How to Merchandise for 4th of July

The July 4^th holiday is a week away and we all should have most of our plans in place to ensure a smooth, successful holiday sales weekend. This year the holiday falls on Friday so we’ll have the benefit of a full week of selling plus all of the extra business that will come over Saturday and Sunday.

• We strongly recommended that you get your tonnage items into your stores and displayed or stored properly EARLY in the week in  preparation for this strongest of our summer holidays. This will take pressure off the holiday deliveries, help keep trucks on time and give you some assurance that you’ll be in stock with the holiday “rush” suddenly shows up in your department.

Deliveries and Planning

With July 4^th falling on Friday, you should assume that your customers will shop heavy leading up to then and continue buying throughout the weekend. There will be just as much business to capture on July 5^th and 6^th.

Order your hard goods to hit by Sunday, June 29^th. Get ‘em in and pack ‘em out early. These are the areas of your department that you don’t want to be fooling around with past the weekend…croutons, salad dressings, dips, snacks, fruit dips, juices, nuts, etc.

Order your hard fruits and vegetables to hit by Sunday, June 29^th and Monday the 30^th.

• Have your evening associates pack out your semi-perishables and non-perishables and hard fruits and vegetables.
• Have your backrooms and storage areas organized and straightened in preparation for large deliveries
• The better you organize your ordering and building inventories, the smoother the holiday weekend will flow.
• MASS displays are going to sell product, so don’t be bashful. Be aggressive and keep your displays full. We’ll have all of your Organic and Conventional product needs.

Summer Fruit Merchandising

Promote conventional and organic summer fruits in a big way. The eating quality and value are outstanding on all varieties. Your fruit counters should reflect the availability of full variety now:

 California and Southern peaches*

Saturn peaches*

Black and red plums*

White flesh peaches*

Pluots*

Velvet apricots                                   

White flesh nectarines*

Nectarines*

Apricots*

Bing cherries*

Green & Red Seedless grapes*

Rainier cherries*

Saturn nectarines

*Available in ORGANIC

Adjust the display space on your fruit counters to accommodate all of the fine eating varieties ofOrganic and Conventional Summer fruits that are available.  

Melon Merchandising

The heat of the holiday makes your customers crave the refreshment of fresh melons. Keep your melon displays chuck full with variety. Your cut display space should be heaviest on halves versus quarters giving you the higher rings. Melon variety is outstanding right now:

Whole watermelon*             

Mixed melons

Eastern Athena & western cantaloupe*   

Personal seedless watermelon         

Organic Galia melon*

Tuscan cantaloupe                 

Honeydew*

Sugar babies*                                                          

*Available in ORGANIC

• Build a melon patch using bins of Athena lopes, personal seedless melons, Dulcinea Tuscan cantaloupe and whole watermelon. Tie golden pineapple in to your melon patch.
• Try to trade your customers up to purchases of halves and whole watermelon and get that big register ring.

Berry Merchandising

This is the ideal time to keep your berry patch full with all sizes and varieties since there is plenty of variety available.

1 lb. & 2 lb. Strawberries*               

Blackberries*

Stem strawberries                             

Raspberries*

Blueberries*

*Available in ORGANIC

Value-Added Fruit and Vegetables

Expand your display of whole peeled and cored Golden pineapple.

Expand your display space on clamshell fruit chunks and watermelon chunks, veggie trays, kabob kits, bean dip, guacamole and salsa.

Cross-Merchandising Opportunities

Gain incremental sales for your store by cross merchandising. The possibilities are endless

Vegetable Merchandising

We’ll see increased sales across the entire vegetable category. Don’t miss all of these opportunities. We’ll have plenty of Organic and Conventional product to satisfy all of your needs.

Vegetable grill display – Both Conventional and Organic grilled vegetables have become a mainstay for many of your customers: Vidalia onions, stoplight peppers, asparagus, portabella mushroom caps & slices, eggplant, anise, count russet potatoes & Grill Pack Russet potatoes, Brussels sprouts and green & yellow squash. Try traying up a combination of these items and weigh it at $4.99 lb. Garlic Expressions marinade and dressing is a great item for this display.

Corn – To satisfy demand you will need to build a secondary display of corn using a bin dummied up to control your display quantities. Position a clean trashcan at the display for your customers to shuck their corn. To make very good margin, trim, strip and tray pack 5 ears of corn and get premium retail for the added value and convenience.