Signs communicate to customers in a friendly way — and they're always at work. They never take a break, never go on vacation, never complain, and never ask for pay. They just sell produce — all day, every day.
Produce freshness standards should be the best in the marketplace. Only fresh, crisp, and safe merchandise should be on display. The following standards are always recommended to be the freshest produce leader for your customers.
All surplus storage products should be dated by the day of delivery. Use the oldest dated items first. Also follow fresh-cut produce sell-by dates on all packages.
Use two boxes, one for reworking products and one for discarding products. Cull periodically throughout the day.
Control your asset levels. An overabundant amount of older produce will only lead to building up high shrink. It makes no sense to climb over cases of product that just take up space.
Remove older items, replace them with new items, rework and place best quality older items on top.
The crisping program is a daily routine. No leafy vegetables should be displayed without being washed and crisped.
All displays should be safe for the customers. Never overload a display with more than you really need. Plan your displays and daily requirements before stocking. Be aggressive for sales but be reasonable on stocking levels.
Not every item stays fresh after closing. Develop a "pull list" of the very sensitive items displayed on a non-refrigerated fixture such as berries, mushrooms, broccoli, etc. and place them in the cooler. A designated person should be assigned each evening.
Check thermometers in storage cooler and refrigerated cases to ensure they are operating properly.
Check delivery load and place surplus items in the cooler immediately to prevent loss of required temperatures.
Sprinkle wet leafy vegetables and use ice only where applicable.
Setting high performance standards will help to reach the highest goals. Here are five objectives for a successful produce operation:
Understanding shopper behavior helps you position produce — and attention — where it counts. Timing matters, habits matter, and knowing when customers are in-store can elevate sales.
Deep-dive shopper data helps explain where buying decisions form — from who is shopping, to when peak traffic hits, to how different households approach their trips.
Average grocery shopping trip
Average weekly store visits
Time spent in grocery stores annually
Avoid weekend rush
More time spent on weekend trips
Busiest weekday shopping hour
Saturday & Sunday rush hour
Most popular shopping time
Women Alone 63% • Men Alone 19% • Both 14% • Others 4%
Sun 19% • Mon 10% • Tue 11% • Wed 12% • Thu 13% • Fri 14% • Sat 21%
7am–Noon 44% • Noon–5pm 39% • 5pm–9pm 17%
These insights highlight how deals are made, lost, and influenced — from timing, follow-ups, buyer behavior, and the psychology behind email and phone outreach.
Almost half of all deals are lost because of retailers’ budgets.
73% of executives prefer sales pros referred by someone they know.
44% of salespeople give up after one follow-up.
It takes an average of 8 cold call attempts to reach a prospect.
Optimal voicemail length is 8–14 seconds.
Monday mornings & Friday afternoons perform the worst.
8–10 AM and 3–4 PM get the highest replies.
33% open emails based on subject line alone.
70% open brand emails looking for a discount or coupon.
69% report Spam based solely on the subject line.
Adding “New” to subject lines boosts opens by 23%.
65% of customers are lost due to indifference, not mistakes.
82% of decision-makers think sales reps are unprepared.
Only 24% of salespeople exceeded quota last year.
Budget will always be a core objection in sales.
61% of salespeople say selling is harder than 5 years ago.
Getting in front of prospects isn't harder — just trickier.
85% of customers are dissatisfied with phone experiences.
30–50% of users spend only 15 seconds on most websites.
Understanding customer preferences and pain points with self-checkout systems helps retailers optimize the shopping experience and staffing decisions.
Shoppers require staff assistance at self-checkout
Customers prefer using traditional checkouts
Technical glitches are the most annoying issue
Self-checkouts are slower than cashiers