A return to produce sampling

Every business has its version of “cap space” and how to manage it.

In the NFL, teams allocate more money for dominant players in crucial positions. They spend less, on a graduated scale, for less established players who don’t have the resume to merit the big bucks.

In the produce aisle, instead of cap space, we have shrink.

Shrink explained most simply is the dollar difference between what you ideally should sell versus what actually ends up in the till. The more waste, trim, dehydration, damage, neglect, culls … the higher the shrink. Too much shrink hurts your gross profit margin.

However, as a good produce friend of mine once said, “There’s good shrink, and there’s bad shrink.”

Good shrink, for example, occurs when a produce department invests in a well-managed specialty produce category program. The category may not set sales records, but maintaining it helps attract and retain shoppers and build produce sales overall in the long run. A solid, wise investment.

Good shrink also happens when a produce operation is committed to an ongoing sampling program.

This is especially important as we ease out of the very challenging Covid-19 era. As restrictions become more relaxed, it’s time to revive the sampling procedures and ensure fresh produce is a big part of your store’s sampling team’s schedule.

Sampling requires investing in product given out to customers. It’s a risk that costs money, sacrificing perfectly good fresh produce.

Given the upside, however, sampling should be viewed like paying the high-profile quarterback. Look at it as an investment in your success rather than a cost.

It’s time to resume sampling. After nearly a year and a half of limited contact and masked faces, your customers may very well have forgotten some of their seasonal habits. Just how good are this season’s apricots? Peaches? Melons?

You will sell a certain amount by merely appealing to most of your customer’s senses: A beautiful display appearance, the wonderful produce aromas, the coarse-skin feel of a cantaloupe. But what about the best sensations of all? Taste. Texture. Flavor.

Taste is the most powerful selling point. Sample the goods, and you’ll sell more produce. A lot more.

There’s more to the “bad” shrink saga as we delve deeper into summer. August looms ahead – the highest produce shrink month of the year. I’ll touch upon this in coming weeks, as far as what to do to help minimize the losses (sparked by entirely different reasons).

But for now, think of the produce investments that, like the premier playmakers on a winning sports team, pay handsome dividends when managed correctly.

Flex the “good shrink” muscle.  Refresh your customers’ memories of fabulous in-season produce.

Lots of produce sales lie ahead, and the best await those who sample the goods.

Armand Lobato works for the Idaho Potato Commission. His 40 years’ experience in the produce business span a range of foodservice and retail positions.