The Produce Marketing Association recently released its Essentials of Produce at Retail training course for entry-level produce associates, and longtime industry members Joe Watson and Steve Patt joined The Packer’s retail editor Ashley Nickle to discuss the development of the program and how it is expected to create value for retailers.
Watson, vice president of membership and engagement for PMA, and Patt, director of business development for Tourtellot and Co. and part of PMA’s retail task force, described the program as ideal for independent and regional retailers in particular. The five modules of the program are supply chain, top produce items, the importance of food safety, customer focus and interaction, and effective merchandising. The course overall takes roughly 2-3 hours to complete.
“Everyone believes that training is important, but what we’ve really sort of failed to do as an industry is elevate that importance to a point where we’re willing to pay for it the way it should be, and that’s what’s really exciting about this program,” Patt said.
The program is priced at $250 for up to five users, according to the sell sheet for the course.
“Training brings with it so many, many benefits, from employee development to reduction of shrink to self-confidence to setting the right tone for an entire market,” Patt said. “It’s a very, very inexpensive — at least from this perspective — investment with some amazing returns.”
Patt noted his own career as an example of how early employee engagement and training can kickstart a life in produce.
“My hope, and I think the industry’s hope, is that a tool like this can take a raw kid off the streets that maybe doesn’t know what he wants to do — maybe they learn to love this,” Patt said. “When I first started, I certainly didn’t anticipate I would be selling zucchini for the rest of my life, for 50 years. I didn’t think that at all. But I fell in love with this. I absolutely fell in love with it, and I couldn’t leave it if I wanted to, and I haven’t been able to.”
Watson said an additional benefit to retailers can be as a story for the company’s marketing; an investment in training their employees is an investment in a better experience for their customers. That messaging can be shared in the retailer’s magazine, in the weekly ad, on social media and elsewhere.
In developing the Essentials of Produce at Retail course, PMA sought feedback from many retailers on what areas would be most important to cover in training. The following industry members, along with Patt, contributed as part of PMA’s retail task force.
- Gary Baker, Merchants Distributors
- Mike Roberts, Harps Food Stores
- Mark Hendricks, Pyramid Foods
- Michelle Mayhew, Dorothy Lane Market
- Mimmo Franzone, Longo’s
- Rob Ybarra, Rouses Markets
- Lenny Miner, Associated Grocers of New England
- Jeff Cady, Tops Markets
- Caitlin Tierney, formerly 99 Cents Only Stores, now with Mastronardi Produce