ORLANDO, Fla. – Industry members visited a diverse selection of stores during the PMA Fresh Summit retail tour, from the local Freshfields Farm to Hispanic-focused Fresco y Más to a new Lucky’s Market.
Freshfields Farm, which offers only produce and meat, highlighted its local and organic fruits and vegetables with different colors of tags on a wire above displays. The store also featured those selections with a large sign at the front of the department that listed “Organic Picks” and “Local Picks.”
The store carries roughly 200 produce items, and produce accounts for about 38% of sales, according to the informational tour packet. Organic items account for about 12% of produce sales.
Fresco y Más showcased an extensive variety of items popular with Hispanic shoppers, including plantains, malanga, breadfruit, papayas and avocados. Other specialties being featured included persimmons, rambutans, pink and yellow dragon fruit, carambola, calabasa, passion fruit and guava.
Fresco y Más carries more than 300 produce items, and produce accounts for 21% of sales, according to the tour packet. Less than 1% of its produce sales come from organic. Green plantains and white malanga are among the best-selling items for the department, along with bananas, limes and salad tomatoes. The location visited on the tour was previously a Winn-Dixie and reopened in April.
For Lucky’s Market, best-selling produce items include avocados, bananas, strawberries, asparagus and grapes, per the packet. The location visited on the tour opened in March.
The store featured displays of organic product with large overhead signs that read, “Everything on this table is USDA Organic.” The location also had a considerable selection of fresh-cut items, including a display with containers of bulk fresh-cut produce, allowing shoppers to fill a bag and pay a set amount per pound. Options included squash, broccoli and cauliflower florets, bell peppers and mushrooms.
The company carries more than 450 fresh produce items, and produce represents more than 20% of sales for Lucky’s Market, according to the tour packet. Organic produce accounts for 20-25% of produce sales depending on the season.
Attendees came from as far away as Australia to join the tour and get a feel for the retail scene before Fresh Summit education sessions began Oct. 18, with the expo to follow Oct. 19-20.