We're delighted to welcome for this week's episode Erin Esensee, director of business development at Decowraps, and Jennie Kellerman Garbarek, sales director for mass market North America at Tessa. Erin was previously the longtime floral director of H-E-B, where she was recognized by IFPA in 2023 as Floral Marketer of the Year, and Jennie is a veteran of SpartanNash, Mariano’s and Roundy’s. In this conversation, they discuss the complexity of the floral department and the reasons why floral leadership should always aim to be working a year in advance. They talk about transitioning in and out of holidays; leaning on suppliers to keep up with the consumer trends; how the global nature of the business plays into planning; the rise of microholidays; the growing popular culture relevance of floral; the increasing presence of private brand in floral; the undervalued practice of getting out in stores and talking to customers and department managers; the still largely untapped opportunity of e-commerce for floral; and much more. Hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did!

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We're delighted to welcome as our guest for this week's episode Clark Roper, a senior team leader at Chick-fil-A Supply, which is a subsidiary of Chick-fil-A. Clark has been with Chick-fil-A since 2022, but before that, he spent seven years as a produce buyer for Piggly Wiggly. Along with reflections on logistics, category management and more from his retail days, Clark shares his perspective on how Chick-fil-A elicits such remarkable performance primarily from young, part-time employees. He also discusses tools, like the Enneagram and Working Genius, that help identify strengths, weaknesses and tendencies of team members and explains the impact those have made in allowing him to support his team better. If you lead people, this is a conversation you shouldn't miss. Enjoy!

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We're delighted to welcome back to the podcast Anne-Marie Roerink, the principal of 210 Analytics. Anne-Marie is well known to many in the produce world for her insightful reports and presentations in collaboration with Circana and industry associations like the International Fresh Produce Association and the Southeast Produce Council. In this episode, Anne-Marie and The Produce Retail Podcast host Ashley Nickle discuss topics stemming from the SEPC's What's New report, which debuted at Southern Innovations. Their conversation covers the continuing growth fruit but downturn for vegetables; the concentration of new units and dollars coming from millennials; the sentiment of that generation toward fruits versus vegetables; how millennials and their children are interacting with produce and to what extent pickiness is influencing purchases; how fresh produce is seeing more competition from smoothies, powders, supplements and bars; how suppliers and retailers can come alongside parents and make vegetables fun for their kids; the emerging trend of "fiber maxing" as an opportunity for produce; what fresh produce can learn from its CPG counterparts on selling the benefits of certain nutrients; what implications the increasing spending power of millennials has for order quantities, delivery cadences, stocking best practices, and more; how kids today respond to marinades, sauces and seasonings and the potential of those "extras" to elevate how consumers experience vegetables; and much more. Hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did!

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We're delighted to have as our guests for this episode Karli Nelson, supermarket sales manager of Chrysal USA, and Jennie Garbarek, sales director of mass market North America for Tessacorp. In this episode, Karli — also known as the author of the Supermarket Floral Ad Roundup — and Jennie, alongside The Produce Retail Podcast host Ashley Nickle, dive into floral ad trends, how different retailers see the role of floral in the ad, marketing floral beyond the ad, and more. Hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did! 

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We're delighted to have as our guest for this episode Tim Deubner, a produce and floral manager for Town & Country Supermarket. He’s been in produce for more than a decade now and is dedicated to making his career in the industry and continuing to advance through the ranks. He’s probably one of the best out there at using LinkedIn to share his success stories, explain his thought process in his work, and be candid about his ambition to keep growing in this industry. In this conversation, he visits with The Produce Retail Podcast host Ashley Nickle about how he practices thinking like a produce director; how he found and engages with mentors throughout the industry; how he has broadened his skillset since moving from a corporate store to an independent store; how he built a cut-fruit program for his store; how he engages customers both in the store and online; why and how he shares about his work via LinkedIn; how he approaches opportunity buys; which metrics he watches most closely; how he's grown in the three years since he last appeared on the podcast; and more! Hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did, and thanks for listening!

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We're delighted to have as our guest on this week's episode Tony Mirack, director of produce, floral and salad bar at McCaffrey's Food Markets. In this conversation with The Produce Retail Podcast host Ashley Nickle, Tony discusses his excitement about produce now having the "Wow!" factor thanks to varietal innovation in grapes, stone fruit, kiwi, berries, melons and more; the tricky calculus, given all the new varieties these days, of category management and SKU rationalization; how he measures success (spoiler alert — it goes beyond sales and profit); the information from growers that is most valuable to him; the philosophy that guides how he builds the ad; why he believes growers and shippers should visit their retailers and understand their customers; the power of educating your employees so they can educate your customers; how he allocates his time between strategy and planning and being in the stores working with the store-level teams; and much more. Hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did, and thanks for listening!

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We're delighted to welcome as our guest this week Marc Goldman, produce director at Morton Williams Supermarkets, a 17-store chain that has served New York City since 1952 and was just acquired by Wakefern. Marc has been with Morton Williams the better part of 30 years, and in this conversation he talks about his career; changes he’s observing in the competitive landscape; what he's looking forward to about the acquisition; how he and his produce managers evaluate and evolve the assortment; what he looks for during store visits; the hardest part of the job for a produce manager today; his early experiences learning to lead a team; and more. Thanks for listening! 

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We're delighted to have as our guest on this episode Rick Stein, vice president of fresh foods for the Food Industry Association, also known as FMI. Before Rick joined FMI in 2014, he spent more than 20 years at Safeway in various leadership roles across marketing, merchandising and operations, and he has overseen all sorts of large-scale special projects in that capacity. In this conversation, Rick and The Produce Retail Podcast host Ashley Nickle discuss why produce saw greater unit sales growth in 2024 than any other perimeter department except deli foodservice; what percentage of retailers are using produce programs as differentiators and how satisfied they are with those programs’ performance; the mindset shift and supply chain improvements that have bolstered the availability of local produce in grocery retail; the role that retail media networks play for grocers currently and how that may evolve — and how fresh fits in; preserving the shopper experience as retail media grows; the growing importance of digital even as the vast majority of purchases remain in-store; the need to merchandise with meals in mind to better meet the needs of shoppers; and other topics including sales per labor hour, electronic shelf labels, stabilization of labor and supply chain challenges, and more. Hope you enjoy the conversation, and thanks for listening!

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We're delighted to bring you three guests in this week's episode: our recurring floral series star, Jennie Garbarek, sales director of mass market, North America, for Tessacorp, and a veteran of Roundy’s, Mariano’s and SpartanNash; Jake Rupert, director of sales and marketing at North Country Growers and a veteran of Roundy’s and Kroger; and Justin Heffernan, the vice president of sales for Fyffes North America and a veteran of Roundy’s and Jewel-Osco. They have each spent at least a decade on the buy side of the business — Jake almost two decades — and are now on the supply side. In this conversation with The Produce Retail Podcast host Ashley Nickle, Justin, Jennie and Jake discuss the relationship between produce and floral; how those departments interact; how leaders tasked with managing across those departments can support both well; how building relationships plays a critical part in setting floral up for success during high-volume periods; leveraging competitive spirit to grow sales across the organization; incorporating floral into storewide events; the role of floral in the ad; the opportunity for greater collaboration between produce and floral; and much more. Enjoy!

If you've been enjoying these episodes on floral, check out the archives for more. Thanks for listening!

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We're delighted to have produce manager Ryan Vann, produce regional supervisor Jason Riggs, and vice president of produce operations Mike Roberts — all from Harps Food Stores — as our guests this week. The International Fresh Produce Association has recognized Ryan as one of the best in the business, naming him among 20 honorees this year for its Retail Produce Manager Awards Program. In this episode, Ryan discusses how he got into the business; what the transition was like from his previous industry, foodservice; his development as a leader; what he enjoys most about being in the store; his experience with the Southeast Produce Council's STEP-UPP program; how he evaluates potential in team members; how he breaks up his day and makes time to train his team members; and more. Jason and Mike discuss their internal process for selecting nominees for IFPA recognition; Ryan's contribution not just to his own store but to the broader company; Ryan's ability to identify and cultivate emerging leaders; Mike's commitment to educating produce managers not only on products but on leadership as well — and how his own leadership journey informed that passion; and other topics. Hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did!

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