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a great job in educating consumers of growing districts, flavors and seasonal trends — and who tell the story about the onion — sell more sweet onions. Retailers should educate store merchandisers on the ‘who, what and where’ of the onions. Store merchandisers play a huge role in communicating and selling.”
During the spring and summer, the way to sell more sweet onions is to promote Vida- lias, advises Delbert Bland, president of Bland Farms LLC, which grows and ships from Glennville, GA. “The No. 1 thing retailers can do is: make sure the customer understands their store has Vidalias,” he says. “If consumers know you have Vidalias, they will buy them. Too many stores spend all this money building massive displays, but they won’t put up a sign saying these are Vidalia onions.”
Retailers should tbe proactive in merchan- dising sweet onions, says Jeff Brechler, salesman with Edinburg, TX-based J&D Produce, Inc. “Make sure the sweets are differentiated somehow from the other yellow varieties out there, whether you carry sweets as bulk with storage as bags, or vice-versa,” he says. “That’s an easy step to do as it will help get accurate rings at the register, where they won’t be giving away for 40 cents what should sell for $1.29.”
“Too many stores spend all this money building massive displays, but they won’t
put up a sign saying these are Vidalia onions.”
— Delbert Bland, Bland Farms
Signage is required, says Peri’s Gibson. “When consumers can clearly and easily identify sweet onions from easy-to-read signage, sweet-onion wording on packages and distinctive displays, sweet onions sell like crazy,” she says. Signage is especially important for merchandising bulk displays of sweet onions, as PLU stickers, even large ones, are difficult for consumers to read and easily flake off the onion skins.
Instead of displaying piles of light-skinned sweets, dark-skinned storage and red and white onions together, Brechler recommends using bags to break-up the display and high- light the individual types. “Sweet onion displays all look the same,” he says. “There is some differentiation by color. People need to be educated on the flavor profile differences.”
BIG DISPLAYS, BIG SALES
Large displays work well in increasing sales, says Bob Stafford, manager of the Vidalia Onion Committee (VOC), Vidalia, GA. “Shoppers like to see a big display,” he says. Of equal importance is proper attention to the displays. “We encourage stores to work the bins and work them well to keep bad product out,” says Stafford. “Keep the display looking good. That is very critical for store success in selling sweet onions and Vidalia onions in particular.”
Wada Farms’ Vlahandreas says he’s dismayed when he sees produce workers dump sweet onions on tables. “Build the display,” he says. “Don’t just cut open the bag and dump them sideways on the shelves. Build a display and make it look like some- thing different. Put a sign up, and explain what it is. Make a difference.”
Breimeister at Potandon says, “just throwing them out in a small basket, they often get passed over. Of course, big end cap displays work well. Bulk bin displays always seem to drive sales.”
KNOW YOUR LIMITS AND SEASONS
Keystone’s Blume cautions that too much of a good thing might be too much in the
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