Fresh Produce Retail Merchandising

Merchandising took a turn for the worse with the arrival of refrigerated multideck cabinets.  Produce displays were no longer taken down at night anymore, as instead, the last produce assistant on duty when the store closes pulls down the curtains on the display front to create a closed environment for cold air to circulate.

And, hey presto, all that now needed to happen in the morning was that the curtains were lifted, and the department was immediately ready for the day’s trade.  The only minor difference being that the produce on the shelf in the morning had not been taken down at night, had not been graded, and unblemished produce had not been removed as a matter of course.  

Lessons were learned from this unexpected interaction between people, documented processes and new technology. Some of the considerations planners and decision makers had to tackle in their attempts to align all these components included:

• Will the staff get around to grading the entire department during the course of the day?  That is probably the well-meant intention but an unlikely scenario.  Store labour is scarce these days - remember the wage percentages.  And even if the staff could achieve a total rotation and grading of the entire department during trading hours, it would be precisely that: grading during trading hours…in front of customers.  
• Does it really make sense to have grading and removal of blemished produce occur under the watchful eyes of customers whilst they are trying to make up their mind whether they should buy their produce at the supermarket they are in or at the greengrocer around the corner?

Stores, which are equipped with refrigerated multidecks, have by now adjusted their behaviours to achieve optimal benefits from the technology, whilst maintaining the principle of only keeping fit for purpose fruits and vegetables on display.

Perception being nine tenths of reality, I cannot help but think that the multideck has not done the produce retail industry any favours when it comes to building consumer confidence.  Unfortunately, today’s shoppers operate on the basis that supermarket produce must be treated with a degree of caution and greengrocers are perceived to have better produce merchandise skills than they typically have.

How much of this perception might be related to the impression that when fruit and vegetables need to  be kept cool or chilled within a store environment, this needs to be interpreted as a broad hint that not all is well with the shelf life expectation of the produce, or worse?

To take this potential argument a step further, I would like to conclude with this question:

• Does a correlation exist between the effort, energy and investment needed to ensure seamless centralised managed and standardised produce supply via proprietary retail distribution centres, and the consumer perception that supermarket produce departments are not necessarily the fruit & vegetable shopping destination of first choice these days?

And as I formulated the above question, a second one came to mind:

• How much structured and standardised effort to maintain fruit and vegetables, in what the retailer understands to be optimum display conditions to encourage purchasing, can be justified when the low commodity value of the produce might not be justify the expended effort, e.g. sweetcorn, cabbage, etc.? 

Difficult questions to solve, especially when one's fresh produce retail merchandising business model might have evolved from being the logical consequence of one's growth strategy over decades, to being a constraint on maintaining consumer confidence.