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Consumers buy with their eyes.
Make it beautiful, and sales will increase.
Stack it high, and watch it y.
What is great about fast sales is, it creates less shrink.
Those phrases all have merit, but the moment the largest retailers decide to let accountants run their produce departments, they’ve lost that connection with those worthwhile adages and have truly lost their way. Accountants want to sell produce
the way they sell widgets. The same is true for those on Wall Street. They sell a story and invest billions of dollars on ideas that have no merit. Meal kits are a good example of this. Without Wall Street money, they would have never taken off, and now they are falling back to earth, where they belong.
Selling imperfect produce is another that comes to mind. They waste all that time, energy, packaging and money on an inferior product that could be easily used for processing without the added expense. A much better idea is selling produce at a reduced price that is perfect and abundant. Everyone from farmers to consumers win in this scenario.
Accountants, CPAs and MBAs are all brilliant with numbers, but when it comes to produce, they are clueless. Produce people will make your departments much more valuable, and that will make your accountants smile.
Bean counters who don’t know beans
about produce are only concerned about
cutting cost, saving on labor and, of course, increasing pro ts. So, they replace their experienced help with minimum wage help. They substitute beautiful displays with box-in, box-out rack systems to cut down on labor and make produce dummy-proof. They contract or x pricing because that’s how they sell widgets and are not capable enough to handle the intricacies of a supply-and-demand market. They do their ads three weeks out because advertising costs are lower. They only understand that $600,000 is less than $1,000,000 and not that the difference could easily be doubled or tripled with pro ts and could offer better ads, more volume, better value for the consumer and even help growers be more sustainable.
BY PAUL MANFRE
accounting, and let produce people run produce.
Many, not all of you, are going down the wrong road. You may
agree or disagree, but, in the end, we need to nd a solution that bene ts all — from growers to consumers — because we do not thrive independent of each other. Accountants aside, you must plan for success. So empower your produce people with knowledge.
Educate: Teach your employees and consumers all about commod- ities and explain how they can save money by shopping for in-season and non-value-added items. Value-added is an oxymoron; it adds
no value. The only thing added is higher pricing.
Innovate: Keep up with technology but don’t buy into every fad. Believe me, your customers are not going to leave you and your beautiful, perfectly displayed produce because you have cashiers and don’t have robots, and the competition has robots and no cashiers and their same old ugly produce.
Renovate: Get rid of the racks, invest in beautiful stands, let your produce be the star. Invest in your produce manager. He will teach his crew to be your future produce managers.
Stimulate: Sales add value pricing. Change that bean-counter’s pricing model. Sell produce with its natural ebbs and ows. Sell high, sell low and let the produce ow ... naturally. The way it was always supposed to be.
Agitate: Yes, you will agitate the competition. Don’t be complacent, try new things, engage your customers. Let them taste something new or something that looks ugly but eats great.
Dominate: This is the end game. You did it. You win. You are the winner, and we all win with you.
Please share this with all CEOs and keep it away from accounting. pb
Paul Manfre is general manager, purchasing, sales, and a supply-and-de- mand specialist for Top Katz LLC, an importer/shipper/grower that has of c- es New York City, Nogales, AZ and McAllen, TX. Top Katz specializes in “con- tract pricing” for a variety of commodities throughout the world.
How To Be A Leader And Not A Lemming
wholesale market
The rst upgrade your business can do? Leave the accountants in accounting, and let produce people run produce.
The rst upgrade your business can do? Leave the accountants in
This article was excerpted from Paul Manfre’s
The Produce Manifesto, which can also be found at: linkedin.com/pulse/produce-manifesto-retail-paul-manfre/
PRODUCE BUSINESS / AUGUST 2019 / 71