Pizza Frozen, Pizza Fresh
BY JOHN J. PIERCE

"Our Crust Makes All the Difference," Safeway says of its huge 16-inch Milena's pizzas sold in deli sections at a hefty $7.99.

Store brands keep up with the leaders-and sometimes outdo them.

Never heard of Milena's Pizzeria? It's not a chain like Pizza Hut, nor a delivery service like Domino's, nor even a mom-and-pop in some town you never heard of. It's a brand of fresh deli pizza at Safeway Stores, Pleasanton, CA.

Pizza's a big thing at Safeway, which also has the Safeway Select Verdi brand in the frozen department. But Milena's self-rising take-and-bake pizzas are a really big thing: 16 inches across, too big to fit in some refrigerators and plenty to serve a family of four.

"Our Crust Makes All the Difference," reads package copy. "In the Old World tradition, we double proof our dough, allowing it to rise twice for a lighter, crispy crust that we think will make Milena's your favorite pizzeria pizza." The basic recipes are said to come from a family pizzeria in the old country.

Available in four varieties-Cheese, Pepperoni, Sausage and The Works-they retail for a hefty $7.99. But Friday is Pizza Day at Safeway; once a week, pizza lovers can get them for $5. And if you're not a family of four, you can get single serve Milena's pizzas in more exotic varieties like Chicken with BBQ sauce and Hawaiian style.

Store brand pizzas come big and they come small. They come premium and they come bargain. Premium pizzas are nearly always rising crust varieties targeting DiGiorno. Bargain pizzas are usually common varieties, with nothing but price going for them. In between, some retailers offer mid-grade pizzas positioned against Tombstone.

Thinking Outside the Pizza Box!

But there are always exceptions that show real initiative. You can't get much cheaper than 89 cents for crispy thin crust single-serve pizza at Kroger, Cincinnati, OH. But in addition to Cheese, Pepperoni, Italian Sausage, Combination and Supreme varieties, Kroger offers Mexican pizzas on tortilla-style crusts: Supreme, Taco (with hamburger, tomatoes and green onions) and Quesadilla (with taco sauce and cheddar and Monterey jack cheeses).

Food Lion, Salisbury, NC, positions store self-rising pizzas at $3.99 against DiGiorno at $5.99, and private label "Italian style" pizzas at $2.29 against Tombstone at $4.60. But the varieties are rather limited: Cheese, Pepperoni, Three Meat and Combination. Single-serve pizzas at 79 cents include Italian Sausage and Hamburger: The theory behind this may be that singles have more varied tastes, and Food Lion evidently isn't alone in that regard.

At Safeway, full-size Verdi self-rising pizzas come in Quattro Formaggio, Primo Pepperoni and Meat Magnifico versions. But in single-serve, options include Grilled Chicken Caesar, Margherita, Tomato Basil, Roasted Vegetable Speciale and Supreme Classic Southwestern Style-which last offers roasted red peppers, yellow onions, black beans, and cheddar, Monterey jack and asadero cheeses. But they're almost as pricey as full-size pizzas: $3.39.

Half & Half pizza-pepperoni on one side, cheese on the other-is part of the Dining In line from Topco Associates, Skokie, IL. So is single-serve BBQ Recipe White Meat Chicken & Red Onion. Dining In rising crust includes six cheeses (mozzarella, provolone, asiago, fontina, parmesan and romano) in Cheese, Pepperoni, Supreme and Three Meat varieties, with cross-coupons and alternative baking instructions for crisper and softer crusts.

Dining In pizzas retail for a hefty $5.99 at Meijer, Grand Rapids, MI, but were promoted this summer at two for $7. Meijer also carries its own Select Italian self-rising crust pizzas in Pepperoni, Three Meat and Supreme varieties at two for $9, against $5.29 for DiGiorno. Besides the "special crust that bakes and rises right in the oven," Meijer boasts of the juicy tomatoes and special blend of spices that "give the sauce a rich, authentic Italian flavor."

Big Y, Springfield, MA, offers some "world class" Take & Bake fresh pizzas: 13-inch Cheese at two for $10, 12-inch Pepperoni at two for $12 and seven-inch cheese at two for $5, all with plastic covers. Like Meijer, it also carries Topco's Dining In line. At Shaw's Supermarkets, East Bridgewater, MA, the Shaw's Signature line includes Cheese and Supreme rising crust pizzas, "made with the finest ingredients" (including four cheeses) which retail at $4.99 each.

Wegmans, Rochester, NY, offers both fresh and frozen pizzas. The former come under the Wegmans Pizza Shop brand and include Pepperoni, Chesse, White Garlic and Spinach & Ricotta. Full size Bake & Rise Crust frozen include Four Cheese, Pepperoni, Supreme and Three Meat at $4.99, versus $5.79 for DiGiorno. Single-serve Four Cheese, Pepperoni and Supreme are priced at $3.99-the same as the national brand. But the chain also offers French bread pizza, not to mention Ripe Tomato & Mozzarella, Grilled Vegetable, Four Cheese and Mushroom varieties in its Italian Classics brand.

Want to make your own pizza? Wegmans makes it easy with its Pizza Shop brand dough and sliced pepperoni to complement its take-out pizzas. Under the Italian Classics brand there are three pizza toppers: Garden Vegetable, Bell Pepper & Onion and Sun-dried Tomato. Big Y makes it even easier with packaged pizza dough, cheddar and mozzarella blends, pizza toppings (pepperoni, olives, sausage) plus pizza sauce.

Wal-Mart, Bentonville, AR, markets 6.5-oz pizza crust mix under the Great Value brand for only 25 cents (marked down recently from 33 cents). Limited assortment retailer Aldi, Batavia, IL, offers a 31.85-oz Cheese Pizza Kit under the Mama Cozzi brand at $1.99; it includes enough crust mix, pizza sauce and grated cheese to make two pies; "Add Mozzarella Cheese for Real Pizzeria Taste," advises a message on the front panel. Trader Joe's, Monrovia, CA, offers naked pizza crusts called, appropriately, Tabula Rasa.

Chances are that a lot of store brand fresh pizza sales are not tracked by either Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) or ACNielsen, both of Chicago, IL. IRI shows private label refrigerated pizza/pizza kit sales at only $4.3 million, and declining. ACNielsen puts deli pizza sales at $7.6 million, up 2.9%. Both show a surge in store brand frozen pizza: IRI 15% to $179.6 million, ACNielsen 11.2% to $167.8 million.