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Kroger to host “Taste of Mexico”
By Kevin Milliken,
La Prensa Correspondent
The Kroger grocery store at Glendale and Detroit in Toledo will be among several across Northwest Ohio to host special food events over the next three Saturday afternoons, including a Taste of México on Sat., June 7, 2014, 12-2 p.m.
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Over the course of three weeks, the events will include festive music, Mexican food samplings, as well as specialty imported items and recipes. A Kroger circular distributed in the Toledo area this week indicates there will be special sale items each week, including a $6 Mexican deli meal. Sale prices will be available starting Wed., June 4.
“We just want to allow our customers to become more familiar with different cultures,” said Sheryl Philipovich, co-store manager. “Hopefully, with this Taste of México, if that roll out well, we want to go around the world—Italy and Germany—and expand everyone’s horizons.”
Over the next two Saturdays, the Glendale/Detroit Ave. Kroger will have information tables from various Latino organizations, including La Prensa and the Sofia Quintero Art and Cultural Center (SQACC), which will provide children’s activities. The festivities on Saturday, June 21 will include a parking lot party featuring Procter and Gamble products with giveaways and games. Other displays in the store will feature significant events in Mexican history and product names in Spanish.
“We will have (food) sampling events for the customers. We’ve already had sampling events for the employees in the break room to get them more familiar with the foods,” explained Ms. Philipovich. “We’ll have a designated favorite recipe of the week and all the items needed will be in the cooler for the customer to take that recipe home and make it, make them more familiar with it.”
In an era of social media marketing, online digital coupons, and the like, Kroger is returning to a good old-fashioned, neighborhood-based marketing strategy. Once other cultures and ethnicities are featured, it will become a global grocery marketplace known as the Savor World Flavor campaign.
“With the Hispanic culture so close to us, it will be nice to get everyone else somewhat familiar with it, too,” said Ms. Philipovich, referring to the many Latino-based agencies located nearby in the Old South End and the weekly soccer matches just around the corner from the Kroger store at Schneider Soccer Complex [where La Liga de las Américas hosts its Sunday soccer games from 10:30AM to 2:30PM].
According to the Kroger website, at least seven stores will hold weekend food tasting events the first three weekends of June. Saturday hours are 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Sundays between 12:30 and 6:30 p.m. Pre-registration through the Kroger website gives customers extra entries into prize drawings.
Just for participating in online activities such as recipes or videos, customers get a chance at daily prizes such as free groceries, knife sets, and quesadilla makers. The more activities someone does online, the more entries that can be earned. As entries grow, more prizes will be unlocked, such as a week, month, or year of free groceries, a diamond ring, or the grand prize: a trip to México.
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