The holiday season is to food like fish are to water. They truly go hand-in-hand as many people enjoy sharing their holidays with family and bonding over food. Your produce department is a key cog into making those next family memories a reality. The main key to a successful holiday is being fully prepared with great plans for ordering, merchandising, labor scheduling and having the right items in stock for your customers to shop.
Thanksgiving is a holiday that consumers really focus on time and convenience, and they generally do not shop around at different stores to get the ingredients for their meals. They will be looking to you to have the products they want and need without having the inconvenience of having to go to one of your competitors — a true one-stop holiday shop.
Photo courtesy Brian Dey
Order ahead to stay ahead
The most important piece of holiday success starts with the buy. Thanksgiving is all about planning out an order schedule that fits into the timing of when the traffic hits the stores, and this is where keeping great notes from years past will help you plan your ordering out. Having detailed notes will allow you to see when the heavy shopping was and gives you a starting point for this year to plan ahead.
A great practice is to bring your hard goods (potatoes, onions, squashes, etc.) in early so you can have your basic staple sets lined up and ready to go at least a week before the holiday. As we move toward the weekend before the holiday, that is a good time to start ramping up on your more perishable type of holiday items (wet and cold veg, mushrooms, herbs, value-added lines etc.) so when Monday hits, you are off to the races.
Although every area might be different as far as when the heavy days are, the basic blueprint for operations is the same. By Tuesday morning, your floor and counter displays should be loaded, and your coolers should be racked and ready with product primed to get out onto your shelves and in your customers' carts. Waiting until the last minute to bring in holiday items is a recipe for disaster. Planning good ordering practices is the start of great sales and happy customers.
Photo courtesy Brian Dey
Staples, staples, staples
Thanksgiving is a vegetable-heavy holiday, so having the right items in and on your counters is essential to success and consumer happiness. That means potatoes of all varieties, onions, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, cranberries, hard squashes, herbs for stuffing, mushrooms, celery, collards and other greens, carrots and other root vegetables, asparagus — and this is just to name a few. The list really could go on. It's that important to carry a lot of variety to satisfy all your customers' needs. But while it is a vegetable-heavy staple holiday, there are still opportunities across all commodities to grab sales and have some fun with merchandising. Big displays of apples, pomegranates and navel oranges are super seasonal and easy grabs. Fall fruit items such as persimmons, pears, figs and quince should be fresh and full on display. And of course, let's not forget the full line of nuts, dates and other dried fruit perfect for baking. These are big dollar rings for your departments.
Mixed Merchandising
Thanksgiving is the perfect time to build massive displays with waterfalls, fronts and nice, wide spreads of the staples in your cases. Big displays = big sales. It is also a great time to order and cut into your category sections some added variety onto your counters. The added traffic in your stores alone will give exposure to these new items. If you were hesitant in bringing something in, the Thanksgiving seasons is a great time to try something new. It might lead to future sales on a new line or item. Exposure is key. There are many cross-merchandising opportunities for this holiday as well. Some favorites include adding marshmallows and brown sugar to your sweet potatoes; placing packs of herbs by stuffing mixes, turkeys and vegetarian-meat options in the meat department; pie crusts by your pie pumpkins; and slivered almonds and breadcrumbs by your green bean displays.
Photo courtesy Brian Dey
Value-added variances
Increase the volume of your value-added category because time and convenience are a heavy customer focus for the holidays. As dated items, these products are a tricky category to order for sure. A good practice is to start bulking up on orders heading into the weekend before the holiday. You might have opportunities to run displays out of your normal value-added sets with product that doesn't break cold chain standards, so have a plan for some of these holiday-type items to drive volume. It's also a great idea to cross-merchandise value added lines with your bulk version lines to give your customers an option. For example, place bagged green beans or Brussels sprouts next to your bulk green beans or Brussels sprouts. Historically in most areas, there will be added volume and case movement in chunked or peeled butternut squashes (my personal fave), green beans, Brussels sprouts, and cut broccoli and cauliflower. Be fresh and be ready.
Labor laws
Labor is a tough word now, right? While labor might be short or tight in your store, allocation of the labor that you do have is super important. Ideally, be fully set and ready to go by 8 to 9 a.m. every day so you are ready for the busy day ahead. Then you won't be stuck trying to play catch-up all day. This suggestion is especially important for Thanksgiving, as consumers might want to get in early and have everything available to them while they are there. If you have the capability to have an overnight stocker, use that option. Follow the old standby practice of filling all the hard goods, nuts, dried product and fruit such as apples and citrus the night before. That practice gives you a solid start in the morning to focus on the higher maintenance categories, such as wet racks and berries. And staffing during the day should be spread out to ensure there are associates in the department at all times of the day.
I wish you and your families a very Happy Thanksgiving and safe holiday season. Now, please pass the potatoes ...
— Brian Dey is the senior merchandiser and natural stores coordinator for Ephrata, Pa.-based wholesaler Four Seasons Produce. He's an industry veteran with a serious passion for helping produce teams to achieve great presentation and results in their departments.