Letting others do the cooking

Blair Ashton of Chesterfield County will host a Thanksgiving meal for eight guests at her house tomorrow. But she won't be cooking.

Instead, Ashton will unpack a box and hit the timer on her microwave.

"I don't like to be in the kitchen," she said.

Ashton is one of nearly 5,000 people who have ordered prepared meals from Ukrop's Super Markets Inc. leading up to Thanksgiving. The chain said it has about 1,000 orders for prepared side dishes as well.

The Kroger Co., Whole Foods Market stores and Ellwood Thompson's Local Market all offer prepared meals for the holiday as well.

Ashton, who picked up her meal at the Ukrop's across from Chesterfield Towne Center yesterday, has been buying the meals since 1989 when the grocer started offering the service.

She also buys her Christmas meal pre-made.

"I just don't like to cook," she said.

At Ellwood Thompson's in Carytown, business is brisk but orders of large meals are down, said executive chef Jannequin Bennett.

"We're seeing a lot of people coming to buy sides this year" as opposed to full meals, she said.

The reason for that, she said, could be that customers are trying to save money by cooking the turkeys themselves and buying sides that are difficult to make.

Bennett said she expects to sell about 24 gallons of each of the three soups she made for the holiday, 50 pounds of cranberry relish and 50 pounds of cranberries.

Carmella Cramer, who is general manager of the Chesterfield Ukrop's store, said her crew expects to prepare about 300 orders between yesterday and the close of business today.

Behind the store, a refrigerated trailer is backed up to the loading dock. Inside, packed almost to the ceiling, are the meals, boxed and ready for pick up. Along another wall inside the trailer, two workers pile trays of specially ordered side dishes.

The traditional meals include a turkey up to 14 pounds with dressing, green beans and several other sides.

The meal feeds about eight and costs $69.99.

Ashton also bought an extra tray of mashed potatoes. The order cost her about $80, which she said is cheaper than buying the ingredients and cooking them herself.

Ukrop's, which has been preparing the meals since the weekend, expects to pre-sell 94 percent of the orders, said Robert S. Ukrop, president of the grocery chain.

The remaining meals will go to the stores for last-minute shoppers, he said.

Bill Greer, a spokesman for the Food Marketing Institute, an Arlington-based food retailing association, said sales of prepared meals are strong industrywide.

"Prepared foods in general are popular as people are looking to save time," he said. "And buying meals is cheaper, in most cases, than going out to a restaurant."

For grocers, who Greer said are interested in expanding prepared food options, the holidays are a good way to show off their offerings.

"Supermarkets are working hard to upgrade their quality and the holidays are a good opportunity to highlight that," he said.
Contact Louis Llovio at (804) 649-6348 or .