Page 15 - Index

COMMENTS & ANALYSIS
Consumers Say They Want It — But What Does “Fresh” Or “Fast” Really Mean?
by jim prevor, editor-in-chief, produce business
Fresh and fast is the holy grail of today’s food industry. No less an organization than Tesco, the UK’s
No. 1 grocery store, with substantial global business, thought this grail was the key to its rollout across America. It opened in Cal- ifornia, Arizona and Nevada an operation called Fresh & Easy, and it drew on all its formidable resources to bring together a small store outlet it thought exempli ed these characteristics — going so far as to build a mock store on a Hollywood sound stage to test the concept. Yet, with all their dedicated expertise and extraordinary resources, Tesco failed. In the process, Tesco lost almost a bil- lion dollars and had to retreat ignominiously back to England.
Of course, this was just one effort of many. Right now, Hy-Vee, an innovative Midwest grocery store with almost 250 outlets, is pushing its Fast & Fresh concept. This is another small store concept but one updated to include trendy craft beers, drive-throughs, pick up for online purchases and more. As the company explains in the announcement of a recent store opening, the concept includes “Starbucks coffee with drive-thru, a growler craft beer station, and Hy-Vee Aisles Online pickup for convenience on the go.” It is a new concept with its future yet to be determined.
Clearly, the issue of de ning both fresh and fast is not so easy to pin down, and consumer responses on these subjects some- times involve words that mean different things to consumers than they do to the trade. In other cases, consumer behavior seems to contradict what consumers claim they are interested in doing.
When Tesco’s Fresh & Easy launched, for example, it included a high-quality fresh sandwich program produced in a dedicated commissary. These sandwiches are sold all over the UK to great success. Yet, to Ameri- cans, it seemed that “fresh” meant “made- to-order” as one would buy at, say, Subway — where the consumer can direct the person preparing the sandwich to “add a little more mustard” or “hold the tomato” or “go heavy
When asked, they report themselves on the side of the angels. When given the choice, though, they often select steak over salad, ice cream over fruit and beer over orange juice.
on the banana peppers.” Those “fresh” sand- wiches from the commissary translated to “vending machine food” for Americans.
Even the small format store, chosen to make things “easy” for consumers because they could so quickly get in and out, turned out to be problematic. In one sense the small format was “easy” or “fast,” but it didn’t include every item or brand. If consumers then had to make two grocery stops — possibly buckling children in and out of car seats and so forth — well what was intended to be fast or easy suddenly became a burden.
So, when you look at this study, you can see similar dilemmas. Consumers may indeed want things to be in season. But do they want to go without strawberries or blueberries in the winter? When, exactly, are bananas, pineapples or mangos “in season” if you are a Boston consumer where these fruits never grow?
What do consumers mean when they say they want “seasonal” specials? Are they saying local production should be cheaper because of less transport, and so, they hope to pick up some cheap blueberries? Or are they saying they want produce at peak avor? Of course, the peak avor offered by Chilean grapes is in the Chilean summer, which is winter in the United States.
Local is another word with numerous de - nitions. Some say local is within a state, while others set a mileage radius. Often it is cultural and political. We conducted focus groups in England right near the English Channel and listened to consumers speak knowledgably about their desire for local. They wanted to reduce food miles and carbon footprints. But when asked if that meant these British
consumers would like to see a lot of produce imported from France just a few miles away — they resoundingly said no. They meant British. So, despite protestations about food miles, they all would prefer produce from the hinterlands of Scotland 800 miles away to French product.
It is interesting to note 87 or 88 percent of consumers want to get more fruits and vege- tables into their diets, but since per capita consumption has been at for decades, the logical question is why don’t they do so?
It may be a produce industry issue. Unlike manufactured foods, our products’ avors are inconsistent, and their perishable nature leads to a high cost if consumers wind up dumping produce. Also, many vegetables are used as ingredients in an age when consumers want full meals.
It could also be consumers are not being entirely frank. Asking if consumers want to eat fruits and vegetables is not a morally neutral question. It is not like asking if you prefer chocolate or vanilla. All their lives, their mothers, schools and public health authorities have urged them to do the right thing and eat more fruits and vegetables. So, when asked, they report themselves on the side of the angels. When given the choice, though, they often select steak over salad, ice cream over fruit and beer over orange juice.
Of course, the industry must keep trying. We need to concentrate on producing better and more consistent avors and more conve- nient and intriguing fresh-cut items. We also need more research to better understand what fresh and fast means to the consumer of today and tomorrow.
PRODUCE BUSINESS / SEPTEMBER 2019 / 15