Business Matters

|

Q & A

|

Retail Insight

Q&A - Dave Brand, director of produce for Cub Foods, Chicago-based supermarkets owned by Supervalu Inc., Eden Prairie, Minn. Brand has been at Cub Foods for 28 years.

Q. What have been the fastest growing categories in your departments and why?
A. Organics, fresh juice, value-added products and pre-cut vegetables. Life is hectic, and customers want safe, healthy and easy food choices.

Q. What has been your best consumer education tool in the past few years and how have you used it?
A. Produce Kiosk: the customer can look up items from the department on a touch screen. They can find nutrition information, recipes and print off coupons.

Q. What has been the best new packaged item you've seen in the past year?
A. I think about items like Giant Fresh steamed vegetables.

Q. What's your philosophy on being first to market? If you don't like it, how long do you wait? (In summer)
A. I think that it is important to be the first to market, but what is more important is to have the right eating quality. I am not going to put a product to market until it is the correct size, quality and has the best eating experience.

Q. What produce items are better to eat now compared to 20 years ago?
A. There has been a lot of change in the past 20 years. There is a trend to grow for flavor. This includes products like tomatoes being left on the vine until they are ripe and avocados that you can eat today. There has been an improvement in the eating experience.

Q. How has year-round availability affected your department?
A. Year-round availability has really grown our business. Customers can get great-tasting products more. Now people can get grapes 52 weeks out of the year. There is more variety than ever, and people no longer have to buy apples from Washington that have been sitting in a warehouse.

Q. How much fresh produce is grown locally? 
A. It changes; we try to buy as much as possible. We feel that it is fresher, and we are concerned about reducing our carbon footprint.

Q. What are you planning on changing in your produce departments in the next five years? 
A. We want to continue to change and stay ahead of the trends: more organic, valued-added and easy meal solutions.

Produce department statistics:

Produce department square footage: New store: 5,000 square feet; Average: 3,500 to 4,000 square feet

Fresh produce SKUs: 550-800; on April 30: 650

Organic SKUs: 150-250; on April 20: 183

Fresh-cut SKUs: 60

Current merchandising strategy: We want the produce to tell the story, not the fixture.