Attention to temperature, humidity and freshness will sell more leafy greens.

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Leafy greens are in demand for their health benefits, flavor profiles and convenience, but retailers must ensure the product looks absolutely fresh. The leafy green cold chain and proper handling in-store, including factors such as misting, are critical. It’s also important to provide wet rack and lettuce options, because consumers shop greens differently.

ShopRite in Newark, NJ, takes a varied approach to satisfy g a diverse customer base. When it comes to greens, that means satisfying a lot of preferences, so packaged and bulk each has its following.

“We have the customer that looks for the packaged, but the bulk stuff, we do really well on that,” says Rich Garcia, assistant store manager, perishables. “What we see during the holidays, Thanksgiving time, Christmas time, is packaged collard greens versus bulk collard greens. We commit to pallets of both of them, and we run through both immediately. You have the customer who wants to cut all their own collard greens, and you have the customer who wants the two-pound bags and snatches them up.”

In the more southerly agricultural region of New Jersey, Bill Nardelli Jr., vice president of sales at Nardelli Bros.-Lake View Farms, Cedarville, NJ, says the Garden State had a good greens season.

“We typically have our biggest volume of greens in New Jersey through November, through Thanksgiving,” he says. “We’ve had good harvest volumes. We do collard, kale, mustard tops. We also do red kale and some smaller items.”

Nardelli then transitions and works through Georgia and Florida for the winter.

Although greens are consumed year-round, the November and December holiday season is a big deal in sales terms for Nardelli, too.

“My family has been in the greens business for many years,” he says. “Our retail partners do big promotions around Thanksgiving, Christmas and the holidays. That’s been pretty stable for us over the years, and that’s continued to be a point of emphasis.”

Nardelli says, however, that demand has been subject to trends and variety developments.

“Over the past years, there have been some spikes in greens consumption based on health, some promotions, with Dr. Oz promoting kale,” he says. “That was a pretty big spike, but a lot of that has leveled off a bit.”

GREENS ARE FRAGILE

Nardelli says that, for most up-to-date food retailers, handling and merchandising practices are well established.

“Most of the retailers that we do large volume with have really advanced wet racks in the stores, and they’re able to keep product fresh on the shelf. They have a pretty good handle on that,” he says. “We have our own cooling to get everything down to the right temperatures. When they get to the store, they are displayed correctly on the wet rack.”

Emily Stavrou of equipment manufacturer Corrigan Corp. of America, Gurneen, IL, has a unique perspective on keeping greens at their best.

“Corrigan is a proponent of misting greens with a very light dew-like mist to hydrate greens without oversaturation,” she says. “Greens are fragile and have a water content of 95% which is higher than other vegetables. Leafy greens will wilt at just a 3%-5% water loss. So, it is crucial to provide optimal environmental conditions that slow down transpiration.”

David Bright, vice president of marketing for Grimmway Farms, in Bakersfield, CA, adds that vigilance is an important part of greens in the supply chain.

“As temperatures become cold, proper temperature control for leafy greens items is a priority to protect the product from chill damage, as well as vigilantly maintaining storage away from ethylene emitting products,” he says.

Of course, a change in the labor market has hit produce departments across the U.S. and, in some cases, has driven retailers to reconsider how they are merchandising greens. At the same time, some consumers for reasons of convenience and fear of contamination, much of it generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, have shifted to packaged fresh greens.

“I think there has been some transition into the bagged greens for a certain demographic, but a large demographic still wants bulk greens, especially in the high volume seasons,” Nardelli says.

STRENGTH IN ORGANICS

When it comes to organics, the season has been solid.

“Supply of organic greens was good through Thanksgiving and the lead up to the Christmas and New Year’s holidays,” says Bright. Grimmway Farms includes an organic division, Cal-Organic Farms.

“While sales volume has dropped a bit over the last 52 weeks, retail spending on organic fresh produce was steady, showing shoppers’ commitment to organic items,” says Bright. “We anticipate that organic vegetable sales will grow in the future, as inflationary trends in the economy continue to moderate and wages grow.”

Bagged appeals to some organic customers, too.

“Cal-Organic Farms has seen interest in our line of bagged organic vegetables from customers with small organic fresh produce sections,” Bright says. “The flow wrap packaging clearly identifies the product as organic to ensure the item is properly priced at checkout and extends shelf life in coolers without a misting system. “

However, inflation has had an impact on consumer thinking as many incorporate both organic and conventional in their shopping and will shift to lower priced product when under economic duress.

“The biggest concern with the organics has been the price points,” Nardelli says. “There hasn’t been as much of a premium on the organic items from the grower standpoint for the past few years.”

He says the company did some organics in collards and kales, but recent inflation and pricing, has created a little less demand on greens. “People are really prioritizing their purse when they get to the store and getting what they really need.”

However, dedicated organics purchasers will pay higher prices. Bright says merchandising presentations need to keep in mind the importance of organics to many consumers, as well as the proper care for products on the shelves.

UPDATE YOUR CASE

No matter how greens are grown, consumers won’t respond to wilted products. Corrigan has developed systems that accommodate different store needs.

“Corrigan developed Préserve, a true dry fogging system that protects greens by creating a high humidity environment,” Stavrou says. “This technology extends product shelf life and prohibits transpiration leading to water-loss. The integrated TriOBreeze automatically sanitizes the system and the case to reduce pathogens and extend the life of perishables.”

Nardelli visits retailers and foodservice operators to see how they are handling greens and offers what assistance he can to help them address any handling issues. And he’s seeing an industrywide improvement. On the retail side, for example, stores have updated to modern merchandising equipment and practices.

“They’ve made some advances in the past 10 or 15 years in how they’re displaying the wet items and making sure the proper misters are going and keeping them fresh in the produce sections,” he said.

Stavrou says that Corrigan’s Préserve and UltraMist products permit flexible merchandising as needed in different displays and circumstances.

“The UltraMist has a shut-off option at each misting nozzle that easily slides on and off, allowing merchandisers to control moisture in every foot of the case,” she says. “The variety of perishable preservation offerings have allowed us to customize equipment based on case design and merchandising requirements effectively.”

STORE VARIATIONS

Greens merchandising is incredibly varied by store locations. For example, at the Cingari ShopRite in Norwalk, CT, fresh greens are the lynchpin of a large assortment of products. The company’s recently refurbished Norwalk store features signage that divides greens by potential use to help consumers make informed choices and prompt them on preparing the items as well. So, for instance, signage identifies juicing greens, which makes it easy for consumers who regularly purchase. It reminds them, too, that juicing is an option and something they probably want to do more. However, it doesn’t end there.

“It’s salad greens. It’s cooking greens,” says, Tom Cingari Jr., vice president, produce, floral, and e-commerce, Cingari Family Markets, and the distinctions make shopping greens easy.

In the end, keeping displays looking good consistently is the basis of any effective merchandising program.

“Having the correct perishable preservation system in place allows for a reduction in culling and rotating greens, which means they are handled less and will have a longer shelf life from store to table,” Stavrou says.

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The More Shoppers See, the More They’ll Buy

The more consumers see of leafy greens, there’s a greater chance they’ll incorporate the items into their meal planning.

Bill Nardelli Jr., vice president of sales at Nardelli Bros.-Lake View Farms, Cedarville, NJ, says greater availability has helped greens to gain, as has a deeper interest in food, which includes nutrition, but also where edibles originate.

“Consumers have taken a real interest in getting to know about these items, getting to know the growers in their area, what they have,” Nardelli says. “They have been more experimental in what they’ve been cooking.”

Nardelli says consumers, especially the younger set, are more willing to try new things, and that includes items across the wet rack.

“The younger people will try different items, different dishes at home, and some restaurants help with that as well, implementing some of these items in their dishes. That’s helped to bring a new consumer in to try the items and give them a shot,” he says.

Greater availability has been a factor that food retailers can leverage.

“The industry’s success to shift production throughout the year, generally without issue, has made year-round supply of leafy greens an expectation of retailers and their shoppers,”David Bright, vice president of marketing for Grimmway Farms, in Bakersfield, CA, says.

“Consumers today expect their kale spinach salad topped with fresh strawberries, blueberries and toasted almonds just as much as in January as they do in June. This is great for demand and the overall health of the nation, as well as a testament to the bold efforts of the fresh produce industry to build robust supply chains that enable this year-round demand.”