Northeast Retailers Say ‘Stay Home and Grill Out’

The beef checkoff, through the Northeast Beef Promotion Initiative and the Pennsylvania Beef Council, partnered with 18 retailers throughout the northeast to launch the 2011 “Stay Home Grill Out” promotion.

In total, 315 store locations featured recipe booklets, shelf wobblers and meat department posters from May through September. Shoppers had the chance to enter to win a grand prize of $500 in free groceries by entering at StayHomeGrillOut.com. Runner-up prizes included 10-piece kitchen knife sets and “The Healthy Beef Cookbook.”

Katie Coughlin of Leonardtown, Md., a shopper at Sunbury, Pa.-based Weis Markets, was selected as the grand prize winner.

“The Stay Home Grill Out beef promotion has helped our customer with the understanding of how to cook on the grill through recipes and doneness levels along with giving them new and different cuts of beef they can try the grill,” said John Grimes, Weis Markets director of meat sales and merchandising. “Beef is the highest percentage of the meat department business most weeks throughout the course of the year. Helping our customers understand the value of beef as part of their diet is a vital part of growing the beef category. We all need to do a better job of promoting the attributes of beef through educating our customers.”

Coughlin visits the Weis website often to take advantage of weekly specials, and it was while on the site that she learned about Stay Home Grill Out. “I love grilling filets – they’re my favorite,” she said. “My kids [two teenage daughters] are big burger fans.”

The NEBPI partnered with six new retailers throughout New Hampshire, Vermont, New York and Pennsylvania for the 2011 summer grilling promotion this year.

For more information about checkoff-funded activities, visit MyBeefCheckoff.com.