Supermarket Perimeter - December 2020 - 45

The right lighting catches the eye of the customer. It makes them
want to touch a fruit or smell the ﬂowers. Most important Plageman
said, it makes them want to buy.
Because online competition has chipped away at dry-good revenue,
grocers are shrinking their center aisles and using LED lighting systems
to draw attention to their renovated perimeter aisles, Plageman said.
Amerlux, which has more than 35 years' experience lighting grocery
perishable departments, offers its customers (and potential customers)
free advice, free in-store mockups and help designing the right lighting
scheme to help them sell more produce, Plageman said.
With the holidays upon us, now's the time, he added, to give the
produce in your stores a color makeover. Even the slightest changes in
color rendering will be noticed by the majority of shoppers, he said.

Produce tables: easy
shopping from all angles

Enjoyable experience, ﬂexibility to change
Tom Foss, national sales manager for Minneapolis-based Carlson AirFlo
Merchandising Systems, said that based on his experience as a former
produce supervisor for ﬁve years, the design layout of a good retail
produce department needs to create an enjoyable shopping experience
for the customer but also allow the ability to change sets quickly for
seasonal product changes.
" Thoughtful groupings of commodities are another key factor in
driving sales, " Foss said. " For example, put premium salad dressings by
your bagged salad area. "
Carlson AirFlo strives to give retailers the best equipment to
merchandise those products in their stores, Foss said - equipment that
shows product well and makes displays looks " abundant, " and that is
easy to clean and stock without the unnecessary shrink.
Retailers seem to be moving more toward mobile, refrigerated table
units in the center of the product department, as opposed to the ﬁxed,
position refrigerated island cases and European tables, Foss said.
There is also a heightened awareness of produce traceability and
whether a product is home grown or organic. Creating displays that call
out these speciﬁc customer products that are now a premium and key
to a department's success, he added. When retailers design a produce
department, they need to create signage and displays that " tell the story. "
" We partner with our retail customers to begin a dialogue about what
equipment will best ﬁt their needs. Designing solutions that elevate
their product and get recognized, customers will take notice and
therefore purchase or possibly even try something different because of
the appearance. "
Carlson AirFlo offers clients engineered drawings to guarantee proper
ﬁt of equipment and also offers the retailer a glimpse of how their cases
in their departments will look before actual installation.
The most signiﬁcant change the company has seen in produce as a
result of COVID is the closing of retail salad bars, Foss said.
" We're currently seeing more pre-packaged salads in containers,
therefore providing newly designed risers and ﬁller pans to help
merchandise these new products in their former open salad bars, "
he said. " Overall, there is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding COVID
and whether or not that will have an overall impact on future produce
departments is too early to tell. "
A more lasting trend Carlson AirFlo is tracking is preference for
shallower cases to increase the overall open ﬂoor space. Because of
supermarketperimeter.com

If it's time for a produce department refresh,
one of the best ways to up the ante on displays
is through the use of produce tables. Made
speciﬁcally to showcase the beauty of your
natural product, tables make shopping easy
from all angles and come in a variety of shapes,
sizes and conﬁgurations to suit your produce
department needs.
Tables offer:
x Modular Design: Most tables have a modular
design that allow you to change the size and
conﬁguration based on space constraints and
inventory availability.
x Built in Shelves: Tables with shelves below allow
for storage of more product and provide a great
opportunity to cross merchandise for a boost
in sales.
x Risers and Trays: Add risers or trays to your
tables for a more impactful presentation that
uses less product. Risers make merchandising
tables easy and naturally promote product
turns, reducing spoilage and increasing proﬁts.
x Built in Lighting: Some tables include built in
lighting for maximum product visibility.
x Accessories: Outﬁt your tables with additional
accessories to further enhance a buyers
shopping experience. Scale holders, lighted
canopies, slotted rails and bag dispensers can
be incorporated for aesthetics and shopper
convenience.
Keep your produce tables looking fresh by adding
soft lighting, rotating product displays frequently
and adding creative signage. In short - better
produce tables produce better sales results.
Source: Gardena, Calif. Based Alco Designs

DECEMBER 2020 - 45
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Supermarket Perimeter - December 2020

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