I was savoring a little iced tea at my desk when Russ T. Blade sauntered out from behind my computer screen. “Rusty,” as regular readers know, is the miniature, imaginary produce manager who occasionally appears to talk shop.
Rusty: Hot enough for ya?
Me: Ugh. You can say that again. It’s definitely the dog days of summer as we round the bend from July and heading into August. I know, I know — the “dog days” have something to do with astrology, but I just think of the term as the peak of summer heat and lethargy.
Rusty: I wasn’t even going to comment on your dog reference. To me, the dog days of sum-mer mean that it’s time to revisit an important topic in produce retail: shrink.
Me: Shrink is always a concern. Why revisit it now?
Rusty: C’mon, man. Have you been out of the stores so long that you forget? August is the peak month for produce shrink, due to so many factors: peak stone fruit availability, peak summer sales volume, peak period for melons, corn, local product, grapes, wrapping up the Northwest cherry deal. It’s the time of year when, between conventional and organic, a pro-duce department is carrying more SKUs than any other time of year.
Me: Also, there’s peak heat to punctuate every point that accelerates shrink. I’ve seen many a produce load sit for too long out of an ideal temp, pallets parked on docks unattended in the hot sun for hours — a heartrending sight. Gotta protect that investment.
Rusty: Peak shrink can’t be avoided altogether, but it can be minimized. For starters, the produce manager has to be on extra-high alert. He or she needs to spend as much time writ-ing the order so that it is accurate and bring in only enough product until the next delivery. Too much inventory becomes heavy shrink.
Me: Don’t forget the produce manager has to hound everyone to promptly receive and put the load away, as well as rotate the backstock and every display faithfully each day. You can’t take shortcuts, especially in the summer heat.
Rusty: Heat is a killer. Gotta maintain the cold chain. Also, the produce manager has to re-mind everyone to avoid overstocking or mishandling product. The greenish, longer shelf-life peaches received in May are now extra-fragile, very mature fruit that requires careful han-dling. Same goes for every high-respirating fresh produce item.
Me: I also notice a lot of new faces in produce departments during the summer.
Rusty: That’s because the regular clerks are rotating out each week, taking well-deserved vacations before summer ends. The coverage is handled by those unfamiliar faces. In fact, consider that the heaviest summer produce volume is typically handled by the least experi-enced people. Think about that in your shrink equation.
Me: That’s why a produce manager has to be especially vigilant and take time to constantly train those clerks. A close mentor once told me that untrained people throw money away.
Rusty: Nothing beats the excitement of robust summer sales. But as we head into August, the peak month for produce shrink, the challenge is to manage the ongoing heavy volume, paying extra attention at the critical control points of ordering, inventory control, rotation, care and handling, and ongoing training.
Me: It’s like we used to write to one another in our old high school yearbooks: “Stay cool!”
Rusty: That and, “See you in September.” — You old dog, you.
Armand Lobato’s more than 50 years of experience in the produce business span a range of foodservice and retail positions. He has written a weekly retail column for two decades.
