If I took one lesson away from the recent PMG Produce Artist Award Series winter display contest, it was that merchandising creativity is alive and well. Much more than I’ve thought.
In fact, recent store visits have somewhat soured my curmudgeon mind, asking “Where is the pride of workmanship? Why don’t produce departments stand out like they used to?”
Turns out, if you look through the scores of PMG produce display photos, they’ve been with us all along.
Of course, the photos are the culmination of a lot of work. Talented produce merchandisers, produce managers and their crews took the time to plan, took risks to order extra merchandise, dared to be different, and —voila! — created produce displays that shouted messages of value and caught the eye with color contrasts, subtle meal suggestions, seasonality, themes and flavor.
In short, these produce people really knocked it out of the park.
My question amid it all was this: Why not shoot for impact displays as a matter of routine, instead of just for photo ops?
Milt, a somewhat unconventional but endearing produce manager I used to call on, used to stare for long periods in the wee hours of the morning at the open ad display area in front of him.
“Whaddya think, Milt?” I’d ask.
“Not sure yet, man,” he’d answer and smile. “Just waiting for inspiration.”
And suddenly it would hit him. What followed was a blur of loaded carts. Milt was a little bit produce manager, a little bit wacky inventor, not unlike Doc from the film “Back to The Future.”
He hustled and made his display look bountiful, but without too much product.
He liked to tie in commodities that seem natural now but at the time went against the grain. Like tying in bright lemons with the pastel greens of artichokes or asparagus. Or bright garlic nestled within fire-red tomatoes, and just enough props and point-of-sale to be tasteful.
Above all it was customer friendly. A good produce display includes accessibility, plenty of bags, clear product information and signing.
Milt’s finished displays were rarely the lovingly stacked, flawless results that we saw in so many of the contest photos. That’s not realistic in a labor-squeezed industry. However, when old Milt packed up cleaned and put the creative finishing touches on everything, the display had one indistinguishable quality – his signature.
That, I like to think, is what produce folks ought to strive for on a regular basis: to avoid just doing the mundane and instead, try to walk away from a finished effort knowing that what they do is more than just stocking and trying to pull a gross.
Armand Lobato works for the Idaho Potato Commission. His 40 years’ experience in the produce business span a range of foodservice and retail positions.