Season Brings a Feast of Gourmet Food Gifts : Marketing: Mail-order retailers of high-priced specialty items such as caviar, relishes and pre-sliced ham report a boom in sales.

Move over cheddar cheese and summer sausage, make room under the Christmas tree for caviar and filet mignon.

Americans are giving gourmet gifts for Christmas each year as the number of retailers selling high-priced specialty food booms.

Even discounters such as Melville Corp.’s Marshall’s and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s Sam’s Club are clearing floor space and sending out catalogues to cater to the rising demand for wholesome and exotic foods this season.

The trend does not point to a return to the days of power-eating in the ‘80s, experts said. Americans actually remain rather thrifty despite this year’s healthier economy and strong job growth.

If consumers are pampering themselves these days, they’re doing it in the kitchen, dining room or TV room. The explosion of home buying--spurred by low interest rates--has many shoppers focused on the nest, and giving gifts to be enjoyed at home is very popular this Christmas season.

“You can get somebody a really wonderful collection of fruit preserves or relishes, and they’re never the wrong size or the wrong color,” said Justin Rashid, founder of Petoskey, Mich.,-based American Spoon Foods Inc.

American Spoon Foods, a retailer and catalogue marketer, is just one of the many home-grown food companies feeding off the gourmet gift trend. Its products, from jellies, gourmet mushrooms, hearty soups and relishes, are mostly made with edibles grown in Northern Michigan.

The company, which Rashid started 12 years ago with New York chef and restaurant owner Larry Forgione, had its busiest day ever at its catalogue operation one day this month.

“(Food gifts) are very, very in and have grown to become a huge business,” said Edward Loeb, publisher of Gourmet Retailer.

Part of the growth stems from the spreading availability of gourmet foods and the earthy marketing twists that many producers attach to their products.

These gourmet newcomers are striking the same nesting chord in busy Americans that home decorating and culinary guru Martha Stewart touched several years ago.

Food gifts also have a warmer, more personal touch than a silk tie, and they don’t cost as much. “Food is something everyone has in common,” Rashid said.

Sales of gourmet foods climbed to about $29.4 billion in 1993 from $22.0 billion in 1989, according to the National Association for Specialty Food Trade. About 80% of that comes from grocery store sales and the rest from specialty food retailers.

But now even apparel retailers, hit by weak demand for clothes and shrinking profit margins on other merchandise, are boosting sales by offering prepackaged gift baskets, caviar, champagne, fish pate and olive oil this season.

These stores are setting up food sections “just like they might have a luggage area,” Loeb said.

A $100 gift basket might brim with just $68 worth of gourmet delights, he said. The rest goes to small material costs, such as wrapping, and to profit.

At T.J. Maxx on State Street near Chicago’s downtown business district, shoppers investigated a tall, metal food rack in the holiday gift area one recent week day.

Picking through the Ghirardelli’s chocolate tins for $14.99, boxed smoked salmon fillets for $7.99 and pistachio nut packages for $12.99 was a Northwestern University professor in search of gifts for work associates.

Picking three boxes of chocolates, he said, “It’s not Godiva, but the quality still seems pretty good.”

Discounters such as T.J. Maxx are challenging the mom-and-pop gourmet gift shops, some of which ring up roughly half their annual sales during the Christmas season, in part by selling gift baskets to corporate and individual customers.

Wal-Mart plunged into the mail-order business this year with its “Gift Express” from its Sam’s Club division.

The 35-page book features traditional pre-sliced, smoked ham for $29.99, 1.75-ounce jars of beluga caviar for $89.99 and a big variety of food gift baskets for up to $99.99.

“They’re selling things for even less than we can buy them for,” said Lisa Fishwild, general manager of Spoonful gourmet food shop in a posh Lincoln Park neighborhood on Chicago’s North Side.

While sales have increased each year at Richmond, Va.,-based Butler’s Pantry, competition also is up.

To compete, the fancy food store offers hard-to-find items such as Louis Roederer Crystal champagne for $135 in addition to the $90 bottle of Dom Perignon, said manager Jim Morris.