Market 32 by Price Chopper – a contemporary food-focused concept store the Schenectady, N.Y.-based supermarket chain first unveiled in July, 2015 – is featuring fresh seafood in a big way.
The family-owned chain of 136 stores in the Northeast United States has embarked on the process of transforming its stores to the Market 32 concept, in which food takes center stage. The brand experience emphasizes convenient, ready-to-eat foods along with fresh, handcrafted, and locally-produced products. The stores also feature recipe demonstrations and product sampling.
Notably, Price Chopper is differentiating Market 32’s fresh seafood department from its competitors by offering a great variety of prepared seafood items along, with an expansive selection of salmon fillets and prepared salmon entrees.
“We want to be a destination for salmon. So, in addition to the steaks and fillets that you might expect to see, we carry dozens of varieties of salmon – both wild and farm-raised – including marinated or seasoned fillets, stuffed salmon pinwheels, fresh marinated salmon portions and cedar plank salmon,” Anthony Snow, director of seafood merchandising for Price Chopper, told SeafoodSource.
Price Chopper executives decided to focus on increasing Market 32’s salmon offerings, “because of its health benefits and customers’ growing like for it,” Snow said. To that end, Price Chopper seafood buyers are on the lookout for additional unique value-added salmon items.
In addition to salmon, the wide array of other value-added seafood offerings in the Market 32 stores include items such as crab cakes, lobster cakes and marinated salmon fillets. Price Chopper and Market 32 stores will also season and then fry or steam customers’ seafood for free.
Seafood departments in the Market 32 stores – as well as stores with the Price Chopper banner – also feature a “Create, Take and Bake” program. Shoppers can choose from four proteins – salmon, haddock tilapia and shrimp— as well as up to eight different vegetables and a choice of eight different seasonings, including two low-sodium offerings. “The seafood team assembles the customer’s selections into an oven-ready bag, which when baked for about 20 minutes, perfectly steams its contents into a meal,” Snow said.
“This program is really popular, especially at this time of year with people dieting and wanting to eat healthy,” Snow added.
And Market 32’s investment in expanding unique seafood offerings is paying off for the chain. “We have seen great successes in our new product offerings. Signature items create an attraction, a draw, enticing people to pick up the auxiliary items as well,” Snow said. “We want to create kind of a treasure hunt so shoppers will look forward to seeing what is new at Price Chopper.”
