Jan 12, 2009 12:00 PM, By MICHAEL GARRY

Like many food retailers, Fresh Encounter, Findlay, Ohio, tries to help shoppers resolve their daily dilemma: What to have for dinner? But this wholesaler-supported chain of 32 stores has come up with an unorthodox strategy for communicating meal suggestions: texting them to shoppers' cell phones.

Last month, for example, Fresh Encounter, which operates under Community Markets and three other banners in Ohio and Indiana, sent a text message to the cell phones of shoppers at a group of stores who had opted into its Text-N-Save mobile advertising program; the message, sent at 2 p.m. on a Thursday and Friday, offered a deal on a whole rotisserie chicken or eight pieces of fried chicken to shoppers who came to the stores after 5 p.m. on those days.

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