Naomi Sleeper
Vice President Continuous Improvement and Strategic Initiatives
Imperial Distributors
As the perimeter of the supermarket continues to be a critical destination for shoppers, the holiday season is an ideal time for cross-merchandising throughout the fresh departments. By merchandising holiday meal prep displays around the perimeter of the store, stores can guide shoppers through each dish of the Holiday meal with their holiday cooking essentials.
Meat Department: Ensure your meat department has all the essentials for dressing the juiciest turkey this season. To help shoppers make the most of their turkey pick-up, allocate space for key turkey preparation and serving products close to the meat department. Essentials include foil and metal roaster pans, basters, carving knives and boards, meat thermometers, timers, lacers, fat separators, brining bags, flavor injectors. Dress up the merchandising with decorative serving platters, gravy boats, and tableware.
Produce department: The produce department offers many opportunities to cross-merchandise and play on natural color to enhance the holiday spirit.
Pies: The holidays call for a variety of homemade pies. Equip shoppers with their pie-baking needs all together on endcaps with canned pumpkin and adjacent to popular pie fruits, like apples and cherries. Merchandising can openers, apple cutters and cherry pitters with these pie-filling staples will add convenience during shoppers’ busy holiday supermarket runs. In addition to dough and filling ingredients, include rolling pins, pie servers, and of course pie plates, to help shoppers build their customized pie-baking kits! Pie-themed aprons and dish towels can make warm domestics tie-ins to these displays, as well.
Vegetables: Vegetable side dishes are another favorite part of our Thanksgiving meal. From roasted or mashed potatoes and squash to grilled vegetables, a holiday themed display of vegetable gadget will inspire delicious holiday dishes. Peelers, mashers, graters and knives are a must in this department during the holidays.
Dairy department: Displaying baking necessities, like spatulas and measuring cups, with milk, butter and eggs, will help shoppers make sure they have everything they need to prepare holiday treats.
Bakery: For your customers that do not have time to bake, grocery store bakeries will be a destination for their holiday shopping. Take advantage of the opportunity with holiday-themed dessert plates servers and tins.
Dressing up the supermarket perimeter with holiday-essential general merchandise will bring color and convenience to shoppers’ holiday food-shopping experience and incremental sales for stores. Wishing everyone a bright holiday season!