Perno W. Young III of ShopRite accepts the Mango Retailer of the Year award with his colleague Derrick S. Jenkins (second from right), who is standing with Lance Jungmeyer of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas. The award was presented by Manuel Michel and Michael Warren of the National Mango Board. (Photo by Ashley Nickle )
ORLANDO, Fla. — The National Mango Board recognized ShopRite as its 2018 Mango Retailer of the Year at the Produce Marketing Association’s Fresh Summit.
Perno W. Young III and Derrick S. Jenkins accepted the award on behalf of ShopRite. Manuel Michel, executive director of the National Mango Board, presented the award and explained that ShopRite came out on top of the intense competition for two reasons.
“First of all, they have a ripening program in place that’s very effective, and second, also their market strategies are second to none,” Michel said.
He noted that ShopRite parent company Wakefern Food Corp. was one of the first to receive training from the NMB and has been offering ripe mangoes for several years.
Michel also listed in-store sales strategies as key to ShopRite’s selection for the award.
“First of all, they’ve expanded their in-store displays,” Michel said. “Second, they also used traditional print media and also social media together at a very high level. They have also a retail dietitian program that’s very effective, and these retail dietitians post material from the mango board on their blogs, and it teaches the consumers about the nutrition and health values and all the different studies that the mango board is working on.
“They also use these retail dietitians to do in-store tastings,” Michel said. “They have also culinary workshops for both adults and children, and they use mangoes in the different recipes and courses that they have. When you take all these efforts and combine them, you end up with a retailer that sells a lot of mangoes.”
Michel said the national average of mangoes sold per store per week is 140-150 and that ShopRite on average sells about 700 mangoes per store per week.