(Photo by Ashley Nickle; graphic made with Adobe Spark)
It’s the season for resolutions and goal-setting and generally pinpointing key opportunities in the year ahead. Here are the areas a few different retailers are targeting for success in their stores in 2020.
Scott Bennett, produce sales and merchandising manager, Jewel-Osco
“Moving into the new year, one of my goals is to do more in-store live demos of cooking demos, not just giving out a broccoli raw but how do you cook broccoli or peppers, or how do you sauté this, or what goes with this or that, so that customers get ideas ... We’re going to get people out there that understand how to engage with the customer and understand the food that they’re cooking.”
Jeff Cady, director of produce and floral, Tops Friendly Markets
“Simplify the produce shopping experience by making sure all the choices in a particular category are near each other so customers don’t have to hunt (category merchandising). Time is short. We need to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. Continue to educate our team and our customers on all the unique items we carry in produce.”
Patrick Mills, director of produce and floral, Lucky’s Market
“Continue to train team members (on) the craft of produce, Better sampling programs, teaching the teams to have fun while they sell produce!”
Kevin Byers, produce merchandiser, PCC Community Markets
“Beside the normal sales and profit goals, I really want to keep growing and developing our staff. Getting them engaged with the operation of the department but also getting them out to visit farms and trade shows and really opening them up to parts of the business outside of their department and stores.
“There are a few exciting programs that we have taken over that I want to see grown in 2020 as well. These include a local plant start program and expanding our presence in the cut fruit and veg space.”
Louis Scagnelli, director of produce and floral for Alpha 1 Marketing, an affiliate of White Plains, N.Y. -based Krasdale Foods
“Our plan is to continue to educate consumers on the benefits of eating healthy. We plan to use social media and aggressive advertising to expand our reach to more consumers and to support the benefits of eating more fresh produce.”