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merchandising review potatoes
Six Ways To Make Potatoes Sizzle
Bold, smart promotion can bring new life to a venerable category.
UBY BOB JOHNSON
.S. consumers eat 10 billion pounds of fresh potatoes a year, yet it seems this leader in the produce department gets little or no respect.
Per capita consumption of fresh potatoes has steadily declined since 1970 from more than 60 pounds to less than 35, according to US Department of Agriculture statistics. Part of the slide can be explained by the steady rise in frozen potato products of various sorts, while potato chips have held steady at a little
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less than 20 pounds a year for each of us. Because there has also been neglect of this potassium powerhouse that also packs a vitamin C punch, industry leaders have o ered up six things to consider when merchandising potatoes as the peak season
approaches.
“We do take seasonality into account,
and while we carry the same variety year around, we open up display space on pota- toes in the fall/winter based on customers’ wants and needs,” says Je Cady, director of produce and oral at Tops Friendly Markets, Williamsville, NY. “ e reality is we sell more potatoes in the cooler months in the North- east for a couple of reasons, but none is bigger than the need to cook indoors, coupled with the protein choice for the meals. Many more
customers eat roasts, make stews and soups, and what better ingredient than the potato? All varieties pick up, but over the course of the past few years, the “bite-size,” small- er-pack size options have shown the most growth.”
1. FEATURE SECONDARY DISPLAYS
An additional display of potatoes, or even two, can increase sales more than most would guess.
“ is year, the Idaho Potato Commission did a study by placing secondary display bins in select stores,” says Ross Johnson, interna- tional marketing director at the Idaho Potato Commission, Eagle, ID. “ e sales were monitored and showed stores with secondary displays of Idaho Potatoes grew their sales by