instore - June 2017 - 16

specialty insights

CONSIDER

Deli Crackers

Crackers are one of those items that traditionally make us think of the
center of the supermarket. Shelves full of boxes of saltines, wafers and
other cracker variations were the norm in decades past.
But, as is the case with a growing number of products, success in
crackers is shifting to the perimeter of the store.
According to Nielsen research, crackers sold in the perimeter of the
store are up 7 percent in dollars, 6 percent in volume and made up 74
percent of deli snack dollars spent in the same time period.
"The perimeter of the store is where growth is happening, whereas
center aisles may be stagnant or may be overloaded with a bunch of

"Millennials snack four to five times a
day. This is keeping with a trend."
Steve Lorenz, La Panzanella

Seattle's La Panzanella Artisanal Foods has had great success in selling
crackers to these consumers in the deli department.
"They're looking for grocery retailers to help them out in terms
of preparing a meal ahead of time," says Steve Lorenz, director of
marketing for La Panzanella. "When they're in the deli looking for
prepared foods if there's a way to enhance a meal - whether it's
for their own family or for guests - by adding in fancy cheese and
crackers, then they're going to look to our products."
La Panzanella recently launched a line of seasoned crackers called
Croccantini Bites, targeting younger consumers with active lifestyles.
Available in Italian Herb, Spicy Olive and Sundried Tomato Basil varieties, these crackers are packaged in brightly colored, resealable bags
for eye-catching visibility and easy on-the-go snacking.
"Our core line tends to be for more mature audiences, and the younger
generation - millennials - are more on-the-go, more likely to snack,"
Lorenz says. "The average American is eating at least two snacks a day
in between meals. Millennials snack four to five times a day. This is
really more keeping with that trend."

brands," says Sarah Schmansky, director, business operations, Nielsen.
"To break out and be in that perimeter and hopefully ride the wave of
some of that growth would be a main factor that would prompt cookie
or cracker manufacturers to go beyond the center store."
When focusing on marketing products outside of the center aisles,
it's important to know who is shopping here and what they expect to
find. When it comes to in-store bakeries, it's apparent that nearly every
demographic ends up there at some point.
"Almost every US household purchases from the in-store bakery
annually (99 percent of households purchase bakery items), but some
demographics overspend in the department," Schmansky told Baking
& Snack. "The key spending demographics include affluent, larger
families (annual income over $100,000) and older bustling families
with households of five or more members and children between ages
13 and 17."

In fact, the Food Marketing Institute's 2015 Grocery Shopper Trend Study
shows that 34 percent of survey respondents consider premade grocery
store meals an easier alternative to eating out at a restaurant, opening up
a world of opportunity for both cracker and cookie manufacturers.

16 * JUNE 2017 * instore

La Panzanella recently launched a line of seasoned crackers.

LA PANZANELLA

Busier lifestyles and an increase of families with parents holding jobs
outside the home have contributed to consumers looking for prepared
meals during their trips to the grocery store perimeter, something
instore readers are very familiar with.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of instore - June 2017