Walmart: 'Fresh Angle' for produce brings benefits

Revamped produce departments at 180 Walmart stores have helped reduce food waste, improved efficiency and received positive feedback from customers, according to a blog post on the retailer’s website.

The approach, called “Fresh Angle,” positions fresh, loose produce at the front of the store, Travis Moore, store manager at a Walmart Supercenter in Rogers, Ark., wrote in the blog post.

Fixtures are lower, so that customers can see the whole department, and contain fewer pieces of fruit and vegetables, with the goal of maintaining produce freshness in store and once customers take the items home.

“The fact is, ‘looking’ fresh only goes so far,” Moore wrote. “The key is making sure the fresh produce our customers buy in our stores continues to look and taste the same when they pull it out of the fridge three days later.”

Walmart first detailed its “Fresh Angle” initiative at an investor conference in March. The retailer plans to remodel 3,300 stores by the end of 2016. It is also adding market-level “fresh experts” to oversee training of department employees.

“We know when we get fresh right, the entire box benefits from that business,” chief merchandising officer Steve Bratspies told investors.

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