Left to right: Brattleboro Food Co-Op store manager Whitney Field, produce manager John Truncale and senior merchandiser Brian Dey with Four Seasons Produce pose for a photo op during a store visit by the United Fresh Produce Association, which honored Truncale this year as one of the industry's outstanding produce managers. (Photo courtesy United Fresh)
Brattleboro Food Co-Op produce manager John Truncale, recognized this year by United Fresh as one of the best in the business, has embraced in recent years a "bigger is better" merchandising approach and taken his department to a new level in the process.
Truncale, who has been with the co-op for more than 25 years, said it is a huge honor to be recognized by United and that he gives credit to his team at the store and also to Four Seasons Produce senior merchandiser Brian Dey, who works with Truncale regularly and who nominated him for the award.
"When he first started trying to convince me to build these big displays, I was hesitant at first because I was afraid that I was going to wind up losing a lot of product, so the first couple of times he came we did it (where) basically if it doesn’t sell, don’t worry, I’ll credit you, you’re covered," Truncale said. "So the first three or four displays that we built, I sold everything on the display – didn’t have any shrink, and over the course of two or three days nonetheless, so that really stuck with me."
Going big is most powerful when an item is in peak season. Pre-COVID, taking an aggressive merchandising approach on cherries resulted in the highest sales for that category in July that Truncale had ever seen, he said.
His experiences in recent years have made him a believer in the dollars-over-margin approach because — as the favorite line of enthusiastic produce managers everywhere goes — "You don't take margin to the bank," Truncale said with a chuckle.
Merchandising and the connection with customers are Truncale's favorite parts of the job.
"To me, it’s artwork," Truncale said. "It’s like a painter taking a canvas and creating a painting when it comes to doing the displays and the wet rack and things like that. I love that aspect of it the best.
"Second, right below that, is the interaction that I have with the customers here," Truncale said. "Sometimes, the same customer, you see them every single day you’re here, they come in once or twice a day so you form a relationship with them, so they bounce a lot of ideas off of me and I bounce a lot of ideas off of them when it comes to recipes and things like that, so it’s very rewarding to me.”