It's a Jungle In There -And That's A Great Place For Candy
It's a Jungle In There –And That's A Great
Place For Candy
No one wakes up in the morning and decides to go shopping at the Rainforest Café,” observes Alan Dickey, product manager, non-apparel, for Houston-based Landry’s Restaurants Inc., which operates a variety of theme restaurant chains including the Rainforest Café and Joe’s Crab Shack.
Whether they have planned for it or not, however,
Rainforest Café patrons — who must pass through the
rainforest-themed gift shop on their way into and out of the cafés
— are taking note of an appealing new candy display in 25 of the gift
shops. The fixture, in place since August 2005, boasts an eye-catching
header featuring a cheerful-looking rainforest frog and a brown and green
color scheme that calls to mind a tree. Its shelves provide a home for a
vibrant assortment of souvenir-style candy/gift SKUs.
The confectionery display has been well received,
Dickey reports. “Over a six-month period, month-to-month, sales have
more than doubled,” adds Dickey, who honed his skills as a buyer for
Six Flags Theme Parks before joining Landry four years ago.
With the benefit of his theme park background, Dickey
came up with the Rainforest Café Candy Co. banner and set out to
source an appropriate candy/gift assortment. Many of the items are adorned
with members of the café’s fun-loving family of jungle
creatures including Cha Cha the frog, Tuki, the baby elephant, and Iggy the
iguana, among others.
Price points for the items range from $1.99 for
specialty chocolate bars to $10.99 for a plush jungle character complete
with a tummy full of jelly beans. Six-ounce twist pops with a price tag of
$3.99 are the No. 1 candy/gift item in both dollar and unit sales.
“The idea with most of the items,” says
Dickey, “is that there’s some kind of use after the candy. We
don’t want to be in the 99-cent business.” He explains that
parents frequently tell their children that they may select one item in the
gift shop — “and we don’t want that to be a 99-cent
item.”
The candy/gift SKUs are co-packed by companies
including Jaxxi Products and Design, Draper, Utah, and Squire Boone
Village, New Albany, Ind. Chocolate products are drop shipped to the
stores.
Next up, Dickey is exploring the idea of adding some
snack items to the gift shop assortment to help offset the fact that
chocolate sales tend to decline during the summer months.
Giant Eagle Pays Homage
To Its Premium Brand
Giant Eagle has used its Market District premium
corporate brand as the name for an entire new store concept. The two Market
District stores, which recently opened in the Pittsburgh area, are expected
to draw food enthusiasts from neighboring Pennsylvania towns as well as
from nearby Ohio and West Virginia.
“The stores have an open-air market feeling with
an amazing array of specialty items, natural and organic products, exotic
spices, artisan breads and a wealth of fresh meat, seafood and produce
selections,” said Kevin Srigley, senior vice president for the
format, in a statement
Confectionery lovers will be in for a treat in one of
the stores, which features a “candy rotunda,” where Giant
Eagle’s premium Market District chocolates will be displayed
alongside imported chocolates from Leonidas, a well-known Belgian
chocolatier.
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