“Pride goeth before a fall.” This quote originates in the book of Proverbs, but it applies to business as well. It’s self-explanatory, but it basically means that being overly proud or arrogant can lead to failure or downfall, according to a search from Bible Hub.
I recall being a highly confident produce manager in my prime, mid-20s. I oversaw a bustling, inner city store on a high-volume thoroughfare intersection. I had everything a produce manager dreams of: secure business and a strong, well-seasoned crew. We typically moved a full semi-trailer of fresh produce each day.
I had my personal systems in place for everything, which included my way of scheduling, my way of keeping up with sanitation, with merchandising, rotation, special ad features, cross-merchandising tie-ins, sampling — and I loved rolling up my sleeves and helping set the pace with lots of stocking trips squeezed in between meetings, ordering and following up on things in and around the department. There was no better feeling than looking around and seeing everything dialed in, as we used to say when we were in great shape.
The produce department was my domain, and I was proud of our efforts.
So, it really bugged me one day when an otherwise kind customer was shopping; when asked if she was finding everything all right, she said, “I like everything at this store, except for the produce.”
What? The words were like a dagger in my heart.
“Whoa, whoa!” I said. “I’m the produce manager here. What don’t you like about our produce?”
She said the lemons she was looking at were poor quality. They were freshly stocked.
“See?” she pointed out. “There’s a moldy one right there.” Sure enough, whoever poured out the last case missed several bad ones in the case. I promptly culled them out.
“OK, I’ll admit — you saw the three out of a hundred. What else is bad?”
“Those yellow apples are bruised,” she replied. Sure enough, a few had fallen earlier, were restacked and now showed bruising. I plucked those off too.
“And look at this scale pan here. Full of dirt!” Talk about tough love.
We wiped those down several times a day, but no matter. This was the perception of this customer: a less than pristine produce department, with some unsightly produce items that she zeroed in on. She wasn’t wrong. In fact, it was a lesson in humility for this overly proud produce manager.
What it taught me right then was to try to look around. Not so much to admire what was right with my department, but rather to try to scrutinize and try to look at it through this, or any, customer’s eyes.
Years later as a supervisor, I tried to carry this lesson with me as I walked produce departments with district, store or, especially, produce managers who also thought that everything was dialed in and in perfect shape when it clearly wasn’t.
“Look at the edge of the wet rack,” I’d say. “It’s full of gunk and needs wiped down. Have a gander down this aisle. All the plastic bags are empty but one. If you’re the customer all you’re thinking, is ‘where’s the darn bags?’ Among other things. Maybe the bulk garlic looks stocked from a distance — but close up? It’s just a fluffy pile of skins. The squash on the table may seem all right, too, but look carefully; it’s all shriveled. Still think you’re in great shape?”
Don’t forget daily sign maintenance. Messy, missing, inaccurate or confusing signs are another big customer turnoff.
A clerk or manager may look at a produce department and may even concede something like, “Well, we’re good enough, at least 80% in good condition,” and think that their customers will go along. Or will they?
If it’s like the customer in my opening example that perceived the produce department as poor even if I thought the vast majority of everything was top notch. Well, in their eyes, sometimes it just isn’t.
And that (often unspoken) perception can threaten your chances of growth and repeat sales.
That’s the “customer eyes” you must use when self-evaluating stock conditions, and those need to be steely-eyed, brutally honest and customer-focused if you are to succeed.
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 nearly two decades.
