The week of the Super Bowl and the week leading up to it are some of the biggest of the year for the produce department at Tops Friendly Markets and Price Chopper.
“We give it as much attention as any holiday,” says Jeff Cady, the director of produce and floral for the Williamsville, N.Y.-based company.
It's worth paying a lot of attention to this annual sporting event, whether you're a retailer or a produce company, as consumers plan for big game gatherings.
Index Fresh typically experiences a demand increase of 15% to 25% in its avocados leading up to the Super Bowl, “adding to what is already a peak sales period,” says Kellen Stailey Martin, who serves as vice president of marketing for the Corona, Calif.-based company.
Santa Paula, Calif.-based Calavo expects to see at least a 25% increase that week.
“We view January and early February as a multiweek lift period,” says Peter Shore, vice president of product management.
The Hass Avocado Board, Mission Viejo, Calif., reports a 25% rise in dollar sales and a 3.8% uptick in avocado units sold in the 2025 Super Bowl run-up, compared to 2024. Stailey Martin expects 2026 to be a strong year, too.
Drumming Up Excitement
To encourage sales, Rhome, Texas-based Fresh Innovations LLC dip brand Yo Quiero offers recipes and party ideas for the Super Bowl on its website and works with influencers who also provide ideas and content consumers can use.
It's important to work with influencers with usage and recipe ideas, says Tara Murray, vice president of marketing.
“We want to make sure they have a voice that matches our brand and they have great ideas to take our products beyond the dip — to show different things you can do and different products you can add them to,” she says.
The influencers start talking about the Super Bowl as early as October, she points out, and ramp up close to the Big Game to offer more content and excitement.
Calavo also uses social media to create essential pregame buzz.
“We create content with engaging usage or recipe ideas, reminders to consumers to pick up avocados in time for the game, share tips about how to choose ripe avocados, and we amplify excitement and participation through fun contests and giveaways,” Shore says.
Avocados From Mexico prides itself on taking a different spin on marketing. This year, the Irving, Texas-based group is working with comedic actor Rob Riggle, featuring him, as The Guac Guru, on in-store displays, shippers and on bags.
“Our brand leans into fun, and that separates us from other avocado brands,” says Stephanie Bazan, senior vice president of commercial strategy and execution.
Index Fresh partners with Avocados From Mexico to support Super Bowl promotions through branded bags and in-store offers. Themed bags feature a $1.50 cash-back, scan-and-save incentive.
“Shopper research for 2025 revealed that those influenced by coupons or promotional offers are 20% more likely to take action than the average consumer,” Stailey Martin explains.
Tops Friendly Markets starts gearing up for the Super Bowl in September when it runs mini marketing campaigns and digital coupons for the first four to six weeks of the football season.
“We let that simmer down, and we hit it again in January,” Cady says. “That's the playoffs, so that's the exciting time.”
In the time just before the Super Bowl, to get customers excited, Tops places a Super-Bowl-themed overwrap on its circular dedicated to football-related foods such as avocados, carrots and celery, trays of produce, beer and chips.
The company also features Super-Bowl-related recipes on its website and features digital coupons.
Giant Food, Landover, Md., launches a Super Bowl landing page on its website, titled, “Game Day” or “Big Game,” to drive customers to find the best promotions.
In-Store Merchandising
Close to the Super Bowl, Tops Friendly Markets has a couple of prominent displays of avocados, which are also featured in the circular and recipes.
“We're trying to solve customers' problems,” Cady says. “It's got to come alive in the store.”
He will use avocados in a display with items such as tomatoes, garlic and onions for customers who want to make dips like guacamole or salsa, and he likes to include another display with items such as carrots, celery, radishes and cucumbers, with some dips, for those customers who want to build their own trays. Ready-made trays are also available.
Giant Food customers also like a selection of produce, and stores group fresh produce like peppers, carrots, celery, cherry tomatoes, avocados and grapes to make charcuterie boards and grazing tables for their Super Bowl parties, says Matt Novosel, produce and floral category director.
“Fresh-cut and prepackaged items are a huge driver for the category this time of year, especially veggie and fruit platters,” Novosel adds.
Customers also use the fresh produce to make homemade spreads and dips, he says. The company's in-store magazine, Savory, offers a plentiful selection of recipe ideas and easy ways to save on entertaining for the event.
Getting Ripeness Right
Avocados, one of the mainstays of Super Bowl snacking, are one of the hardest produce items to get right when it comes to ripeness.
Most of Tops' avocados around the Big Game are merchandised ready to eat, but a small section will be less ripe, Cady says, to give customers options.
Demand for ripened fruit from Index Fresh also spikes in the lead-up to the Super Bowl.
“Since most shoppers purchase avocados to eat on game day, one to two days before Super Bowl Sunday, providing ready-to-eat, ripe options is essential,” Stailey Martin says. “For the segment of consumers shopping early, Index Fresh recommends offering firmer avocados at promotional prices, boosting sales until the Big Game.”
Avocados From Mexico prefers loose avocados to be ripe and bagged fruit to be less ripe because consumers are taking several home. It also offers educational messaging for consumers on how to speed up or slow down the ripening at home.
“Education and knowledge of how to ripen the fruit remains the top area after price and selection,” Bazan says.
Oxnard, Calif.-based Mission Produce recommends that retailers ripen to Stage 4 during the week leading up to the event.
“According to our 2024 avocado usage study, approximately two-thirds of shoppers intend to consume their avocados within two days of purchase under typical circumstances,” says Jennifer Anazawa, director of trade and category development. This figure increases to 84% for the Super Bowl, with 50% purchasing avocados either the day before or on the same day.
Cross-Merchandising Boosters
Giant Food creates cross-merchandised displays that, along with avocados, feature freshly made tortilla chips, onions, tomatoes, limes and seasoning packets.
“We work to create destinations that make it easy and convenient for our customers to find everything in one stop,” Novosel says.
The stores also cross-promote with floral and decorate the produce department with themed balloon displays.
“This is a great opportunity to decorate the department and store while driving units and additional items,” he adds.
Index Fresh likes to leverage promotional bag and bin displays near salty snacks and register endcaps. This, Stailey Martin explains, is “a proven strategy for capturing impulse buyers and boosting unit sales. Strategically placing avocados in high-traffic areas helps maximize exposure and engagement, fueling big game excitement at the store level.”
Yo Quiero products are featured in refrigerators in the store perimeter, and the manufacturer provides trade deals, recipe ideas and bundled offerings so retailers can build secondary, refrigerated displays that bundle Yo Quiero dips with store-brand items like chips, veggie trays and meat.
“These trade deals allow retailers to provide aggressive pricing, which encourages multi-product purchasing from consumers,” says Jay Alley, who is the co-owner and vice president of sales for Fresh Innovations.
It works really well, he adds, when retailers cross-merchandise “and create displays of game day essentials like dips, chips, beverages, barbecue items and even paper goods. Retailers have seen that when they create a football destination in store, it drives excitement and sales.”
Calavo also takes advantage of cross-merchandising, encouraging retailers to feature guacamole ingredients — jalapeños, serrano peppers, tomatoes, lemons, limes, onions and garlic — alongside avocado bags or large displays.
“This tested strategy makes shopping easy for consumers and significantly drives cross-category purchases,” Shore says.
Calavo recommends retailers leverage secondary displays, such as hanging strips or smaller merchandisers, in other high-traffic store aisles.
“This placement serves as a critical purchase reminder and successfully captures impulse buys, further boosting avocado movement,” Shore explains.
Avocados From Mexico makes recommendations to retailers on how and where to merchandise, but Bazan points out “there's a lot of opportunity within produce and outside produce. When we merchandise outside produce, we've seen we can help lift other departments too.” A branded display in the meat area, for example, can drive a 19% boost in sales.
Mission Produce likes to see its avocados merchandised with affinity items and a recipe card to inspire bigger baskets.
“Ahead of the big game, avocados are frequently found in baskets with other affinity items,” Anazawa explains. “Consider adding a secondary display using bag racks or display bins to capitalize on these opportunities.”
