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First Posted: 1/31/2011

By JERRY LYNOTT
[email protected]

On the football field a player is penalized for piling on. But tha’s not the case at Super Bowl parties where guests heap chips, pretzels, pizza and even sushi on their plates.

The game Sunday between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers comes with super appetites, and supermarkets prepare for it with special displays, menus and promotions for weeks in advance.

The Thomas’ Super Foodtown in the Country Club Shopping Center, Dallas has a stadium of Frito Lay chips and Pepsi beverages just inside the entrance.
The display went up when the playoffs began earlier last month, said store manager Scott Shotwell.

Customers at the five local Thomas’ markets have been stocking up for all the games and they’ve been getting ready for the final one of the season. Up to an hour before kickoff people are picking up items on impulse or on order, like cakes and cupcakes with the team logos made in the stores’ bakeries, he said.
“It’s a big day,” said Shotwell. He figured that more people have parties at home for the game than they do for New Year’s Eve.

It ranks high on the list for the snack food industry which estimates millions of pounds of potato and tortilla chips, pretzels and popcorn are eaten before, during and after the game.
“That is one of the biggest snack consuming days of the year,” said Chris Clark, vice president, operations and membership for the Snack Food Association in Arlington, Va.

But a fan does not survive on snacks alone.
“We do an enormous business in catering,” said Joe Fasula, co-owner of the Gerrity’s supermarket chain.
It rivals other holidays in terms of food purchases. Instead of shoppers buying whole turkeys and hams, they’re loading up on hoagies, shrimp and homemade salads and other special orders made by the chefs in the chain’s nine area stores, he said.
People entertain at home, but not with sit-down dinners, Fasula pointed out. It’s buffet style and often prepared by someone else.
Wegmans supermarkets get into the game with platters for take outs, said Keith Grierson.
“It’s almost become another holiday, if you will,” said Grierson, who manages the Rochester, N.Y.-based chain’s Wilkes-Barre Township store.

On the menu are pizza, chicken wings, vegetable and fruit trays, chili by the bucket, sushi and more.

“Shrimp is a big seller. We do bacon-wrapped sea scallops,” said Grierson.
Don’t forget the guacamole.

Nationally, Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day of the year for avocados, said Dennis Curtin, a spokesman for Weis Markets in Sunbury.

Nearly 12 million pounds of the pear-shaped fruit are mashed up into 8 million pounds of guacamole, he said.

Curtin put the Super Bowl at or near the top of the food holidays; Thanksgiving might be the biggest eating day of the year.

“We see a noticeable spike in demand in the week leading up the conference championships, and it peaks in the week leading up the Super Bowl,” he said.
He ranked the top 10 most consumed items for the game as: vegetables, potatoes, soda, salty snacks, sandwiches, salads, chicken, milk, pizza and tea.

Unlike the Steelers and the Packers, partiers have the advantage of not having to travel for the game. But if they do, it’s to a friend’s or relative’s place.
“It’s the biggest day for in-house, stay-at-home parties and our business over (last) week and Super Bowl week is focused on meeting this demand,” said Curtin.

Next in the series: Bars