Farm Fresh Produce?
A local, nationally owned, supermarket chain recently completed extensive remodeling of the store I shop at. Of course they moved most items around which is a marketing ploy to get shoppers to scour the store to find the items they purchase.
Their ad campaign emphasizes the chain’s “new lower prices.” Of course, they are not lowering their prices out of the goodness of their hearts. A new supermarket chain with everyday low prices has entered the Phoenix market putting more pressure on a market trying to survive following the entrance of Walmart with their Neighborhood Stores and Supercenters.
How do you lower prices in a competitive market. One way is to eliminate services. A causality of the remodel was the full service meat counter where you could speak to a butcher or buy a steak or roast and have them grind it.
The other interesting change was a big, weathered-like old wood with fading paint sign above the produce area stating “Farm Fresh Produce.” My mother always considered supermarket fresh fruits and vegetables to be a vastly inferior to farm fresh produce. She should know since her father and several of her brothers were farmers.
I took this photo during my trip to Italy in December 2011. The farmer parked his van and set out his produce. The tomatoes are deep red and ripe. Greens are fresh and firm not wilted. The taste puts what supermarket’s call fresh produce to shame. This produce didn’t travel 100’s or 1000’s of miles and spent days or weeks in a refrigerated truck or warehouse.
If you have a farmer’s market in your area, visit it and compare the quality and taste to produce sold by supermarkets.