Crack into your seasonal promotions, Hatch chile style

They’re called Hatchheads, a nickname reminiscent of the Deadhead fans who follow the Grateful Dead shows.

But instead of a legendary psychedelic jam band, it’s a New Mexican-grown Hatch chile that’s the source of adoration.

This pepper is quite the smoke show.

“Once people try them, they tend to get hooked on them. They tend to become Hatchheads and want to come back year after year to pick up their peppers,” said Scott Wiggans, produce director of California-based Bristol Farms, Lazy Acres Natural Market and New Leaf Community Markets, all retail banners of of Good Food Holdings. “And as they try all the varieties and all the different recipes that you can make with them, they continue to come back for more.”

Whatever the seasonal, regional fruit or vegetable, produce retailers can use similar promotion techniques implemented by Wiggans’ stores, plus others such as Gelsons, Balls Food Stores, and Food City. These supermarkets all have special promotions, such as Hatch chile roasting events in front of their stores.

At Bristol Farms, shoppers can learn from the Hatch experts how to increase or decrease the heat level as needed, how to process the peppers and how to incorporate them into recipes.

Wiggans encourages shoppers to buy several bags of roasted Hatch chiles and freeze them to use throughout the year until next season.

“When you have a roaster running in front of your store, it does draw attention,” Wiggans said. “You can smell the peppers roasting for blocks away, which also makes people seek out 'what is that great smell?' and it just helps you drive excitement and bring people into the stores.”

He gets the whole store — each department — behind these events, with a marketing campaign launching about a month before the season starts in August. The company holds roasting events at three stores a week for about six weeks.

Social media posts and point-of-sale materials offer fun slogans like “Let’s get Hatched” or “Down the Hatch.” Wiggans’ favorite is: “Get your Hatch while you can because it’s now or next year.”

That last one speaks to the short season and need to buy as much as you want for the rest of the year to put in the freezer.

Then there’s tying in the rest of the store to exponentially increase sales.

“Every department in our store makes a delicious Hatch-infused recipe and figures out a way to tie Hatch into what they’re doing,” he said.

Besides hosting roasting events, Hen House Market, a banner of Balls Food Stores, based in Kansas City, Kan., will also feature many other Hatch chile items such as Hatch chicken salad, Hatch sliders from the deli and Hatch Focaccia from the bakery.

On the day of each roasting event, Southern California’s Bristol Farms has two roasters running outside the store with pallets of chiles available to be roasted to order.

The entire front of the store is transformed into a large Hatch sampling event, including items from the bakery, from foodservice, from the meat department, the grocery department and  produce department.

“It really helps us drive sales, because once people taste the peppers, and once they see how they can be incorporated into all these different items, they tend to look to buy a case, or at least buy some pre-roasted product from inside the store,” Wiggans said.

Also, his stores roast the chiles in-house to then bring back to the fresh-cut department to make Hatch salsa and guacamole, two big sales drivers for the produce department.

To display Hatch chiles, Wiggans said his teams use the loose peppers to create a border around avocados. They also nestle in some rainbow tomatoes and garlic.

Bristol Farms has been holding Hatch chile roasting events for 10 years, adding new recipes to marketing materials. The store's foodservice chefs also come up with new recipes, such as Hatch sushi rolls.

The roasting events are full-service, too. Shoppers will pay for what they want inside the store, bring the receipt outside to the roaster, and then go to their cars, where their steaming-hot bags will be delivered to them, so they don’t have to touch it.

At the 45 Food City locations in Arizona, shoppers had a chance to post their favorite Hatch chile recipe on Facebook or Instagram, tagging #FoodCityHatchChile to win up to $1,000 in prizes.

This Hatch-mania can totally apply to any seasonal, favorite produce item at any store.

“It’s really all about building the excitement in the store, really letting the customer know that something’s going on. I think one of the keys is to build events around items that are very well received by the customer, items that are really going to be resonate with the customers,” Wiggans said. “And figuring out ways to get the whole store involved is a big, big part of it, making sure that you have different themed items throughout the store so as the customer shops the entire store, they continue to see that theme pop up.”

About Hatch chiles:

Grown in New Mexico’s Hatch Valley and in peak season from the start of August through the first half of September, these chiles are closest to the Anaheim pepper in taste and appearance — but hotter.

“They have a smokier and garlic taste to them and a delicious, buttery texture,” said Wiggans.

You can offer mild, medium, hot and extra-hot Hatch chiles. The more moisture the growing pepper gets, the milder it will taste.

Roasting the Hatch chiles caramelizes the sugars, creating a smoky, sweet flavor unique to this pepper variety.

They’re great in many dishes, but especially on pizza, burgers, nachos and in enchiladas, hummus, egg dishes, salsa and guacamole.

Arizona-based Food City cited the health benefits too:

• One medium Hatch Green chile has the vitamin C of six oranges;
• The hot flavor triggers a thermodynamic burn in the body to speed up your metabolism; and
• Some teas and lozenges are made with Hatch peppers to treat sore throats.