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New Season Market, a Portland-based 14-chain natural foods market, recently held a merchandising sales contest with Sun Pacific®’s Air Chief® organic grapes, and the result was far more than they could have imagined for their sales.
Overall, New Season Market stores increased organic grapes sales over 200% from the same time period last year, and the winning store led by produce manager Ashley Phieffer increased sales by over 419%. Not only did Phieffer and her produce team at the Progress Ridge store create a beautiful, eye-catching display, their effort resulted in Air Chief organic grapes sales contributing over 11% of their produce sales as a whole during the promotion.
Produce Manager Ashley Phieffer’s team’s display at New Season Market, Progress Ridge, OR
“When the produce managers at New Season Market are given a sales challenge, you can expect to have your sales projections smashed,” said Jeff Fairchild, Produce Director at New Season Market. “We partnered with Sun Pacific, grower of Air Chief organic grapes, and challenged our stores to ramp up their creativity and merchandising skills with a sales contest.”
Produce Manager Ashley Phieffer and Winning Team
“By merchandising our organic grapes without a plastic bag or clamshell, we are satisfying our customers’ desire to sample the grapes before purchasing and supporting our core values of doing what’s right for the environment by using less plastic. Equally important, the quality, flavor and crunch of Air Chief organic grapes are unmatched, and our customers love them,” added Fairchild.
Melissa Heinrich, Sun Pacific
Vice President of Vineyard Category Development
“Our organic pack is a 21-pound stem up hand-selected pack,” explains Melissa Heinrich, Vice President of Vineyard Category Development at Sun Pacific. “All bunches are at least three-quarters of a pound or larger with an emphasis on having a traditional shape composed of wide shoulders and a tapering tail. These hand-selected bunches are packed on a bubble pad, followed by a liner and lastly paper is added to ensure our organic grapes arrive in excellent condition and are display ready.”
