The National Grocers Association shared a fun video this week promoting entries for its annual Creative Choice Awards contest.
Last May, Cash Wise, a St. Cloud, Minn.-based Coborn's banner, built the World's Largest Pineapple Display using two full truckloads of pineapples. The initial display included 16,800 pineapples, and 15-foot working volcano in the middle "complete with smoke rising from the top."
It took ten employees six hours to build the display, which raised $5,000 for the Coborn Cancer Center. The effort earned Coborn's Inc. a best merchandiser award in the charitable cause event category at The NGA Show 2017.
I asked Tom Williams, director of produce and floral, about the crazy display. Turns out Tom joined Coborn's just a few months prior to the event.
"This was from 2016, and I was new to the company," he said. "They thought I was crazy but we sold all of them."
They sold every one of the 16,800 initial display, and had to bring in more -- for a total of 23,315 pineapples for the entire promotion.
But be wary of a working volcano in your produce department, Williams said.
"It was right next to the sprinkler head so we were either going to have a cool feature, or be on America's Funniest Home Videos," he said.
Have you done something crazy, or just plain awesome this year? The National Grocers Association is accepting entries for its Creative Choice Awards Contest through December 11. For more information, visit NationalGrocers.org/Creative-Choice-Awards.