Caraluzzi’s Markets made a proactive decision to take back the sandwich business that it was seeing migrate to franchise sandwich shops in the areas around its four stores in Connecticut.
Mark Caraluzzi, president and CEO of the family-owned company that has been in business for 75-plus years, said that in the past, customers knew they could come to the deli counter and get a made-to-order sandwich.
“But that consumer has aged out, at least in our trading area … consumers today don’t see the supermarket deli that way. We watched the explosion of quantity and variety of franchises in the sandwich-making business opening all around us and said to ourselves, ‘That used to be our business, so how do we get that back?’ That’s when we made the decision to test the in-store sub shop concept.”
Caraluzzi’s was well aware that grocers in other markets had developed strong sandwich programs, “and we decided it was time for us to commit to test the concept,” he said.
And it does require commitment – of space and personnel.
“It requires dedicated sales space to generate the visibility and a commitment to the labor to staff it,” Caraluzzi said. “We learned very quickly that you couldn’t just cover it with the deli staff, because as soon as it got busy behind the deli counter, they would just take the sub shop clerk(s).”
For Caraluzzi’s, the ideal placement of the sub shop is between the deli and kitchen.
“That way, hot items are easily accessible to the sub shop, and when customers were getting backed up, you can float staff from either the deli or kitchen counter to help cover the sub shop.
“To be honest, while that sounds easy in theory, it’s just not necessarily in practice; it’s one that we continue to struggle with as we evolve.”
Carrying over from the pandemic trend toward premade grab-and-go food to get in and out and reduce points of contact, Caraluzzi said the stores – all of which now have a separate sub shop thanks to the success of the test location, which was undergoing a remodel – offer an extensive selection of premade grab-and-go sandwiches.
“That allows the staff to manage downtime at the service sub shop counter to be more productive,” he said. “It also offers a tasty solution to those that don’t want to wait in line. The combined sales of self-service sandwiches along with the new sub shop offerings has increased our sales tenfold from back when we were just selling sandwiches behind the deli counter.”
Caraluzzi’s just launched its own sub shop app to allow customers to easily place orders in advance for pickup or to just skip the line.
“We chose to keep the name simple, using Caraluzzi’s TO GO,” he said. “That way, we can add more than just the sub shop offerings and include the traditional slicing deli items and add more areas as we grow it.
“We’re trying to enhance the customer experience and grow the lunch and dinner business where it makes sense for us.”
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