Highlights
- Observations on berry merchandising from produce retail veterans Joe Watson, Armand Lobato and Mike O'Brien.
- Best practices for berry presentation from merchandising master Brian Dey.
- Berry merchandising inspiration from the Produce Artist Award Series.
Category insights
Check out the video above to enjoy some great category conversation with the industry expert panelists from our Produce Artist Award Series Spring 2021 Results webinar. Lobato's 40-year-plus retail career has spanned the produce manager, buyer, supervisor and other roles, and O'Brien and Watson both won Produce Retailer of the Year in their tenures as produce retail executives.
Quick takeaways
- Refrigeration is the hot topic when it comes to berry merchandising. Our experts say that, while displaying on refrigeration is certainly the ideal, if you build the right type of display at the right time of year and remain diligent with your turns, you can go off refrigeration strategically.
- Berries make a great attraction in high-traffic areas, but the category is a destination these days, so you can also place them further into the department and shoppers will hunt them down.
- Berries are a huge dollar category and a profit driver, so it makes sense to be aggressive and maximize your sales during peak season.
Presentation best practices
Read a deep-dive column from Brian here about how to maximize berry sales in your stores. Here's a rundown of what to expect.
- Insight on the big question: refrigeration.
- Display design perspective.
- Basket-building opportunities.
Display inspiration
If you're looking for even more beautiful berry displays (and there are some top-notch ones in Brian's column also), check out this video of displays that have been submitted for our Produce Artist Award Series.