July 4th Merchandising Tips
It’s time to make your scheduling, ordering and merchandising plans for the Independence Day holiday sales period!
Deliveries and Planning
Four Seasons Produce will be delivering on a standard schedule for the week before and of the 4th of July. Don’t wait until the last minute to fill your cooler and back rooms or you might be caught with empty shelves and be waiting on a delivery to satisfy your customers.
WEDNESDAY 6/27:
Order your hard goods such as croutons, dips, dressings, snacks, juices, etc) to arrive this day. Get ‘em in and pack ‘em out early so you’re not messing around with these areas of your department during the busiest times of the selling period.
THURSDAY 6/28 – FRIDAY 6/29:
Order your hard fruits and vegetables. Have your evening associates pack out your semi-perishables and non-perishables & hard fruits and vegetables. Have your back rooms and storage areas organized and straightened in preparation for large deliveries. Be organized and the holiday will go smoothly.
FRIDAY 6/29 – SATURDAY 6/30:
Get your tonnage items in early. Start taking delivery of your sweet corn, summer fruits, watermelon and cantaloupe needs. If you wait until Saturday 7/1 to bring in our heaviest orders, you’ll be waiting on your delivery for product that you need to sell that day. The heavy surge of customers will begin on Thursday and pick up momentum as you get further into the holiday weekend.
SUNDAY 7/1 – TUESDAY 7/3:
Bring in your refill of ad items, highly perishables and product to cover your weekend and Monday sales.
Mass displays are going to sell product, so don’t be bashful. Be aggressive and keep your displays full!
Summer Fruit Merchandising
Promote conventional and organic summer fruits in a big way. The eating quality and value are outstanding on all varieties. Cherries will be at their best from the Northwest and can drive massive dollars through the register. Your fruit counters should be filled with all of the available fruit varieties:
• California & Southern Peaches
• Black and Red Plums
• Saturn (Donut) Peaches
• Apricots
• Nectarines
• Pluots/Plumcots
• White Flesh Peaches
• White Flesh Nectarines
• Dark Sweet Cherries
• Rainier Cherries
• Green/Red/Black Seedless Grapes
Berry Merchandising
Keep your berry patch full with all sizes and varieties and you make great margin at fantastic retails!
• Strawberries
• Blackberries
• Blueberries
• Raspberries
Melon Merchandising
The heat of the holiday makes your customers crave refreshing of fresh melons. Keep your melon displays chuck full with variety. Your cut display space should be heaviest on halves giving you the higher rings. Organic and Conventional Melon variety is outstanding right now. Build a melon patch display!
• Whole & Cut Watermelon
• Tuscan Cantaloupe
• Western Cantaloupe
• Specialty Melons
• Mini Seedless Watermelon
• Honeydew
Fresh Cut Fruit and Vegetables
Expand your display space on clamshell fruit chunks, cored and chunk pineapple and watermelon chunks, veggie trays, kabob kits, bean dip, guacamole and salsa. Prepare your in-house fresh cut team for more volume or pre-book organic and conventional fresh cut packs from Four Seasons Produce.
Vegetable Grill Display
Vidalia onions, colored sweet bell 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 $5.99 lb. Garlic Expressions marinade and dressing is a great item for this display.
Sweet 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 trash can 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.
Have fun selling produce! Get all of the sales that are there for the taking. Make the best impression that you can on your customers.
