The harsh truth right now in the produce aisle is that sales in much of the country are at a yearly low. That’s a difficult fact to admit, isn’t it? After all, most of the year produce departments have ample categories to generate maximum sales with just a little extra merchandising effort.
Even with fall’s harvest bounties, including admirable showings from new crop apples, potatoes, onions, pears, grapes and more, produce departments indeed miss the summer volume. In fact, produce sales won’t be noticeably buoyed until late fall citrus enters the scene.
How that makes a difference. California navels and other citrus — along with Texas and Florida grapefruit, it adds up to a lot more tonnage.
While the volume and sales graph doesn’t climb until these categories kick in, a produce manager can still make moves to enhance the bottom line starting now and throughout the next couple of months. Call it the three F’s.
The fall look. Since produce is always associated with a fall harvest, push this appearance as much as possible to help generate added sales. New crop fall apples and pears are a natural one-two punch. Merchandise in visible locations. Spread out the displays with as many varieties as you can manage and take advantage of the numerous color breaks. Colorful, aromatic fall offerings spark sales.
The fall look can incorporate pumpkins, hard squashes, candy apples and gourds in décor-framed displays including bushel baskets, orchard bins, shipper crates, straw bales, dried corn stalks and more. Try cross-merchandising items such as apple cider to help punctuate the produce department’s fall image.
Fruit baskets never go out of style. As the holidays draw near, fruit basket sales grow. Many customers look at these offerings as a convenient and practical gift for teachers, for delivery people, for neighbors, babysitters and so many others that pop up, especially during the holidays, as a last-minute gift.
Fruit baskets can be simple, ornate, or include a theme (party host, get-well, baby shower, holidays, and so on). Have a few samples of your representative baskets on display, signed to indicate you can assemble to order. Replenish each day with fresh baskets and this will pay off in incremental fall sales.
Floral. OK, so I admit I’ve said (more than once) that the only flower I really know about is cauliflower. However, there isn’t anything like a beautiful, hand-stacked produce display that is adorned on either side with bountiful displays of potted or fresh-cut flowers. This is a finishing touch that doesn’t go unnoticed by your customer, many of whom will shop and add floral (perhaps an even more impulsive sale than fresh produce) to their cart.
Or vice-versa. The floral customer may very well add produce to the cart, right?
Keeping the produce department in tip-top condition is a constant endeavor. This is no time to cut labor, but rather push for as much as possible to catch up on deep cleaning and to keep the fall look fresh — displays full, culled, level, and neatly signed.
Just because volume temporarily slips doesn’t mean your standards should.
Armand Lobato works for the Idaho Potato Commission. His 40 years’ experience in the produce business span a range of foodservice and retail positions.