Cost Plus flaunts food and Foodie pairings

Coordination is scary for many consumers who want help in putting together outfits, rooms and even meals. Retailers have lent consumers a hand across categories, and, with pairing food and beverages of rising interest, Cost Plus World Market now offers Foodies, a private label wine brand that makes a direct connection to appropriate edibles.

Each Foodies label graphically illustrates the kind of food that it is best served besides, whether beef, fowl or pork. A rooster on the Chardonnay label, a pig on the Merlot and a cow on the Cabernet Sauvignon also include the different cuts of meat with which the wines pair, so no uncertainties are possible.

Julie Joy, senior national wine buyer at Cost Plus, said the line serves a dual purpose. Cost Plus customers often shop for wine they will use for entertaining, Joy said, and given today’s home entertainment trends, they are enthusiastic about introducing guests to new food and beverage combinations. However, as has been the case with, say Martha Stewart and home decorating, many consumers don’t mind a confidence boost at the point of sale when they are doing their coordinating. Foodies was developed to provide the coordinating confidence those consumers crave.

Helping the consumer become more comfortable with the new is all the more imperative given Cost Plus’s market-entry strategy, which includes continually introducing new, novel and exotic—yet affordable—merchandise, Joy noted. The good life at a sharp price is a central part of the Cost Plus proposition.

“We have customers we know pretty well, ones who recognize good value and love to explore our entire store,” Joy told Retailing Today. “Foodies is about exploring. We can, through those wines, bring a way to educate, as well as a means to determine what wines work best with certain foods. Once they find something they like, they [will] want to share it with other people.”

Launched early this month, the initial Foodies assortment included a California Chardonnay, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon with a basic price of $7.99 per 750 milliliter bottle, with prices varying slightly by market. “This venture really spells out for customers how to make the leap and pair this wine with whatever they’re cooking,” Joy said. “The way people are going, they are drinking more wine with meals, they’re doing more entertaining at home and this is a way to do those things at a value. Our customers say they need good everyday wine, but they don’t want to spend $30 for a bottle of wine every day. We can tell them what goes with what, and Foodies doesn’t break the bank.”