12/14/05 Consumer trends, impacts on industry, Pt2

12/14/05 Consumer trends, impacts on industry, Pt2

If the Northwest fruit industry wants to build consumer demand for its product, it must realize that doing things the old fashion way in some aspects won't necessarily get it done. Steve Lutz is a former Washington Apple Commission President who currently works for the Perishables Group. And he says the industry really needs to push and perhaps reinvent its message of being a fresh product, given the changes of retail to box stores like Wal-Mart in one extreme, and organic and specialty stores on the other. Another consumer trend the industry must keep on top of these days is the need for convenience. LUTZ: Consumers are coming through and they want to grab it and head out the door. Average amount of time for a supermarket roughly twenty one minutes from the time the car hits the parking lot to the time the consumer goes in, comes back out.. Average time for a convenience store, four minutes. And it is not just the time convenience involved. The growing popularity of fruit in calm shell and plastic cases, and personal sizes, versus the traditional bags and boxes are directly tied to the changing demographics of households. And it is not just smaller households but households with more disposable income. They want to buy fruit, but not at the expense of spoilage. LUTZ: Now if you think about the likelihood of being able to sell a three, or a five, or a ten pound bag of apples, to a one person household, it probably borders on zero. If you look at a four pack of tomatoes, it's probably very good.
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