DISPLAY CONTEST SWEETENS REIDER GRAPEFRUIT SALES

AMY I. STICKEL

SOLON, Ohio -- Reider's Stop-N-Shop stores boosted grapefruit sales 20% during a three-week display contest. "The contest worked out real well," said Tony Colagiovanni, director of produce operations for the five-store independent based here. "It made a nice appearance in our stores and got our store personnel very excited."

Two Reider stores participated in the contest. One of them, the Stop-N-Shop unit in Willowick, Ohio, was named grand prize winner last month by an advertising firm judging entries for Seald-Sweet Growers in Vero Beach, Fla., which sponsored the contest.

The competing displays were to be built around the theme, "Florida Red Grapefruit Refreshingly Fit."

Colagiovanni said the two participating stores promoted all Florida citrus, not just red grapefruit.

Reider's Stop-N-Shop ran citrus on ad. The two participating stores also set up "silent demos" with cut-up pieces of citrus displayed for consumers to help themselves.

Other retailers that participated in the contest included Ingles Markets, Black Mountain, N.C.; J.H. Harvey Supermarkets, Nashville, Ga., and Seaway Food Town, Maumee, Ohio.

Ingles, which involved all its 184 stores in the contest, promoted grapefruit on ad and in-store, and ran the promotion for almost the entire month of February, said Leonard Tasler, vice president of produce for Ingles Markets.

"It went great," he said. "The produce managers loved it. We used the high-graphic bulk bins Seald-Sweet developed, so there was very little labor involved."

Tasler said his best promotion was offering red grapefruit at five for $1. The stores used tote bags that each held five grapefruits, which made the ring-up easy for both customers and cashiers.

"I had more people comment to me that they came into the store just to buy the grapefruit," he said.

Tasler said it was difficult to compare sales of grapefruit during the contest to last year's sales, since this is the first year Ingles is operating out of its own warehouse.

About 10 stores operated by J.H. Harvey's Supermarkets participated in the contest. Joyce Swindle, produce buyer for the company, said she wished the other 30 would have joined in as well.

"It helped promote grapefruit sales," she said. "Our produce managers built some very attractive displays. Customers paid a lot of attention to them.

"I sure would do it again," she said of the contest.

Suzy Peterson, marketing administrator for Seald-Sweet, said the cooperative was pleased with the retail participation during the contest.

Seald-Sweet designed the contest to create greater consumer awareness of Florida grapefruit. Displays were judged on use of Seald-Sweet's Prestige line of packaging and a contest kit with ceiling danglers, price cards and posters. The entries were judged by an outside firm, Nissen Advertising & Public Relations, Lakeland, Fla.