STICKY FINGERS LENDS A HAND TO NEW AMAZON.COM VENTURE

 
Restaurant Group’s Mail Order Products Now Available Via Web Retail Pioneer’s New Gourmet Food Store

December 5, 2003 | CHARLESTON, SC, Dec. 5, 2003 – Sticky Fingers Restaurant Group has further expanded its national presence by making some of its mail order products available through Amazon.com’s Gourmet Food store, which launched Nov. 9. The new relationship between the Charleston-based Sticky Fingers, with 11 restaurants throughout the southeast, and the Minneapolis-based online retail giant, with 35 million active customer accounts, represents the largest marketing strategic alliance Sticky Fingers has ever entered. Twenty-three Sticky Fingers offerings are presented in three different categories in Amazon.com’s Gourmet Food store: Meats, Game & Pates; Prepared Meals, Appetizers & Hors d’oeuvres; and Salsas & Condiments.
The Sticky Fingers products, including the restaurant group’s authentic Memphis style hickory smoked ribs, pulled pork and award-winning barbecue sauces, joined 30,000 other regional food items from more than 300 merchants, representing most of the 50 states, as well as a number of other countries. For some, marketing through the Amazon.com Gourmet Food store is a first entry into the national mail order arena. For Sticky Fingers, however, the association with Amazon.com serves as an extension of an already thriving mail order operation that had already seen a 72 percent increase in business year-to-date before becoming a part of the Amaazon.com site.
“We see the alliance with Amazon.com as a means making it easier for more people to find us. The Sticky Fingers brand has been solidly established over the last 11 years and continues to grow, but Amazon.com is a household name that will open many new doors to us, “ states Chris Doar, Stick- E sales and marketing director. “In fact we saw results within 48 hours of the site going live and as the holiday gift-giving season continues to heat up we expect the Amazon.com connection to contribute significantly to this year’s sales.”
Sticky Fingers mail order products are distinguished in the growing food mail order market in that they enable consumers to duplicate the Sticky Fingers restaurant taste experience, by following a few straightforward heating instructions. The mail order foods are prepared in exactly the same manner as their restaurant counter parts – small batches, slow smoked over hickory wood fires in barbecue pits made to Sticky Fingers’ specifications. Flash freezing, state-of-the art packaging and overnight delivery assure the retention of Sticky Fingers’ signature flavor characteristics.
Those characteristics have made Sticky Fingers a frequent presence on the awards podium. The restaurant group’s second Columbia, SC location was voted Best New Restaurant by The State’s 13th annual Reader’s Choice Poll this year, while the Chattanooga Times Free Press Reader’s Choice Poll in 2002 and 2003 cited Sticky Fingers as the source of Best Ribs, as did the Charleston City Paper in its Best of Charleston Awards for 2002 and the Columbia Times Free Times. And Sticky Fingers’ Atlantic Beach, FL restaurant was cited as being among The Best of the Beaches for 2003 by the Ponte Vedra Recorder, and Jacksonville magazine also gave them a nod with the Best Barbeque award.
For more information about Sticky Fingers mail order and restaurants, visit the organization’s newly redesigned Web site at www.stickyfingersonline.com.
Founded in 1992, Sticky Fingers Restaurant and Bar is a casual dinner-house concept, featuring Memphis-style hickory smoked ribs, chicken and hand-pulled pork barbecue. Founded in Mt. Pleasant, SC in 1992, there are now 11 popular locations - four in the Charleston, SC area, two in Chattanooga, TN, two in Columbia, one in Atlantic Beach, FL, one in Wilmington, NC and one in Hilton Head, SC. A twelfth restaurant, the first in Greenville, SC, is set to open in January 2004. The success of Sticky Fingers restaurants has generated high volume catering and mail order operations, as well as a wholesale barbecue sauce business.