Ripe for the Picking

Higher prices are driving sales amid squeezed margins and competition from other supermarkets.

Much like the fluctuating supply-and-demand patterns of the fresh produce industry itself, profits, prices and competition are weighing most heavily on the minds of category executives, as revealed in Progressive Grocer’s 2013 Produce Operations Review.

Polled in the immediate weeks leading up to the all-important fourth-quarter selling season, Iretailers responding to this year’s annual produce market study were nearly unanimous in their experience of increased dollar sales of vegetables and fruits, driven largely by higher prices across the board, being offset by fragile margins, which are in turn blunting discernible gains. :

Data for the annual retail produce study was gleaned from a cross-section of produce officials from national chains and regional and independent grocers, who were polled in early September 2013 on a medley of category performance and demand trends over the past year. The annual benchmarking study, which is enhanced by 52-week data from Nielsen Perishables Group, also takes the pulse of panelists’ comparable estimates for store operations hot buttons, including sales and profits, labor and shrink, and most) vexing departmental challenges.