Know Your Produce and Optimize Your Offerings

Every grocer knows that no two types of produce come with the same refrigeration requirements or considerations. You may think you should stock everything you think people in the community want. However, that mistake can lead to a lot of wasted produce and cause people to seek other sources.

Instead, you need to separate your produce into their individual refrigeration needs. From there, you can see what you can easily keep and what may need special refrigeration considerations.

You'll do better by stocking more produce suitable for your current refrigeration setup. You can market the fact you keep a good selection of a few items, rather than many disparate items that you cannot keep properly refrigerated.

Find farmers close to you and create partnerships with them. Your community may want non-local produce. Until you can reasonably carry what the community wants, present local produce as a fresh alternative. In addition, local produce typically costs less to obtain, store, and display.

Improve Your Refrigeration System a Little at a Time

The better your refrigeration system, the more you can store, display, and offer to the community. For a small grocer, upgrading the refrigeration system isn't an easy or inexpensive task. Nevertheless, you can start making changes a little at a time.

For example, you can add in a smaller refrigerated display to handle a particular type of produce. This way, you don't have to spend a ton of money to carry something that requires a different temperature than your other, main line of produce.

If the produce you stock in a smaller refrigerated display eventually pays for the cost of that upgrade, then you can start adding more displays. Adding to your produce selection while also upgrading your refrigeration equipment will slowly transform your small grocery store and give it sustainability.

You can also start making upgrades to your fixtures and electrical systems a little at a time. Refrigeration systems are only as efficient as the utilities that power them.

Seek Help in the Form of Loans, Grants, and Support

As a local grocer, you're part of a large network dedicated to delivering nutrition to your community. Many government grants, loans, and other forms of support exist to foster the connection that your store has to its community.

Some nonprofits also help local grocers in various ways. Sometimes, this help can come in the form of grants or loans specifically for you to upgrade or add refrigeration systems for nutritional produce.

You will have to do some research to find out which programs you qualify for, but a good place to start is with the USDA website. If your store sits in an area with few health grocery stores, or a food desert, then you can seek out support specifically for those designations.

Move Slowly and Don't Overdo It

Produce is one of those things people will go out of their way to obtain from a local grocer rather than a larger store further away. Don't try to provide everything all at once. Overdoing it will stretch your resources, especially if you don't have refrigeration equipment that can handle many different items properly.

Build your offerings a little at a time, along with your refrigeration capabilities. At AM Refrigeration service, we offer new and used refrigeration equipment, including supermarket equipment. If you want to improve your produce options, contact us about the refrigeration equipment you can use to make it happen.