Ever wanted to do more cross-merchandising with cheese but not sure which ones actually pair well with which produce items? Fortunately, our fabulous recurring guest and longtime produce retail executive Scott Schuette has some fromagerie (a.k.a cheese department) experience to go along with his extensive produce experience! He was even recognized as Specialty Food Retailer of the Year, as you might recall if you're a regular listener of the pod. In this week's episode, we put Scott's cheese expertise to work as he shares insight on which cheeses and fruits to merchandise together, key promotional times on the cheese calendar during which produce can "tag along," practical cross-merchandising considerations like refrigeration, and much more. Unless you're a fromagerie veteran yourself, you're certain to learn something new from this conversation — and you'll want to go buy some cheese to go with your produce. Enjoy!

For more episodes featuring marketing and merchandising perspective, check out this curated playlist for plenty of thought-provoking discussion. 

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• Executive Perspective

• Leadership & Training

• Produce Manager Perspective

Podcast Background

This podcast is designed to cover all things produce retail: strategy, partnerships, planning, training, leadership, communication, merchandising and beyond. Scroll through our episodes list to find conversations with vice presidents and directors of produce, merchandisers, produce managers, retail dietitians and more.

Get Involved

The Produce Retail Podcast is hosted by Ashley Nickle, a former trade journalist turned consultant. Have an idea for a topic or a guest? Give her a shout on LinkedIn. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're delighted to have as our guests on this episode award-winning produce manager Chris DeMarie and vice president of produce and floral Jeff Cady of Tops Markets. Chris, recognized this year as part of the International Fresh Produce Association's Retail Produce Manager Awards Program, discusses his career path in produce; why he enjoys the challenging nature of the work; his store's recent remodel and how sales have continued to flourish ; the recent growth of categories including Hispanic and fresh-cut; and more. Jeff talks about what Chris set apart this year, his influence across the organization as a whole, what his recognition means for Tops, and more. Enjoy!

For more episodes featuring produce manager perspective, check out this curated playlist for plenty of thought-provoking discussion. 

More Playlists

• Executive Perspective

• Leadership & Training

• Marketing & Merchandising

Podcast Background

This podcast is designed to cover all things produce retail: strategy, partnerships, planning, training, leadership, communication, merchandising and beyond. Scroll through our episodes list to find conversations with vice presidents and directors of produce, merchandisers, produce managers, retail dietitians and more.

Get Involved

The Produce Retail Podcast is hosted by Ashley Nickle, a former trade journalist turned consultant. Have an idea for a topic or a guest? Give her a shout on LinkedIn.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're delighted to have as our guest on this week's episode Shawn Peery, national vice president of produce for Albertsons. Listeners who participate in "Produce LinkedIn" may have noticed that Shawn has been posting to the platform frequently this year, sharing photos of the produce teams at the many stores he visits to recognize their work. In this conversation, Shawn and The Produce Retail Podcast host Ashley Nickle discuss three main topics: 1) store visits — how many Shawn makes each year, what he looks for during them, what he learns from them, and how he follows up on the conversations he has during them; 2) social media — what prompted Shawn to start highlighting more publicly the great work he sees in stores and what the feedback has been on that effort; and 3) sharing success stories — how the company finds and spreads innovative ideas across divisions and how it challenges leadership to always be generating more. We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did!

For more episodes featuring executive perspective, check out this curated playlist dedicated to conversations with current and former vice presidents of produce, directors of produce, and other executive roles. 

More Playlists

• Merchandising & Marketing 

• Leadership & Training

• Produce Manager Perspective

Podcast Background

This podcast is designed to cover all things produce retail: strategy, partnerships, planning, training, leadership, communication, merchandising and beyond. Scroll through our episodes list to find conversations with vice presidents and directors of produce, merchandisers, produce managers, retail dietitians and more.

Get Involved

The Produce Retail Podcast is hosted by Ashley Nickle, a former trade journalist turned consultant. Have an idea for a topic or a guest? Give her a shout on LinkedIn. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's episode features a conversation with Food City's Skylar Leonard, one of the produce managers recognized this year by the International Fresh Produce Association's Retail Produce Manager Awards program, and produce supervisor Travis Jones, along with one of Food City's favorite local growers, Tony Slaughter. Skylar, Travis and Tony visit with The Produce Retail Podcast host Ashley Nickle about the local program, including the partnership with Tony and the move two years ago to direct store delivery; Food City's fresh-cut program and the incorporation of local product into that offering; Skylar's career path and memorable moments (including some creative in-store radio announcements); merchandising wins; Skylar's role in training and developing others in the company; and much more. Enjoy!

For more episodes featuring produce manager perspective, check out this curated playlist for plenty of thought-provoking discussion. 

More Playlists

• Executive Perspective

• Leadership & Training

• Marketing & Merchandising

Podcast Background

This podcast is designed to cover all things produce retail: strategy, partnerships, planning, training, leadership, communication, merchandising and beyond. Scroll through our episodes list to find conversations with vice presidents and directors of produce, merchandisers, produce managers, retail dietitians and more.

Get Involved

The Produce Retail Podcast is hosted by Ashley Nickle, a former trade journalist turned consultant. Have an idea for a topic or a guest? Give her a shout on LinkedIn.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today’s discussion, the fifth and final in this series with longtime produce retail executive Scott Schuette, covers a smorgasbord of topics – cross-merchandising, pricing, signage, assortment – but with different examples than those we've covered previously, including digital merchandising in-store, dedicating multiple end-caps to the same item, inspiration from the meat and seafood departments, and more. In case you haven't heard by now, here's the origin story of this collection of episodes: Scott and The Produce Retail Podcast host Ashley Nickle got to talking about the time-honored practice of checking out your competition for ideas you could borrow and repurpose for your own stores, they ended up with so many examples that turning the conversation into a bonus series for the podcast was a no-brainer. Enjoy! 

For more episodes featuring marketing and merchandising perspective, check out this curated playlist for plenty of thought-provoking discussion. 

More Playlists

• Executive Perspective

• Leadership & Training

• Produce Manager Perspective

Podcast Background

This podcast is designed to cover all things produce retail: strategy, partnerships, planning, training, leadership, communication, merchandising and beyond. Scroll through our episodes list to find conversations with vice presidents and directors of produce, merchandisers, produce managers, retail dietitians and more.

Get Involved

The Produce Retail Podcast is hosted by Ashley Nickle, a former trade journalist turned consultant. Have an idea for a topic or a guest? Give her a shout on LinkedIn. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're delighted to have as our guests for this episode Hy-Vee produce manager Greg Kimmel and vice president of produce and floral operations John Griesenbrock. Greg was selected by the International Fresh Produce Association as one of its 2023 Retail Produce Manager Award Program honorees. In this conversation, Greg talks about how he got into produce; advocating for great items; the realization early in his career that being a produce manager at Hy-Vee was an opportunity to take ownership of a department and run it like your own business; fun events this past year; keeping the department layout fresh; behind-the-scenes details that make a difference, and more. John speaks to what makes Greg the whole package as a produce manager, from his passion for fruits and vegetables to his ability to educate team members to his excellent customer service. We hope you enjoy the conversation!

For more episodes featuring produce manager perspective, check out this curated playlist for plenty of thought-provoking discussion. 

More Playlists

• Executive Perspective

• Leadership & Training

• Marketing & Merchandising

Podcast Background

This podcast is designed to cover all things produce retail: strategy, partnerships, planning, training, leadership, communication, merchandising and beyond. Scroll through our episodes list to find conversations with vice presidents and directors of produce, merchandisers, produce managers, retail dietitians and more.

Get Involved

The Produce Retail Podcast is hosted by Ashley Nickle, a former trade journalist turned consultant. Have an idea for a topic or a guest? Give her a shout on LinkedIn.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, longtime produce retail executive Scott Schuette and The Produce Retail Podcast host Ashley Nickle discuss assortment, including including creative packs done in-house and what you can learn by examining space allocation for different categories and SKUs at stores near you. Today's episode is the fourth in a special series with Scott; when he and Ashley got to talking about the time-honored practice of checking out your competition for ideas you could borrow and repurpose for your own stores, they ended up with so many examples that turning the conversation into a bonus series for the podcast was a no-brainer. Enjoy! 

For more episodes featuring marketing and merchandising perspective, check out this curated playlist for plenty of thought-provoking discussion. 

More Playlists

• Executive Perspective

• Leadership & Training

• Produce Manager Perspective

Podcast Background

This podcast is designed to cover all things produce retail: strategy, partnerships, planning, training, leadership, communication, merchandising and beyond. Scroll through our episodes list to find conversations with vice presidents and directors of produce, merchandisers, produce managers, retail dietitians and more.

Get Involved

The Produce Retail Podcast is hosted by Ashley Nickle, a former trade journalist turned consultant. Have an idea for a topic or a guest? Give her a shout on LinkedIn. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're delighted to welcome as our guests this week Corner Market's Olin Williams — selected this year as one of the International Fresh Produce Association's 2023 Retail Produce Manager Award winners — and vice president of fresh Price Mabry. We discuss how Olin got into the business, his career progression at Corner Market, how he approaches training, the new programs he has championed and grown in his department, the role he plays in setting the standard for the company when it comes to displays, success stories from the past year, and more. Enjoy! 

For more episodes featuring produce manager perspective, check out this curated playlist for plenty of thought-provoking discussion. 

More Playlists

• Executive Perspective

• Leadership & Training

• Marketing & Merchandising

Podcast Background

This podcast is designed to cover all things produce retail: strategy, partnerships, planning, training, leadership, communication, merchandising and beyond. Scroll through our episodes list to find conversations with vice presidents and directors of produce, merchandisers, produce managers, retail dietitians and more.

Get Involved

The Produce Retail Podcast is hosted by Ashley Nickle, a former trade journalist turned consultant. Have an idea for a topic or a guest? Give her a shout on LinkedIn.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, longtime produce retail executive Scott Schuette and The Produce Retail Podcast host Ashley discuss cross-merchandising, including examples inside and outside the department; best practices for making sure out-of-department displays stay fresh and full; the role of fixtures; experimentation with those incremental SKUs; and more. Check out Ashley's LinkedIn page for cross-merchandising examples that Scott and Ashley gathered to illustrate a host of best practices in this area. Today's episode is the third in a special series with Scott; when he and Ashley got to talking about the time-honored practice of checking out your competition to see what ideas you could borrow and repurpose for your own stores, they ended up with so many examples that turning the conversation into a bonus series for the podcast was a no-brainer. Enjoy! 

For more episodes featuring marketing and merchandising perspective, check out this curated playlist for plenty of thought-provoking discussion. 

More Playlists

• Executive Perspective

• Leadership & Training

• Produce Manager Perspective

Podcast Background

This podcast is designed to cover all things produce retail: strategy, partnerships, planning, training, leadership, communication, merchandising and beyond. Scroll through our episodes list to find conversations with vice presidents and directors of produce, merchandisers, produce managers, retail dietitians and more.

Get Involved

The Produce Retail Podcast is hosted by Ashley Nickle, a former trade journalist turned consultant. Have an idea for a topic or a guest? Give her a shout on LinkedIn. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're delighted to welcome as our guests this week The Giant Company's Breanna Norris — selected this year as one of the International Fresh Produce Association's 2023 Retail Produce Manager Award winners — and her store manager Alan Carcifi. We discuss how Bre got started in the business; what she enjoys most about her work; some of her biggest accomplishments of 2022; customer service; and more. Alan chimes in about some of the attributes that make Bre excellent, including her work on a recent new store opening and the record-setting result; her approach to training and how she makes others throughout the organization better; and much more. Enjoy! 

For more episodes featuring produce manager perspective, check out this curated playlist for plenty of thought-provoking discussion. 

More Playlists

• Executive Perspective

• Leadership & Training

• Marketing & Merchandising

Podcast Background

This podcast is designed to cover all things produce retail: strategy, partnerships, planning, training, leadership, communication, merchandising and beyond. Scroll through our episodes list to find conversations with vice presidents and directors of produce, merchandisers, produce managers, retail dietitians and more.

Get Involved

The Produce Retail Podcast is hosted by Ashley Nickle, a former trade journalist turned consultant. Have an idea for a topic or a guest? Give her a shout on LinkedIn. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.