli.
• Free Coffee — Offer customers a free cup of coffee with a purchase to drive sales during slow hours (e.g., free 12-ounce cup of coffee with the purchase of a single-serving bakery item from 2-4pm).

Attempting to change a lot of things at once can be overwhelming, and it’s not an especially effective strategy. Remember, change one thing about your prepared foods offerings with a goal to be great at it. Then evaluate your results: If it’s not working, tweak it or drop it altogether. If it is working, keep it up, and then address another aspect of your deli operations. Keep taking small risks that have the potential for big rewards.

To support your co-op in these efforts, NCG has developed two “Rapid Response” documents: Putting Delis Back to Work and Next Steps for Prepared Foods. We encourage you to revisit these resources often and try different ideas and approaches they describe. We’re also hosting quarterly prepared foods regional conference calls for co-op staff, featuring discussion with NCG’s retail deli support staff and time for peer networking. Join us for the next calls on Feb. 16.