Harvesting Wisdom: Jeff Fairchild’s Summer Produce Playbook
With 40 years in produce sourcing and merchandising, and a key influencer of the retail farm-to-table movement in the Northwest, OGC’s Jeff Fairchild is a true expert. His trusted connections with farmers and deep understanding of the supply chain, shopper behavior and effective display, pricing and promotional strategies are invaluable.
Jeff joined OGC in 2023 with a passion for teaching and sharing his decades of knowledge. His wisdom, helpfulness and hands-on coaching style are essential for retailers looking to refresh their sets, think differently about promotions that drive sales and establish best practices for merchandising.
Today kicks off a blog series to share Jeff’s merchandising and promotional logic and practices. Let’s get started.
Fruit Forward Philosophy
The variety of produce coming out of fields and orchards this time of year is both exciting and overwhelming. It’s easy to feel lost on where to focus.
“There’s a desire to support local growers when spring and summer hit, but we need to think beyond that alone to make a real impact,” said Fairchild. “We all want to support Northwest growers, yet to truly support farmers near and far, we need to attract more customers to our departments, and the secret to that opportunity lies in driving fruit sales.”
Jeff’s fruit forward philosophy has a proven track record of success. While it might be intuitive to focus on local summer vegetables, shoppers will always pick up mealtime staples like onions, cilantro, carrots, celery, zucchini and more. Those items are on the list or in shoppers’ minds when picking up ingredients for a meal. But, when planning your ads, Jeff encourages produce managers to invest promotional dollars in items that increase unit movement and margin dollars and change shopper behavior.
“Resist reacting to the latest vegetable deal which may only result in incremental sales growth. Don’t miss the massive chance to build sales with some of the best fruit of the year,” recommends Jeff. “Fruit is exciting, seasonal and leads to impulse purchases, really moving the needle when it comes to unit movement and amassing margin.”
Embracing his fruit forward philosophy, focusing on merchandising and promotional opportunities with the exciting varieties of organic melons, berries, grapes and stone fruit available from OGC will distinguish your produce department and drive summer sales.
New Tools
OGC is here to help you act with new tools inspired by Jeff’s merchandising and promotional experience in collaboration with OGC’s Buying team. Each of the four key sales-driving categories – melon, berries, grapes and stone fruit - will be explained with a mini tutorial focused on growing profit for your department. Use each lesson to sharpen merchandising skills or train new team members.
This week, discover the magic of melons. Next week, we’ll focus on stone fruit, followed by lessons on berries and grapes.
Also, next week, we’ll share Jeff’s Summer Fruit Merchandising Guide, which charts when items transition and when they’re at their peak and best to promote. Use the guide to plan weekly promotions, inspire merchandising and predict selling opportunities. Don’t miss it!
By focusing on fruit-forward strategies and utilizing this resource, you can set your department apart and drive impressive sales. Keep an eye out for more tips and resources in our ongoing series. Here’s to a fruitful summer!