UP-FRONT SHIFT AT A&P MOVES FRESH-CUT FRUIT

TONY SPLEEN

MARIETTA, Ga. -- An A&P Food Market here has discovered the formula for increasing sales in the fresh-cut fruit section: Give it more space and move it up front.

Sales of fresh-cut fruit have more than doubled to 12% of total produce sales since the section was moved from the back of the department to the front earlier this summer, according to Terry Boger, produce manager at the store, which is operated by A&P, Montvale, N.J.

In addition to moving the section to the beginning of the department's traffic pattern, the store added six feet of display space, Boger said, bringing the total refrigerated section to 20 feet.

"The other chains hide it in the back while we're bringing it up front," Boger said of fresh-cut produce sections. Boger hosted a group of produce suppliers at his store during a tour of Atlanta-area supermarkets sponsored by the Produce Marketing Association, Newark, Del.

During the retail tour SN noted six supermarket chains -- Kroger Co., Cub Foods Stores, Harris Teeter, Winn-Dixie Stores, Publix Super Markets and Bruno's -- positioned their fresh-cut fruit sections in the middle or back of their produce departments.

Representatives from those companies were either unavailable or unwilling to give their rationale for such placement.

Produce is the first department in the traffic pattern of the 36,000-square-foot A&P, so fresh-cut fruit is the first section customers see when they enter the store.

"We're getting more impulse sales, generating more profits and reducing shrink," said Boger. "We believe there is more growth potential in fresh-cut fruit than any other item."

The increases in fresh-cut fruit sales are "bonus sales," he said, because sales of other produce items have not dropped.

Boger declined to give specific profit figures for the category, but said, "It is extremely profitable."

Fresh-cuts are merchandised on an ice bed placed inside a refrigerated case to keep temperatures in the mid-30s and to maximize shelf life and reduce shrink, said Boger.

Watermelon halves and wedges priced at 25 cents a pound took up 10 feet of the display case.

Other melons, cut and merchandised in a variety of ways, took up most of the rest of the space. Half a cantaloupe and a wedge of watermelon, for example, were wrapped together and priced at $1.39 a tray. Half a honeydew and a wedge of watermelon were priced at $2.29.

Assorted melon slices were merchandised on overwrapped foam trays for 49 cents a pound.

Cantaloupe halves filled with mixed berries sold for 49 cents a pound; honeydew, for $1.29.

Eight-ounce and one-pound containers of mixed fruit -- cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon and strawberries -- were priced at $2.99 a pound.

For customers who want to make their own fruit salad but don't want to purchase whole melons, the store offers an overwrapped package containing a wedge of watermelon, half a honeydew, half a cantaloupe and a one-pint basket of blueberries for $4.99.

"It's for people who want variety, but who don't want to buy the whole melon," said Boger.

According to the store's director, Lanier Pruit, the store assigns one associate to cut and wrap product and maintain the section every day from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., the peak hours for the section.

"It's hard to keep it stocked during these hours when people are on their way home from work and looking for a quick, easy meal," he said.

The store is one of three A&P Food Markets in the Atlanta area and the only one to have moved fresh-cut fruit to the front of the produce department, Pruit said. The other two are expected to move their sections to the front some time in the next few months, he said.

A&P, which has a 9% market share in the Atlanta area, operates 45 other stores under different formats in the region.

A&P is the seventh-largest U.S. supermarket chain, with more than 1,100 stores nationwide.