One of our local supermarkets is trialling lots of new ways of increasing and displaying the fresh produce it has on offer (introduced to you recently in my How Advertising Works series). The most high tech of these is the misting unit which sprays water over the produce, thus helping to keep it cool and fresh.
Here you can see the herbs area which has delicious samphire on offer as well as the usual suspects. Another of these units is used for some salads and quite a few supplements such as beetroot and carrots. Another unit has the leafier salads displayed on a bed of ice.
Of course it's all wonderful for consumer choice and relative freshness of the produce. However, seeing this display and the resources it must take has made me more determined to make my own salad challenge work.
What do you think - is this something you'd like to see at your local supermarket?
One of my local farm shops introduced a simple misting system a couple of years ago, to keep leafy things fresh. Nothing on this scale though :)
ReplyDeleteWhen I came back to Oz after a number of years in the UK I ws amazed by how 'backward' our supermarkets were here. Since then though I have noticed how every person they interview as a supermarket spokesperson here has a curiously British accent and at the same time the supermarkets here are looking a lot more like those in Britain. Thus I see misters in our future. I don't want to ever have to buy something from one though! Urrrgggh.
ReplyDeleteHere in the US we have these in most supermarkets...I still choose to grow my own as the weather permits.
ReplyDeleteI think its a nationwide thing which Morrisons are rolling out.
ReplyDeleteA few weeks ago they updated the Chesterfield (in the first week they have to order in more produce 3 times) branch, which we discovered by pure luck.
Followed by my local Buxton branch just last Friday.
I love my veg and enjoy trying new varieties (the reason I started following this blog was all the unusual salad and microgreen posts), so its a joy having a wide selection on my door step.
Samphire was one of the first new items I tried, which tbh I'd built it up to being something amazing in my head so it didn't wow me as much as I was expecting.
This is an interesting way of displaying and marketing fresh produce but like you say, I can't help but wonder how much money has and is going into creating and maintaining these displays. The question I would ask would be: is the 'Return On Investment' high enough to warrant the expenditure? However, I have to say I think it would entice me to buy more fresh food!
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