Because it is a holiday weekend this morning my wife and I after church went out to have breakfast in one of our towns favorite breakfast restaurants. We both ordered steak and eggs and it was delicious. Steak, eggs, home-fries good toasted bread and hot coffee. The true All American meal however, most cardiologist would frown on it. The steak we had was a small rib-eye cut on the thin side maybe 1/4 inch.
One thing nice about this restaurant is that the owner goes from table to table refilling your coffee. So we got to talking about steak and eggs. She said that in her restaurant steak and eggs are the 3rd best selling item on the breakfast menu. Bacon and eggs are first and their homemade pancakes are second. She also said that she belongs to the restaurant association and attends many conferences when ever she can and told me that steak and eggs is making a comeback all across the country because owners are finally realizing that to bring steak and eggs back they have to put a quality piece of beef on the plate.
She also said that there was a time when steak and eggs was number one but what knocked it down was that restaurant owners used cow meat or some lower grade beef that was too tough. She only uses choice rib eyes in her restaurant.
Well after we left the restaurant I said to my wife, you know hardly anybody at supermarket level ever pays attention to steaks and eggs. Actually I never hear anybody talk about it or never saw point-of-sale material concerning steak and eggs. "Maybe this is something to promote at retail".
The first thing I thought about was tenderloin steaks but sliced thin. Maybe 4 to 6 slices that would not go over 12 ounces with a sign that would read "excellent for steak & eggs". Or like the restaurant owner 4 rib eye steaks sliced thin weighing a pound or less! Now you just can throw them in the meat case. You have to first create an eye-catching strategy like maybe squaring off a small area with a few packages of a dozen of eggs.
"You know sell the sizzle not the steak kind of mentality".
But lets be smart about it, this is an item that should be merchandised on the weekends or just on holiday weekends.
-- Edited by Coalcracker on Sunday 29th of May 2016 08:21:43 PM
-- Edited by Coalcracker on Sunday 29th of May 2016 08:22:47 PM
You know, creative merchandising is what I miss the most about the trade. About once per quarter Pathmark would have a sales contest. They would pick an item or a product line and track the results from scan data company wide. I was pretty good at it and won a couple color TVs, a desktop computer, and the best gas barbecue I have ever owned! Lots of smaller stuff too.
Hi Jim and I hope you had a great weekend. Yes, creative merchandising is a lot of fun but I know today with labor being short in many supermarkets cutters don't have time to think. Possibly you can share some of your favorite creative merchandising tips with us all. You know Jim creative merchandising is really common sense if you just have time to think.
Today I treated my son in law to fresh sushi and took him to Kroger so he could pick out what he likes and I told him he could pick a six pack of his favorite beer and don't worry about the cost. Oh boy, that was a mistake, the 6 pack he picked cost as much as a case of regular beer. Well he is in the military and we never know when he could get called up again. He has done 3 tours already. But while he was picking out his stuff, I meandered down to the meat department to check things out and of course they had lots of rib eye and strip steaks in the case. I can tell you this much no blue-collar worker was going to pick up a package that I was looking at. The average man or woman down South here would have to work near 3 to 4 hours to buy a package.
I just thought to myself that some of those steaks could have been cut thinner and put in family packs to attract a blue collar worker. Instead of paying $30 for two thick cut steaks they could get 4 out of them, which comes out to be $7.50 per steak rather than $15 per steak which might create a different attitude to a blue collar shopper.
