It seems like every day brings news of another produce retail legend retiring or moving into a new phase of life. This has me reflecting on my path in the business, the legacy myself and others are leaving, and the next generation of leaders.
I distinctly recall when I got the bug – the moment I knew produce would be where I made my career. I fell in love with produce, and retail was the vehicle that allowed me to pursue that passion.
It’s a passion that has burned in me for more than 40 years now. Along the way I had numerous mentors who guided me, answered my naïve questions and allowed me to make mistakes to see how I would respond and resolve them. I even had some detractors, the ones I wanted to win over by proving my value and dedication to my career and team.
Career opportunity
Here’s the definition of a career: An occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person’s life and with opportunities for progress and advance.
This description accurately describes what a life in retail can be, but anyone who has made a career in retail knows it is not a quick process. It takes time, patience, persistence and the willingness to get outside of one’s comfort zone. It requires taking on new opportunities and suggesting the seemingly outrageous idea that pushes the boundaries.
A lesson I learned while developing up-and-coming talent early in my retail career is that not everyone wants the opportunity to advance. It could be disappointing at times, and no matter how much reassurance and encouragement I offered, they just were not ready for the opportunity, or so it seemed.
Rethinking at the time what motivated people to seek advancement, the easy answer was money, but it certainly wasn’t the only answer. Purpose was also a key lever, and I needed to learn more about the people on my team, what drove them, how they viewed their work, and whether that all aligned with our company mission and their personal purpose.
This was knowledge that had to be gathered to build our team.
Recruiting and retaining future leaders
The first question to ask is what the future produce retail leaders look like in terms of people skills, knowledge of the supply chain, overall industry experience, and success handling increasing levels of responsibility. I would also add to the list this attribute: experience with and understanding of how technology and virtual engagement has changed and will continue to change the retail sector going forward.
For generations, a produce retail leader came up through the company ranks, so their knowledge of the business was from hands-on experience, from store and field operations, to buying and category management, culminating in executive status. Along the way, those experiences made them experts in fresh produce, they formed relationships through industry engagement, and they built a bench of talent for their organization.
Building the bench is more difficult than it used to be. It is a matter of perception that retail and “grocery stores” are not a “real job.” Some even go so far as to characterize them as dead-end jobs.
There is a negative narrative which has impacted retailers’ ability to attract, develop and retain staff over the past number of years, and now it has reached possibly a critical stage at the worst possible time, as so much change and opportunity at retail is taking place.
Both within their organizations and beyond them, how can retailers create awareness of and demand for the opportunities that exist through a career in produce retail?
This where purpose plays a key role in preparing the next generation of retail produce leaders.
Retailers should consider not simply relying on the company attributes of years gone by as a selling point. Like playing on the senses of consumers to sell them something they were not planning to purchase, retailers must develop strategies to attract and retain staff who are deciding on their career path.
Communicating purpose
Purpose should be a shared goal; while companies have their respective goals around purpose, each person has their own goals and purpose, and more than ever purpose is a determining factor for today’s workforce.
It is not enough to teach someone to sell fresh produce; today the message must include why we are selling fresh produce.
The ultimate purpose, of course, is to increase consumption of products that are fundamentally good, that enable people to live better. In produce retail, you work to educate people about how different items benefit them, about what’s in season, about more ways to use the products they’ve always known, and about new items they’ll love.
That’s a mission statement that might inspire more up-and-coming leaders than simply selling more to make more money.
Articulating that larger purpose frequently could be an opportunity to inspire and remind people that in this industry they can have a bigger impact on people than they might elsewhere.
Passing the baton
We have witnessed many changes in retail produce over the past 40 years. When I came into the business, those who were leaders from the end of WWII through incredible advances in supermarket development – from refrigerated cases to a shift from bulk to unitized produce departments on into the 1970s – were then retiring.
In their place were those who understood how computers would positively impact productively and grow sales, along with improvements in buying strategies through computerized inventory systems and supported by one of the greatest advances in the fresh produce industry: the development of the PLU number.
Now many of these giants of the produce retail industry have retired, giving way to new leaders who have witnessed both explosive SKU growth of fresh produce and year-round access to products attributed to improved production technology, varietal development and counterseasonal production from outside the U.S., which has grown sales of fresh produce exponentially over the past 30 years.
As each generation has aged, they have seen the next waiting in line, ready to grab the baton and run their portion of the race. The next generation in retail produce will most assuredly be visionaries in their own right, and their sense of purpose will likely be one of the biggest generational contributions of this group.
Retail leaders will drive advancement and supply chain efficiencies through the expansion of protected ag, hyperlocal and vertical farming, along with technologies and AI. Today these areas may be in their infancy, but tomorrow they’ll likely be commonplace.
The question remains: Who will be ready to take the handoff on the next baton exchange?
This column is part of a series by Joe Watson, who spent 30-plus years as the director of produce for Rouses Markets and was named Produce Retailer of the Year in 2014. Joe now serves as a vice president of member engagement for PMA. Keep an eye out for information coming soon on PMA’s Global Retail Week, which is set for June 7-11.