Behind the Scenes of the Produce Department

Welcome to Lost in the Supermarket. Whether you're a shopper or whether you're the CEO of a major food company or a retail organization, the number one concern that everybody has when you walk in a supermarket, it's about the produce department. Think about it for a moment. What you've got is you've got these fabulous colors, you've got this great aroma. Basically it's putting you in a great mood for a great shopping experience. So today I'm really thrilled to have with us Chris Jorgenson. Not only is Chris one of the state of the art produce managers in the nation, but he just won the International Fresh Produce Association Produce Manager Award of the year. 

Transcript

Phil: 0:14

Welcome to Lost in the Supermarket. Whether you're a shopper or whether you're the CEO of a major food company or a retail organization, the number one concern that everybody has when you walk in a supermarket, it's about the produce department. Think about it for a moment. What you've got is you've got these fabulous colors, you've got this great aroma. Basically it's putting you in a great mood for a great shopping experience. So today I'm really thrilled to have with us Chris Jorgenson. Not only is Chris one of the state of the art produce managers in the nation, but he just won the International Fresh Produce Association Produce Manager Award of the year. Chris, welcome to Lost in the Supermarket.

Chris: 1:02

Thanks Phil. Excited to be here with you today.

Phil: 1:05

So Chris, I understand that you grew up with your grandma in Nebraska and you worked on her farm stand. Tell us about that.

Chris: 1:14

Yeah, that's very true. We did, me and my brother and my sister, it was just, you know, exciting living on a farm stand. You know, it's just fresh fruits and vegetables all the time and i t just, it was normal life for us. We didn't really g o to the g rocery store for much at all, because everything was done o n a farm.

Phil: 1:33

So what did you learn from that experience from the farm? From the farm stand, talking to customers that now brings you into the supermarket arena and you know, you've been doing this for over 20 years, you're an international award winner. What were those learnings that really gave you the foundation to achieve this fame?

Chris: 1:56

They just, a lot of just watching my grandma talk and interact with the people that come to our stand. You know, they get to know each other. On a first name basis, just like, you know, I do with my customers here at my store. I know a lot of'em first name basis because they're in a store four or five days a week and just carry conversation with them and what they're looking for, what they like, you know. What t hey're, y ou k now, eating and cooking a nd just, you know, seeing her do that with the customers, the people that come to her stand was amazing a nd I think that's what's really instilled i n me t o do that here at t he store l evel that I work at now.

Phil: 2:27

So from this small farm stand, I'm assuming it was a small farm stand to now. Food Lion, one of America's, you know, biggest retailers. What was the change like going from that small to this big monolith?

Chris: 2:46

It's been a big change. Like when I first got Food Lion, you know, I wasn't even in produce, I was a frozen clerk so I didn't, you know. I transitioned within a year over to produce department and just everything is bigger scale. You know, the ordering of the fruits and vegetables is way different than going out in the fields ourselves and picking'em, you know, so that was a major adjustment is just getting used to the influx of the people. A lot more people you know, here at Food Lion than I had on the stands. So it's been a learning curve there.

Phil: 3:18

So tell me a little bit about Food Lion's Local Goodness program and what that allows you to do as a produce manager.

Chris: 3:26

Well it's one of the greatest things Food Lion did is starting to the local goodness program because it gives me, as a produce manager, the ability to help local farmers and growers around our area by getting their name out, by selling their fruits and vegetables in the store. And then it helps give our customers, you know, a great opportunity to buy stuff that's super fresh, you know, in the field yesterday and then today it's in my store so you don't get no fresher and going out and picking yourself. So, you know, it gives them the customers in the store that great opportunity to get fresh local produce that day.

Phil: 4:00

Well, talk about the internal process. If I look at various chains throughout the nation, what you've got is you've got a produce buyer at corporate, who then determines and maybe sometimes they talk to the produce manager, maybe sometimes they don't. And basically, you know, the truck pulls up to the back of the store and you get what you get. How is Food Lion's program different than that?

Chris: 4:29

We do like to say they got a lot of the buying is done at corporate, but they do actually every now and again they'll send out emails asking, you know, if we have anyone around us that might be willing to join a program. But of course it's all gotta go through corporate, just not here at my store level. But you know, when they first started four or five years ago, they sent the price managers out to the fields actually to meet the growers and to experience this because some of'em, you know, a lot of produce managers never experienced I guess growing up on a farm. So getting to see it and meet the actual growers, you know, is great and we get like profiles of all the growers in the area that we can put up with our fruits and vegetables, where they're located. Their family, how long it's been going on in their family. A lot of'em are, you know, four or five generation farmers so you know, a lot of people in this area have been around for a long time so they know a lot of the growers and I think that helps and the farmers.

Phil: 5:22

So I'm assuming when you go with the other produce managers to the farms, you know, all your cohorts then you know say,"Hey Chris, you grew up on a farm. Give us, give us the inside". When you go to a farm versus some other produce managers and you look through your lens, what are you looking for on that farm to be able to supply your store the way you want it to be?

Chris: 5:48

Just, you know, the growing conditions, making sure there's, you know, it's more than just throwing it in the field growing. I mean there's a lot to it, you know. You gotta have the right people and make sure that it's watering good and everything's grow well and looking good. You know, the fruits and vegetables you don't want old wrinkly stuff, you know, a lot of people don't know it too. Local stuff doesn't look different and stuff that's grown in greenhouses because, you know, it's outside so there's gonna be blemishes on it and a lot of people will just throw it away when it's still nothing wrong with it cause it's gotta blemish on the outside of it, you know, it can be cleaned off. So that, y ou k now, i t's a lot of i t t rans a nd produce managers t he different, y ou know, a ccess to look for q uality from l ocally g rowing stuff t o stuff we get from, y ou k now, New Mexico or you know, anywhere e lse i n the United States that's g rowing indoors. It's a big difference.

Phil: 6:37

So Chris, look into your crystal ball. What are the trends that you're seeing in produce that we should all be looking at? We should all be watching, we should all be expecting is is gonna change. You know, not only Food Lion produce departments, but all the produce departments throughout the country.

Chris: 6:57

Well for me here, the store I'm at, it's just ever since the pandemic, people eating a lot healthier than they used to. People more worried about their health and eating properly and you know, so I've seen just past couple years of big influx in the cells that I have in my produce department and the orders in my orders have almost doubled. You know, just the broccoli salads and you know, the real fresh fruits and vegetables. People are buying a lot more than they used to. I think it's just because they wanna be healthier now and make sure you know nothing, you're not getting sick.

Phil: 7:31

So Chris, last question. What's your favorite fruit and what's your favorite vegetable?

Chris: 7:39

For me vegetable, it's zucchini and yellow squash. I love to, to grill'em on a grill or I'll slice'em up with peppers and onions and like pan fry a little bit so I'm, you know, big on that. Fruit, it's probably a cantaloupe. Nothing could be a good sweet, you know, eat, Athena cantaloupe right on the garden. They're really super sweet, you know, really good.

Phil: 8:02

Well Chris, again, congratulations on the award. Well deserved, uh, keep, uh, keep all those food lying, you know, customers happy in the produce department becauseit really, as I said, sets the stage for the rest of their shopping trip. So congratulations and thank you for being on Lost in the Supermarket.

Chris: 8:21

Thank you Phil, and thanks for the to being on your, your show and you know, I'll do the best can right here. Go on and everyone start a produce in department.