Hop to it! Now's the time to plan to maximize Easter produce sales
There’s no bigger sales lift in the spring than Easter week.
The holiday is nearly as heavy volume as Thanksgiving week. Just about every produce category has a place at Easter dinner. Here’s a sneak peek at the produce guest list.
Fruit: Peak season strawberries easily lead the fruit category. Customers love the color, the flavor, how readily these adapt to fruit trays, garnish and in desserts. Fresh pineapple sales soar as shoppers stock up to slice on ham dishes or for fresh use.
Vegetable for sides: Potatoes top the must-serve list for the holiday. You can count on other staples to increase in sales as well, such as asparagus, green beans, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, summer squashes, corn, sweet potatoes, cauliflower and mushrooms.
Relish vegetables: These sell extremely well for Easter week. Items such as parsley, celery, peppers, green onions, cherry tomatoes, jicama and Belgian endive are just a few examples.
Green salads: These are a favorite, and especially so during Easter. Plan on increased volume on all leafy greens, spinach, cucumbers, peppers, avocados, tomatoes, radishes, mushrooms and more.
As for labor, the wet rack will be hit much harder than usual going into Easter week. It’s a good idea to schedule extra labor for prep work, trimming and crisping, as well as scheduling an extra set of hands for stocking the rack during peak periods to keep up with the heavy volume.
Some stores schedule an overnight shift for a few days during the holiday to break down loads, get a head start on prep work, and build displays. Anything that can done ahead of time such as this will free your crew to concentrate on keeping up with stocking duties and maintain that “extra fresh,” bountiful look.
Merchandising tips include getting a good rotation on all your dry tables early in the week and building prominent and abundant displays, especially with your power high-volume items.
Consider separate large displays on these items, secondary displays, spillover displays — anything to get the merchandise out of the back room and in front of your holiday shopper.
Same goes for your convenience multi-deck cases. Categories such as value-added salads, precut vegetables, dips, dressings and (especially) fresh herbs will all sell much higher than usual.
A little planning goes a long way. Take time to map out your plan now, take time to write the orders you need to stay ahead of anticipated volume. Write your schedules ahead of time too.
Anything you can do in advance will pay off in how well your produce department looks, which ultimately translates into capturing as many sales as possible.
That’s about as good a bunny trail as you can hope for.
Armand Lobato works for the Idaho Potato Commission. His 40 years’ experience in the produce business span a range of foodservice and retail positions.
