Giant Eagle...The Printed Ad Is Gone!

Giant Eagle Has Made The Anticipated Decision To Eliminate Printed Ads

First reported by Supermarket News, Giant Eagle will now move forward without the distributed printed weekly ad. The printed ad will be available in-store only.

As shown below Supermarket News conducted a poll to determine what industry professionals thought of the move to digital.

With 658 industry professionals participating 60% felt "Digital Is King".

At Bad-Adz Digital our clients agree. One by one over the years clients have transitioned to digital. Supermarket retailers can not properly access supply chain availability and or price with print and all of the long lead times before publication.

U.S. Mail costs, paper increases, fuel surcharges added to markdowns no longer supported by the grocery wholesaler essentially make print an advertising vehicle of the past.

The move to digital allows Giant Eagle the opportunity to subsidize ad markdowns with real cost reductions in an effort to drive retail sales.

Now Giant Eagle can respond to the market with last minute changes and challenge the competition with specials unavailable to the competition two weeks earlier when their newsprint ad was composed.

We congratulate Giant Eagle with it's eye on the environment as well. When the world is thinking "Green" and considering the environment an important part of each of our lives, it's hard to believe the printed weekly ad has much of a future.

Appetizer Images

Here we feature samples of great appetizer images that would work in a variety of marketing campaigns whether for a restaurant, deli, catering business, or grocery store with a prepared foods department. Food marketing requires great photos that make the food look it’s most appealing.

These sample appetizer images are from a company called Prepared Food Photos. These appetizer images and many more professional stock food photos are available for licensing on the Prepared Food Photos website. These are beautiful examples of photos to help inspire ideas, promote a restaurant, or a store’s prepared foods section - or use these appetizer images in just about any related food marketing campaign. Looking for more than just appetizer images? Check out Prepared Food Photos full website for a full library of food photos with different angles, cropping, and composition to choose from.

Hot Wings with Ranch Dressing Photo

This hot wings photo has a nice layout with celery, chicken wings and a dipping sauce all platted nicely. It could be used as mild or other variety wings photo as well and there are related appetizer images also available.

Caesar Salad Photo

This caesar salad photo with croutons and dressing on a plate is a great restaurant shot for a common appetizer dish. Other caesar salad appetizer images can be found on the Prepared Foods Photos website.

Clam Chowder Photo

This bowl of classic New England clam chowder looks absolutely delicious and will inspire mouths to water. Nice clean display with no drippings on the bowl. Want a bread bowl or no background? Search the chowder appetizer images here.

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Pork Rib Baby Back Photo

This appetizer photo is a nice close up of baby back pork ribs with some parsley garnish underneath. The lighting in this appetizer images is just right to make the dish look really appealing. If you need a wider angle, raw or other ribs photos there are plenty to choose from.

Shrimp Cocktail with Garnish on Clear Dish Photo

This display of cocktail shrimp surrounding garnish of lemons, parsley and a dipping sauce is a nice image of a common party appetizer. In addition to the plainer appetizer images, there are shrimp photos as meals, popcorn shrimp, and seafood salad,

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Seven Layer Taco Salad Dip with Tortilla Chips Photo

This Mexican Seven Layer Dip is displayed in a unique square bowl to really show off the layers. Lots of appetizer images of dips and chips, bread, pretzels, etc. available. Colorful dishes like this are very appealing to the eye and make the mouth water.

Soft Pretzel Photo

Great photo of a large soft pretzel with salt. Background of mustard and a beer shows a nice pairing in the background of the appetizer image. Snack and desert pretzel images are also available.

Hot Wings Photo

Birds eye view of platter of wings with celery and dip. Easy picture to remove the subtle background on if needed for the art layout or combine with other appetizer images.

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Stuffed Mushroom Appetizer on a Plate Photo

Stuffed mushroom photo platted nicely showcasing that they are ready to eat. More stuffed mushroom appetizer images available if you need a different look and feel. This photo has an upscale feel with the table cloth and gold rimmed plates in the background.

Mozzarella Sticks on a Platter with Sauce Photo

Another great platting and close up shot, this one is a photo of mozzarella sticks with sauce, tomatoes and garnish. Great shot for a picture menu or catering marketing.

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Assorted Cold Cuts Photo

These deli platters showcase a variety of meats and cheeses and make an excellent display to showcase the assorted cold cuts. Photo has a plain background that is easy to remove. Meats featured here include ham, turkey, salami, roast beef, capicola, and pepperoni. Cheeses include provolone, Swiss, cheddar, and American, among others. The overlapping plates makes for a nice composition keeping the items in the shot tightly together without blank space. This or other appetizer images featuring a variety of cold cuts are great for marketing delis, platters to go and catering. There are also a variety of sandwich shots as well, although these don’t fall under appetizer images.

This variety of appetizer images and many more are available for licensing. You can check out the full library of food photos or review the appetizer images category. Find the perfect appetizer images for your next campaign with professional photography of appetizer images that can be used in on and offline media.

Needs some more inspiration? Check out the recipe video library and the variety of appetizer recipes videos post by Bad-Adz on their YouTube channel. They are always adding more videos, so check back frequently for more ideas. If you are looking for a digital marketing agency to help with your next campaign, Bad-Adz is a great resource, especially for grocery store and retail marketing.

You Want My Holiday Ads When?

By Joel Albrizio

We all understand the holidays and all of the difficulties in the merchandising and marketing process. In the end, all of us as retailers must deliver to the consumer our best effort to tell our story most likely to build sustainable retail sales.

Todays newspapers with steadily declining readership or shared mail that few of us read any longer have become the very definition of obsolete.

How Do We Determine That Hot Retail Pricing Weeks In Advance?

As retailers, we are all experiencing Covid-19, with supply chain issues and almost anything else that 2020 might send our way. It is impossible and frankly impractical to expect retailers to reach out to consumers in any other way than digital.

No retailer will have confidence in price stability that remains attractive weeks in advance.

Digital delivery accompanied by solid social media with in store ad copies will deliver sustainable retail sales growth. Bad-Adz Digital brings to the retailer this ability.

Bad-Adz Digital has the team of professionals your retail location needs to succeed.

So Let's Rethink Those Holiday Deadlines...Let's Not Make That Mistake Again This Year

Recipe Videos By Bad-Adz Digital

By Joel Albrizio

Supermarket Sales Are About Telling Your Story...Recipe Videos Tell That Story?

Recipe videos that are easy & fun to cook allow your supermarket to become a resource to your customer. When cooking is fun, you will sell groceries. When we make cooking fun again, our basket size and customer counts grow.

Fun To Cook Recipe's Build Basket Size like No Other Marketing Option

When a customer meal plans with recipe videos the customer intends to purchase the list of items suggested within the recipe. This creates natural customer shopping movement throughout the store. Hence, we have now moved the customer to the center store again and we will reach the all important marketing mix.

When any retailer gets the larger shopping orders created from moving the shopper from department to department we have reached the proverbial shopping mix. This is how retailers achieve success.

So let Bad-Adz Digital tell your retail story. Teach your customer to make cooking fun again and show them how best to shop your store.

Bad-Adz Digital brings retail excitement back to the supermarket. Check out these fun to cook recipe videos and watch your customer base grow.

Let's put the fun back into retail. Check out this link for our recipe videos.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzh_ppdeij6w2gPfbeDB3Dg/videos

Many have asked why I choose to write about what I see in the supermarket industry today and my ideas. At Bad-Adz Digital, PreparedFoodPhotos.com & Bad-Adz Videos we believe great ideas and the resulting branding will give new life and direction to any company. So for that reason we chose to open the discussion.

Yes, I understand I probably misspelled something or butchered the English language in a few places, the goal however was to open your minds to new ideas.

Joel Albrizio - Bad-Adz Digital, Bad-AdzVideos.com, PreparedFoodPhotos.com

Perdue Farms Direct-To-Consumer!

By Joel Albrizio

Perdue Farms Will Lead The Way...Direct To Consumer Retail Sales

Beginning in January of 2020 and somewhat overlooked with all of the Covid-19 mandates and concerns Perdue Farms somewhat quietly deployed a direct to consumer digital sales program.

While not a game changer immediately Perdue Farms products are more than just an average sale builder for the supermarket retailer. Perdue Farms attracts a large customer base with a basket full of groceries that give the retailer that much needed mix.

Here is a link to an article describing this program in detail from Food Navigator below. This article articulates some great talking points describing this program.

https://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Article/2020/01/08/Perdue-Farms-launches-direct-to-consumer-offering

How Does The Supermarket Retailer Compete With Perdue...One Of Its Best Brands?

If we were to ask a retailer, especially an independent grocer, they would likely say this is no big deal. Let me tell you without any hesitation...this is a big deal.

I recently ordered from Perdue Farms Direct and received at my house an incredible array of meats as ordered on time and at a great price. All I needed to do was take it from the front door and decide what might end up in the refrigerator or possibly the freezer.

Now with a simple stop by a local farm stand, many of the weeks meals were covered without ever stepping foot inside a supermarket. No masks, gloves, sanitizer or temperatures taken. Essentially effortless digital transactions that will easily survive the Covid-19 precautions. This is just too easy not to be a game changer.

Supermarket Retailers Must Get Digital & Make Themselves Students Of Their Now Digital Retail Enterprise

Most independent retailers will do all that can be done to save money, often times forgetting quality sales volume is the lifeblood of any sustainable retail enterprise. The game is quickly changing and any opportunity to hold on to those God given retail sales volumes delivered by Covid-19 are quickly disappearing via digital.

The motivating factor for this article was not receding Covid-19 retail sales. Sales will continue to recede as more shoppers seek direct digital effortless transactions now eliminating the local grocer.

This is a great time to get to know your retail food, digital business as it will be going forward. In every business transition there is a learning curve. Don't get caught behind the curve.

Now Have Some fun With Digital....

Many have asked why I choose to write about what I see in the supermarket industry today and my ideas. At Bad-Adz Digital, PreparedFoodPhotos.com & Bad-Adz Videos we believe great ideas and the resulting branding will give new life and direction to any company. So for that reason we chose to open the discussion.

Yes, I understand I probably misspelled something or butchered the English language in a few places, the goal however was to open your minds to new ideas.

Joel Albrizio - Bad-Adz Digital, Bad-AdzVideos.com, PreparedFoodPhotos.com

Shared Mail...A Thing Of The Past?

By Joel Albrizio

Recently "Target Marketing Maine" Announced June 2020 Closing While Valassis Can't Find Enough Reasons For Shared Mail Price Increases!

Last week Target Marketing Maine announced June of 2020, this month would be their last month in business. So beginning in July any retailer, supermarket or otherwise must find an alternative means of distribution in Maine & some neighboring states.

Is this unique? No, every day we find the cost of print and its associated distribution costs with companies like Valassis are simply too high. The United States Postal Service wants increases, paper mills are always looking for more per ton, trucking costs and availability have never been higher or more difficult to schedule. Not to mention black out delivery days on many of our most important retail holidays.

Add to all of these obstacles the printed supermarket circular is the least "Green" marketing vehicle on the planet...Our planet!

I have always found it interesting a market in many states can not allow its customers the use of plastic bags while mailing out printed paper circulars covered with ink by the thousands?

Scheduling a printed ad averages 14 days or more lead time while digital agencies accept price changes and deploys directly to your potential customer that day. Short on supply during a Pandemic, with digital you need not deploy an ad until the product is sitting on the loading dock in front of you.

Shared mail, the backbone of the printed circular as a marketing vehicle is becoming less available by the day. Explore your options with digital and dig in. Digital like any medium takes time to develop deep traction. However, the immediate surprise to most retailers will be that digital at a 60% cost savings will hit higher penetration numbers from day one.

Good luck as you explore digital. Don't forget to take some of the cost savings for much needed markdowns when building an attractive retail food ad as your call to action today.

Many have asked why I choose to write about what I see in the supermarket industry today and my ideas. At Bad-Adz Digital, PreparedFoodPhotos.com & Adlife we believe great ideas and the resulting branding will give new life and direction to any company. So for that reason we chose to open the discussion.

Yes, I understand I probably misspelled something or butchered the English language in a few places, the goal however was to open your minds to new ideas.

Joel Albrizio - Bad-Adz Digital, Bad-AdzVideos.com, PreparedFoodPhotos.com

"Retaining Retail Sales..Post Covid 19"​

By Joel Albrizio

Entering A Retail Supermarkets New Normal!

While we recognize we are nowhere near the end of Covid-19 as a virus and how it can affect each of us and our families. We realize state by state, U.S. consumers are moving away from shelter in place status. What will this mean for retail food?

State by state the country is beginning to reopen. As the country reopens so will all forms of casual dining, the retailers greatest single competition. If there is one takeaway we all now accept is how large a percentage of our daily food intake originates from casual dining offers.

How Can Retailers Retain Some Of This New Found Volume?

It might be easy to sit back and say WOW, what a run this has been financially. That's great, however, two issues quickly surface that must be recognized.

First, our employees have done one heck of a job. They have overlooked their own personal safety to keep customers well fed. These employees need to be well taken care of. How is it we can reward all of these employees for their dedication?

Remember, these are the same employees as an industry every state run supermarket organization fought so hard to keep down wages. Specifically and especially the minimum wage!

Next, we really need to address how best to re-enter the reality of the always competitive grocery industry. Once again, everyone will sell food. Our competition will be everywhere. We will need to reintroduce ourselves to the supermarket customer.

As Retailers We Must begin Again & Reintroduce Ourselves Today!

We need to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and get back into retail, competitive retail! Job #1, let's be certain the retail customer understands we need them if we are to succeed. 

We taught the customer to shop the store, we achieved a retail mix like never before, now let's see how high a percentage of that retail mix we can hold on to. 

Drive Retail Sales Through Timely Digital Offers!

Begin to serve the customer specials again. We always suggest a "7" day center store marketing ideology overlapped by a "3" & "4" day perishable marketing program every week. Slant perishable offers to the weekend or weekdays unless dealing with the occasional holiday.

Survey the competition and serve up regular offers digitally in easy to digest sizes. The base ad with 3-6 eMail item sensitive offers. Get out there again and touch those customers. 

For the last "8-10" weeks the supermarket has been the customer. Guess what, the real customer will now emerge and casual dining will come back hard. Don't get taken by surprise.....Be prepared & get those items back out there....Good Luck!

Many have asked why I choose to write about what I see in the supermarket industry today and my ideas. At Bad-Adz Digital, PreparedFoodPhotos.com & Adlife we believe great ideas and the resulting branding will give new life and direction to any company. So for that reason we chose to open the discussion.

Yes, I understand I probably misspelled something or butchered the English language in a few places, the goal however was to open your minds to new ideas.

Joel Albrizio - Bad-Adz Digital, Bad-AdzVideos.com, PreparedFoodPhotos.com

"It's Time To Thank Your Grocer"​

By Joel Albrizio

"Don't Overlook The Value Of Your Independent Supermarket To Your Community"

The supermarket local to you is often the most overlooked business in each of our communities. They are just always there. Competition has come in from every marketing space where today, everyone sells food.

Owning or running the local supermarket in any of our communities is not the most glamorous position one could choose. The hours are long, the work is grinding, most of your employees are young in age and part time and every other store seems to have the latest hottest price. Not to mention the margins which can be almost non-existent.

In short, this is about as tough a career as one could choose.

Then Comes A Pandemic Caused By A CoronaVirus...What Else Could Happen?

Your local grocer is now fighting for profitability and finds themselves dealing with a world wide Pandemic. Seriously, who would believe a virus driven pandemic could leave most of the world in some form of quarantine or shelter in place mandate. Most business settings, conferences, sporting events, all canceled. Other than essential business almost everything imaginable in our everyday lives are all closed.

The supermarket always overlooked is guess what? Still overlooked. Most customers are upset over item availability & now retail price points. Retailers nationwide are thought of as gouging and looked upon by some in many communities as taking advantage of a horrible event.

"It's Really Time To Thank Your Grocer"

So many of us are working safely from home while our collective grocers work unbearable hours to deliver all of our necessary staple items. They are not home with their families safe from possible infection. The grocer and his or her employees are fielding customer questions, concerns and trying to deliver in an almost impossible retail health environment.

I love supermarkets and have worked with them my entire career. I have seen their good and bad years. While we can all look at the increases in retail sales lets not miss the nightmare these grocers have accepted as their new norm.

They too, could become infected and like any of us loose their lives in order to serve all of us. When you shop, take that extra minute or two to thank those supermarket employees you encounter. They are literally risking their lives to serve you.

Your local grocer has kept themselves and their employees exposed to a CoronaVirus nightmare in order to serve the local community.

Let's Not Let The Independent Grocer Become Overlooked Once Again...

It's Time To Say Thank-You & God Bless You!

Many have asked why I choose to write about what I see in the supermarket industry today and my ideas. At Bad-Adz Digital, PreparedFoodPhotos.com & Adlife we believe great ideas and the resulting branding will give new life and direction to any company. So for that reason we chose to open the discussion.

Yes, I understand I probably misspelled something or butchered the English language in a few places, the goal however was to open your minds to new ideas.

Joel Albrizio - Bad-Adz Digital, Bad-AdzVideos.com, PreparedFoodPhotos.com & Adlife