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Carton takes Chessters to supermarket freezers

Rhino Foods of Burlington, VT, had a nice little business going with Chessters, a frozen chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich named after a Chesapeake Bay retriever.

Rhino Foods is relying on artwork by a prominent Vermont artist to help its Chessters frozen cookie sandwiches cut through the
Rhino Foods is relying on artwork by a prominent Vermont artist to help its Chessters frozen cookie sandwiches cut through the

Through distributors, these film-wrapped sandwiches, sold individually, have been available at convenience stores throughout much of New England since the mid-'80s.

But last year the firm hooked up with additional distributors, this time the kind that reach supermarkets. Could Chessters find a home in the supermarket freezer case, Rhino's marketers wondered? Not without a secondary package, says director of sales and marketing John McCarthy. "The format for frozen novelty items in supermarkets is the multipack," he points out.

So McCarthy and colleagues came up with a prototype three-count carton and showed it to Hannaford Bros., a leading supermarket chain based in Scarborough, ME.

"We didn't set out to show the prototype to every supermarket chain in the country, just the ones that had notable success with premium products in the past," says McCarthy. "Hannaford Bros. called back in about two weeks and said they wanted to go with it. Fortunately the prototype was well-developed in terms of art and graphics, so at least that part didn't require too much refining. But there was plenty of copy and other components that had to be ironed out."

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