Spotlight on Spices and Seasonings

Whether they’re spicing up a dinner for one or adding flavor to a large family meal, spices and seasonings can arguably make or break a dish. And because national brand spices are often sold in small amounts at high prices, offering high-quality store brand spices at reasonable prices could be a simple but effective way for retailers to save shoppers money and instill loyalty.

But often, unless a major cooking/baking holiday is approaching, spices and seasonings are limited to one small section of one aisle in the store, which could cause retailers to lose out on valuable impulse purchases. Therefore, retailers might want to reevaluate how and where spices and seasonings are merchandised within the store.

To see what retailers are doing well and not so well here, we visited three stores in Chicagoland: a Garden Fresh Market store (operated by Mundelein, Ill.-based Garden Fresh Market Inc.), a Whole Foods Market store (operated by Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods Market) and a Trader Joe’s store (operated by Monrovia, Calif.-based Trader Joe’s). Our visits took place on a Tuesday morning in early February.

Garden Fresh Market

General observations: At the Garden Fresh Market store we visited, packaged spices and seasonings are housed in a section of a center aisle toward the front of the store (looking into the store from the front entrance). The section was neat and clean, and foot traffic was light. We found that Garden Fresh Market uses Centrella, from the grocery cooperative Central Grocers Inc., Joliet, Ill., as its store brand.

The retailer also offers customers a bulk spice bar. The spice bar is in the back of the produce section, which takes up a large portion of the left-hand side of the store. The spice bar is free-standing, four-sided and surrounded with glass. Behind the glass on countertops are large piles of spices that can be measured out by the ounce or by the pound. The area was neat and clean, and foot traffic was fairly busy as customers walked around the spice bar on their way to other parts of the store.

The upside:

• ■ In the packaged spices and seasonings section, we counted 19 SKUs of Centrella packaged spices, which were merchandised in a block format.
• ■ Also in the section, we saw large sale tags placed beneath two SKUs of Centrella bulk salt, one with iodine and one without, to communicate a sale of three for $1.
• ■ At the bulk spice bar, we counted more than 70 spices. We also saw many signs drawing attention to which spices were on sale that week.
• ■ Stacked above the spice bar on all four sides are plastic tubs filled with pre-measured bulk spices, seasonings and herbs. We counted about 48 different SKUs, many of which were whole, not ground.
• ■ On one side of the spice bar, we saw more than 100 SKUs of pre-measured ground and whole spices and seasonings in two different sizes of mason jars.
• ■ While the spice bar offers many traditional spices and seasonings, it also obviously caters to a wide variety of ethnic groups living in the area. In the bulk area are ground spices such as red and yellow curry guajillo pepper, Hawaij, Hungarian paprika and Kashmiri chili powder. And among the plastic tubs are herbs and spices such as masala chai tea, fenugreek herbs, mango powder, lavender, eucalyptus seeds, Peruvian pepper tree, valerian, rose buds, spearmint, lemongrass, anise leaves, shave grass, cat’s claw bark, wormwood and chamomile flowers.

The downside:

• ■ Sixteen of the 19 SKUs in the spices aisle featured a non-promotional price of 99 cents, making them a better value than the other brands in the spice aisle selling a comparable amount of spices. However, there was no signage drawing attention to the value.
• ■ We found a Centrella branded salt-and-pepper shaker combination pack merchandised to the right of a McCormick salt-and-pepper shaker combination pack. The Centrella branded twin pack was retailing for 10 cents more than its national brand counterpart.

Whole Foods Market

General observations: At the Whole Foods Market store we visited, spices and seasonings are merchandised in an aisle on the far right-hand side of the store (looking in from the front entrance). The section was neat and clean, and foot traffic was fairly heavy, with many individuals walking in and out of the aisle while we were there. We found spices and seasonings under three store brands: 365 Everyday Value, 365 Everyday Value Organic and Whole Foods Market.

The Whole Foods Market line of spices is designed differently from the 365 Everyday Value and 365 Everyday Value Organic lines, featuring a square glass bottle with a metal cap instead of a cylindrical glass bottle with a black plastic top. It also uses a clear label with white lettering to show as much of the spices as possible, while the 365 Everyday Value lines use a white label that obscures most of the contents. Additionally, we found more ethnic spices and seasonings such as tagine, shakshouka, muchi curry, Indonesian satay berber and Chinese Szechuan under the Whole Foods Market line.

The upside:

• ■ We counted more than 140 SKUs of store brand spices with a wide variety of organic and nonorganic options.
• ■ The store brand spices and seasonings are merchandised in a very large block on the center shelves. One national brand is merchandised on the difficult-to-reach top shelf above the store brand block, and other national brands are merchandised on the difficult-to-see bottom shelf below the store brand block.
• ■ We counted 11 out of 38 SKUs of Whole Foods Market spices that are designated as fair trade. Whole Foods was the only store we visited to offer fair trade spices.
• ■ Many of the spices, but not all of them, had tags indicating that they are non-GMO Project verified.

The downside:

• ■ There was no signage to indicate the value of the store brand spices and seasonings compared to the national brands.
• ■ We found seven out-of-stocks.
• ■ We did not see the spices merchandised in any other part of the store.

Trader Joe’s

General observations: At the Trader Joe’s store we visited, spices and seasonings are merchandised in the first aisle on the far right-hand side of the store when looking in from the front entrance. The spices are sold under two store brands: Trader Joe’s and Trader Joe’s Spices of the World. The aisle was fairly busy, as it backs up to the produce section, where many people were shopping.

The upside:

• ■ Trader Joe’s was the only store we visited that merchandises its spices and seasonings in other areas of the store. In the frozen section, we found two secondary displays. One display was of garlic salt and was placed above the frozen vegetable section. The other display was of lemon pepper grinders, rainbow peppercorn grinders and everyday seasoning grinders. These seasonings were placed above a variety of frozen fish filets.

The downside:

• ■ The Trader Joe’s store has, by far, the smallest variety of spices, with 25 SKUs total.
• ■ In the spices and seasonings section, the spices were disorganized, and many spices were misplaced within the section.
• ■ We saw one SKU of organic oregano but could not find any other organic spices.

Get out of the aisle; innovate with packaging

When it comes to merchandising spices and seasonings, getting them out of the spice aisle is of paramount importance for retailers, says Tom Knibbs, president of Chicago-based Urban Accents.

“Using counter display pieces or floor shippers [of spices and seasonings] in the meat and seafood departments greatly increases exposure to these products and promotes the likelihood of multiple sales and increased basket ring,” he adds.

Kim Holman, director of marketing for Wixon, St. Francis, Wis., agrees.

“Store brand spices and seasonings do not typically have a secondary placement within the store,” she says. “This is definitely a misstep.”

As consumers look for easy meal solutions, retailers should consider placing spices and seasonings throughout the store to be aligned with other items that could help give the consumer an easy grab-and-go meal solution, Holman adds. Additionally, seasonal or limited-time offerings are a great way to drive secondary placement of spices while also developing new and unique products.

Besides moving spices and seasonings out of the aisle, retailers might also want to consider the terminology they’re using on the packaging, states Corinna Baban, vice president of operations at Mount Vernon, Mo.-based Red Monkey Foods. For example, by defining a seasoning as a rub, retailers are likely to influence consumers to use it for only that purpose. However, that seasoning could be used on fish, in salads or in side dishes. Highlighting the versatility of a seasoning instead of boxing it in adds value both to the consumer and to the retailer.

And the packaging itself could use a closer look. For example, some national brands are beginning to offer unique “shaker” packaging such as a cylindrical tin with a handle, Holman states.

“Store brands need to consider how packaging can make it easier for the consumer to pour or shake,” she says. “These small features [on] a product drive big benefits to the consumers, which ultimately can drive incremental sales.”

Another way retailers could make store brand packaging stand out is by offering smaller-sized or limited-use packages, or reclosable pouches with freshness windows, Knibbs says.

And while PET bottles might be economical, retailers that offer high-end store brand spices and seasonings might want to consider using glass packaging instead. Glass gives customers the impression that the spices are high-quality and gourmet, Baban notes.