The 2023 Packer 25 — Price Mabry
Editor’s note: The following profile is from the 2023 Packer 25, our annual tribute to 25 leaders, innovators and agents of change across the fresh produce supply chain. (You can view all honorees here.) This feature has been edited for length and clarity.
Price Mabry — Vice president of fresh, Corner Market
How do you motivate your produce managers and clerks to be vigilant about keeping their departments clean, freshly rotated, educated on the products and creative with merchandising displays?
The job of a produce manager never ends — from cleaning, maintaining fresh quality, building impactful displays and providing the very best customer service. The produce manager has to do it. It's my job and my team's job to provide them tools necessary to complete all those steps.
For us, we keep it simple. We have a weekly cleaning list for them to follow that breaks the department down into 4-foot sections. That way it's never a tall order to clean the department. We know our Point of Difference is a clean, neat store.
Maintaining fresh quality is done during the ordering process, so we have provided techniques and technologies that allow the produce manager to make the very best order. Our produce managers know that the faster we can get that product out of the cooler and onto the sales floor, the better off we will be in the customer's eyes in terms of quality.
For merchandising, we provide weekly plans that give the teams a good direction on the expectations we have on displays. These displays follow our ad plan, and the goal for the store team is to bring it to life as they see fit. So, we encourage creativity and a well thought out display that follows our ad plan. We feel that if we do these things better than the competition we will be the destination of choice for the customers' produce needs.
What drives you in this career? Why do you care?
The people in the industry and in our stores are what drives my passion for this business. We are all people who are out in the world building relationships to accomplish one goal and that is to satisfy the customer.
In my role at Corner Market, I had the pleasure to see folks grow in their positions. In 2022 Tyler Dogget won the [International Fresh Produce Association’s] produce manager award, and now he is a store director for us at Corner Market. His replacement as produce manager was Olin Williams, who won the 2023 IFPA Produce Manager of the Year. I am very proud to work with them.
I have seen our floral program blossom under Nicole McLaurin, who won the 2022 EIM award from Associated Wholesale Grocers. So to sum it up, it is the people and their accomplishments that drive me to be better each and every day.
More about Price Mabry
Price Mabry’s career journey has provided him with diverse experiences and a broad spectrum of responsibilities in various areas, customer segments and categories. His expertise includes sales management, merchandising, procurement, warehouse management and strategic marketing. He prides himself on his collaborative communication style and strong work ethic, and his ability to connect with people and exceed objectives have earned him the respect and trust of colleagues, customers and suppliers.
