The Produce Retail Podcast

We're delighted to have as our guest this week longtime produce retail executive Scott Schuette. Over the last 35-plus years Scott has served in leadership roles with Fresh Thyme, Sprouts and Bashas. He’s been recognized as Produce Retailer of the Year and Specialty Food Retailer of the Year. He’s also been so kind to be a regular on this podcast and share his perspective on all kinds of executive...

How do you make sure your shoppers get exactly the produce they want even when they're not the ones selecting it? That's the big-picture challenge for produce and online grocery. In this episode we discuss what the common issues are and the different ways grocers can mitigate them. Our featured guest in this episode is longtime grocery retail veteran and consumer research expert Brian Numainville....

What's the next frontier for produce supplier-retailer partnerships? Along with pursuing in-store opportunities like signage, display bins and contests, many suppliers also participate in the wealth of digital marketing opportunities that retailers can offer. In this episode we're joined by Diane Scalisi, director of omnichannel marketing for Driscoll’s; Danelle Huber, senior marketing manager for...

We're delighted to welcome as our guest this week Jonna Parker, the fresh foods team lead at Circana, formerly known as IRI. Jonna specializes in analyzing sales data, consumer trends and other sources of information to find and explore opportunities for fresh foods, including (of course) fresh produce. Jonna and The Produce Retail Podcast host Ashley Nickle discuss the role of brands in grocery b...

Ever wanted to do more cross-merchandising with cheese but not sure which ones actually pair well with which produce items? Fortunately, our fabulous recurring guest and longtime produce retail executive Scott Schuette has some fromagerie (a.k.a cheese department) experience to go along with his extensive produce experience! He was even recognized as Specialty Food Retailer of the Year, as you mig...

We're delighted to have as our guests on this episode award-winning produce manager Chris DeMarie and vice president of produce and floral Jeff Cady of Tops Markets. Chris, recognized this year as part of the International Fresh Produce Association's Retail Produce Manager Awards Program, discusses his career path in produce; why he enjoys the challenging nature of the work; his store's recent rem...

We're delighted to have as our guest on this week's episode Shawn Peery, national vice president of produce for Albertsons. Listeners who participate in "Produce LinkedIn" may have noticed that Shawn has been posting to the platform frequently this year, sharing photos of the produce teams at the many stores he visits to recognize their work. In this conversation, Shawn and The Produce Retail Podc...

Today's episode features a conversation with Food City's Skylar Leonard, one of the produce managers recognized this year by the International Fresh Produce Association's Retail Produce Manager Awards program, and produce supervisor Travis Jones, along with one of Food City's favorite local growers, Tony Slaughter. Skylar, Travis and Tony visit with The Produce Retail Podcast host Ashley Nickle ab...

Today’s discussion, the fifth and final in this series with longtime produce retail executive Scott Schuette, covers a smorgasbord of topics – cross-merchandising, pricing, signage, assortment – but with different examples than those we've covered previously, including digital merchandising in-store, dedicating multiple end-caps to the same item, inspiration from the meat and seafood departments,...

We're delighted to have as our guests for this episode Hy-Vee produce manager Greg Kimmel and vice president of produce and floral operations John Griesenbrock. Greg was selected by the International Fresh Produce Association as one of its 2023 Retail Produce Manager Award Program honorees. In this conversation, Greg talks about how he got into produce; advocating for great items; the realization...

In this episode, longtime produce retail executive Scott Schuette and The Produce Retail Podcast host Ashley Nickle discuss assortment, including including creative packs done in-house and what you can learn by examining space allocation for different categories and SKUs at stores near you. Today's episode is the fourth in a special series with Scott; when he and Ashley got to talking about the ti...

We're delighted to welcome as our guests this week Corner Market's Olin Williams — selected this year as one of the International Fresh Produce Association's 2023 Retail Produce Manager Award winners — and vice president of fresh Price Mabry. We discuss how Olin got into the business, his career progression at Corner Market, how he approaches training, the new programs he has championed and grown...

In this episode, longtime produce retail executive Scott Schuette and The Produce Retail Podcast host Ashley discuss cross-merchandising, including examples inside and outside the department; best practices for making sure out-of-department displays stay fresh and full; the role of fixtures; experimentation with those incremental SKUs; and more. Check out Ashley's LinkedIn page for cross-merchandi...

We're delighted to welcome as our guests this week The Giant Company's Breanna Norris — selected this year as one of the International Fresh Produce Association's 2023 Retail Produce Manager Award winners — and her store manager Alan Carcifi. We discuss how Bre got started in the business; what she enjoys most about her work; some of her biggest accomplishments of 2022; customer service; and more....

Seeking creative ways to better communicate to shoppers the value in your department? Check out the LinkedIn page of The Produce Retail Podcast host Ashley Nickle for pricing examples that longtime produce retail executive Scott Schuette gathered to illustrate a host of best practices. In this episode, Scott and Ashley discuss pricing by the each and by weight, composite pricing, multiple pricing,...

We're delighted to have as our guest for this episode Roberto Bolivar , produce specialist for Dave’s Markets. Roberto’s career has also included tenures with Lucky’s Market, Fresh Thyme, Sprouts and Smith’s. Roberto has also been generous about sharing photos of his work on LinkedIn, not only the beautiful finished displays but some of the behind-the-scenes photos as well, which is awesome for ot...

Looking to maximize your use of the "silent salesmen" that live in your department? Check out the LinkedIn page of The Produce Retail Podcast host Ashley Nickle for signage examples that longtime produce retail executive Scott Schuette gathered to illustrate a host of best practices. In this episode, Scott and Ashley discuss types of signs, prioritizing which items get special signage, placement o...

Today on the podcast we're delighted to bring you a roundtable conversation with three produce retail veterans: Military Produce Group merchandising manager Chris Blackwood and MPG produce specialists Harold Carroll and Stephen Daly. MPG serves as an extension of the Defense Commissary Agency teams, working in partnership with DECA by assisting the stores with ordering, quality control, display bu...

We're delighted to welcome to the podcast today Ashley Finster, a longtime food marketing executive whose remarkable career has included strategy, brand building and category management work across produce (including the launch of the behemoth mandarin brand Cuties), meat and CPG. Ashley could share insight on dozens of topics, but today we’re focusing mainly on category management, and this is wh...

For this episode, we're delighted to welcome James Breuhl, vice president of fresh for Rouses Markets. James has been at Rouses for 17 years, the last seven in his current role. He and host Ashley Nickle discuss the grocer's new "Hi Foodie" campaign that's been driving sales, basket size and online engagement, including how the grocer selects items to feature and how it promotes those items in its...

In this week's episode, we're delighted to welcome as our guests John Truncale , produce manager of Brattleboro Food Coop, and Brian Dey , senior merchandiser and natural stores coordinator of Four Seasons Produce. John was recognized in 2021 by the International Fresh Produce Association (then United Fresh) as a Retail Produce Manager of the Year Award winner, and Brian is one of the foremost exp...

We’re delighted to welcome as our guest for this episode Jesse Himango, assistant director of produce for Fresh Thyme Market. Jesse’s career has also included tenures at Gordy’s Market, SpartanNash and Cub Foods. In this conversation, Jesse talks about analyzing and experimenting with assortment, price and promotion during his time as a category manager; the need for tightening retails as shoppers...

For this week's episode, we're delighted to feature a conversation with Armand Lobato, a longtime produce manager who has also spent time as a supervisor, buyer and in other roles in the produce world. Armand and host Ashley Nickle discuss how produce managers can best handle understaffed situations — either temporary or chronic. Armand talks department priorities; utilizing team members as effici...

In this episode, we’re delighted to bring back for an encore this conversation with Mike O’Brien about leadership and mental toughness. Mike served as the vice president of produce and floral for Schnuck Markets for many years before transitioning to the supply side, where he is now the vice president of sales and business development for Monterey Mushrooms. We recorded this a while back, but Mike...

We're thrilled to welcome back to the podcast Anne-Marie Roerink, the principal of 210 Analytics. Anne-Marie is well known to many in the produce world for her insightful reports in collaboration with IRI and industry associations like the International Fresh Produce Association and the Southeast Produce Council. In this episode, Anne-Marie discusses how social and digital channels influence in-st...