The seasons have begun to change again. Here in Boston people have started to walk their dogs, lay by the river, and eat outdoors. In warmer weather people no longer crave the same comfort food that they did in the winter. With that in mind, store owners start to change out the winter squash and brussel sprouts and bring in strawberries and watermelon. There are grocery store classics with the change of each season, such as stringing up flags for fourth of July, and placing whipping cream and angel food cake next to the strawberries. And while these are classics for a reason, I wanted to give you a couple more ideas to help introduce your customers to healthy new trends!
Bowls, bowls, bowls! The latest food trend is to take a popular dish and switch it to bowl form: Acai Bowls, Poki Bowls, and deconstructed Spring Roll Bowls to name a few. I’m predicting that spring roll bowls will be a hot food trend this spring and summer. With health food popularity on the rise, this is an excellent and fun way to get all your veggies in. Similar to the angel food cake idea, make a spot in your produce section with cucumber, carrots, cabbage, and mint, place dried vermicelli noodles and peanut sauce on the side! Because this is a new trend make sure to place a recipe card with a pretty picture next to the veggies. You can even use this opportunity for a sale! You can do a sale when you buy 3 of the veggies for the spring roll bowls you get the peanut sauce half off! Or if you want them to walk around the store, give them a coupon for a discount on shrimp if they buy the peanut sauce and veggies. With the right Point of Sale system your coupon options for this are endless!
1 Thinly Sliced Cucumber
1 Thinly Sliced Carrot
½ Cup of Mint Leaves (chopped roughly)
¾ Cup of Red Cabbage Thinly Sliced
½ of Shrimp
1 Pound Vermicelli Noodles
Peanut Sauce (apply as dressing)
Another food trend you can incorporate into your store would be flavored water! You can flavor your water endless ways, from classic lemon water to kiwi, guava and passion fruit. If you have slow movers in your produce department, simply cut them up and throw them in water overnight. The next morning place the water dispenser in the produce section, with small sample cups next to it. Make sure the water dispenser is next to the produce that is in the water! If you want to step it up a notch, place a recipe card next to the water with the benefits of this flavored water, for instance, lemon aids digestion, cucumber is anti-inflammatory and used in weight control, and guava is good for lowering blood pressure! If you want to see how this affected your store sales, look at product movement and compare it to last weeks.
There are many ways to incorporate trends into your store. I hope this article got your wheels turning to help you think of new ways to add value to your customers!