HARRY'S HEALTHY HEAPS

ERIC THORSEN

ROSEWELL, Ga. -- At Harry's Farmers Market, based here, produce is spelled with a capital "P." After all, Harry's fruit and vegetable selection has been the cornerstone of operations since the retailer opened more than 12 years ago.

The oversized departments, stocked daily with mounds of fresh fruit and vegetables, are what Atlanta-area customers have come to expect from Harry's. The three megastores currently comprising the chain rely on these atypically sized sections for the bulk of their sales. According to Case Lichtveld, produce marketing manager for Harry's, the produce departments are the most profitable sections of the stores.

"I think our produce is the main attraction for our customers," said Lichtveld. "The abundance of fresh produce exceeds the expectations of most of our shoppers."

The retailer's produce departments rival the size of competitors' entire stores. Its Alpharetta, Ga., unit has a produce department that is more than 50,000 square feet. The other two units, located in Duluth, Ga., and Marietta, Ga., range in size from 60,000 square feet to 70,000 square feet.

The chain also has five smaller concept units, called "Harry's in a Hurry," that are described by Lichtveld as "oversized convenience stores." Though these to-go venues focus on prepared meals, produce plays a strong supporting role, with departments averaging 4,000 square feet, and displays placed front and center, near the front entrances of each store. But it's the produce departments at the larger Harry's stores that really drive sales.

Lichtveld said that as soon as customers enter a Harry's, produce becomes the focal point. It really can't be helped, since that is all the shopper sees: Aisles of wooden tables stacked with produce stretch all the way to the back of the department and around self-standing bulk displays of seasonal specials. In the aisles, customers are greeted by tables full of tomatoes, broccoli, squash and cabbage. Eventually, turning a corner, they run into a huge display of fresh corn.

"The aisles guide the customers through the produce department so they basically see everything," said Lichtveld.

Tables are grouped within their respective categories, creating independent sections. For example, the tomato section consists of tables containing about 10 different varieties, including yellow, cherry and Canadian.

Specialty items are also an important element of the produce department. Four "houses" provide different varieties of exotic herbs, which are rotated on a seasonal basis. One example of a popular herb is epazote, which is commonly used in Mexican dishes. Other hard-to-find choices include fresh aloe leaf and yellow root.

Ethnic fruits and vegetable are also "good" sellers, including tindora, regular and Indian bitter melon, an assortment of Oriental vegetables and fresh tamarind, both the tart and the sweet varieties, said Lichtveld.

Just past the table of corn is another equally important category, the organic section. Presently, one-sixth of the entire produce department is devoted to organics, though the size varies with availability. Overall, however, Lichtveld said, the square footage for naturally grown items has been expanding due to increased customer acceptance.

The growing popularity of organics didn't happen right away, he added. Organics have been the subject of a steady customer-education campaign at Harry's.

"It's been a slow education process, but it works," said Lichtveld. "There are more and more people that understand the dangers of pesticides and herbicides. We're selling health and we would like to have a long-term relationship with our customers -- keep them healthy."

Refrigerated items are kept in a 30-foot wall unit of cases that line the perimeter of the department. Here, shoppers can locate such items as mushrooms, sprouts and loose salad mixes. Smaller, 6-foot refrigerated cases are also situated throughout and used for specialty berries like blueberries and other temperature-sensitive goods. Lichtveld explained that strawberries have a high enough turnover that they don't need refrigeration.

Value-added produce items, like bagged salads and spinach, are also available among the many fresh items, but are not big sellers, he said. While bagged salads may be a hot item at other supermarkets, at Harry's customers seem to prefer purchasing the store's fresh mixes, in the quantities they want.

"We have a very limited selection of bagged salads," he said. "We are selling only limited amounts. The fresh sells better than the bagged."

Other fresh items on display include orange juice that is squeezed fresh in Harry's own facility, located behind the Alpharetta unit. The operation, which is mainly responsible for preparing take-home meals, strictly follows U.S. Department of Agriculture standards, he said.

The facility is also responsible for providing the produce department with fresh-cut vegetables, which are merchandised side by side with their whole counterparts, where customers choose which one they want.

He added that, while the fresh orange juice, fresh-cut items and bagged salads aren't exactly big sellers, they do add to the total profit of the department and satisfy a small contingent of customers.

"If they are not there, customers come and ask why it is not there," he said in describing Harry's experienced customer base.

For example, the recent difficulty sourcing oranges caused customers to complain that same day. "They go straight to customer service and voice their opinion," he said

In order to guarantee the integrity of its produce, Lichtveld said, Harry's sticks to a set of established guidelines.

"We are not a one-stop shop," he explained. "Basically, we attract our customers because of our presentation, our freshness, our prices, our integrity. We stand behind what we do."

On the top of the list is cleanliness, which Lichtveld said is daily reinforced. Every night, the whole store is washed, including the produce tables -- they are routinely rotated -- and the floors underneath the tables. He said that the most important element next to cleanliness is variety.

"It's a combination," he said. "Our customers like our cleanliness. But, variety helps us sell and a lack of it takes away from the total attraction. I am trying to put as many varieties in the store as possible. I think if we cut down just to the nitty-gritty, my store would close its doors."

Freshness is another key ingredient bringing customers back to the stores. It's what Harry's has built its reputation on, he said. To keep its produce fresh, Harry's follows the practice of just-in-time delivery, and forgoes keeping bulk produce in storage.

"Our storage is on the road, in the trucks that arrive on a staggered schedule," he said. "That's what we shoot for, to keep it as fresh as possible."

To further ensure the freshness of its produce, Harry's sends samples on a weekly basis to a third-party facility in California, where they are tested for pesticide and herbicide levels. The retailer takes the practice a step further, and also reviews test results the laboratory performs on produce from growers located throughout the United States.

"[The tests are reviewed] so we know which grower has [a bad record] with their pesticides and herbicides, or which packing house has [produce that meets our standards]," he said. "We've done that from the very beginning when we opened the store, and it is a continuing program."

In addition, employees also perform taste tests at store level. For example, if a shipment of grapes is determined to be too sour, it is not put out on the floor and is instead sent to the state market. This process is also performed during apple season. If the apples are picked a little too early and they don't have flavor, they are also sent to the state market and not sold to customers in the store, noted Lichtveld.

"There's no USDA standard for flavor," he said.

And flavor is always under constant scrutiny, he said, since customers are continually trying products through frequent demonstrations and sampling. He added that getting customers to try produce encourages sales. The power of sampling was realized recently when Lichtveld ran a demo station where he let customers sample a cabbage variety called kohlrabi. Within one and a half hours, he said, all five cases had been completely sold out.

To further get customers interested in purchasing diverse produce items, he said, he likes to form personal relationships with the community at large. To do this, Lichtveld takes his show on the road, visiting civic groups and attending church functions, where he demonstrates how to cook dishes using produce, as well as encourages attendees to sample the dishes and ask questions.

Back in-store, customers are made aware of featured items through an extensive library of information guides positioned by the products themselves. Brochures covering organics and certain types of vegetables like squash and eggplant are located throughout the department. Another educational program is directed at children (and by extension, their parents), created by the company's president and chief executive officer, Harry Blazer. He developed an animated video program for kids that centers on the Produce for Better Health Foundation's national 5 A Day for Better Health campaign.

The video, called "Harry's High Five," is sent to area schools in an attempt to encourage youngsters to eat more produce. Blazer makes a guest appearance at the beginning and end of the video. Any student who watches the video receives a voucher redeemable for a free apple when he or she visits the store.

Customers of all ages are encouraged to sample produce before a purchase, whether at staffed action stations or more informally. "We will cut something for them to taste," he said. "I don't want to say that we encourage it, but we allow customers to [sample] while shopping. We don't sell something to a customer that is a total surprise when they get it home."

Employees are as important as printed information in the education of shoppers, according to Lichtveld. He said "hands-on" interaction is very effective, adding that, "it is very important to have trained employees because they are your salespeople."

In the past, store associates received training under a classroom-type of process, but now only receive on-the-job training. "One of the disadvantages for the retail industry is a high turnover rate," he said. The emphasis on on-the-job training has been just as effective, and has proven to be a more efficient use of management's time.

Over on the advertising front, Harry's doesn't do much of it and never has. "We don't advertise a lot," said Lichtveld. "We believe it's stronger by word of mouth."

But, even without a big advertising budget, customers flock to the produce department and the store anyway. This is especially true during the holidays, he said. Stocking the floor in preparation for these busy times could present a dilemma for some retailers, especially if display space is limited. But finding space is never a problem at Harry's. They "make it fit," he said.

"We just move or shrink something else," said Lichtveld. "There are always certain things going out of season and coming into season. We just add another table in the center aisles; we stack other items higher. It's very strange for customers first coming into our store to see a mountain of broccoli. But they remember the store and they come back."