Why fresh vegetables aren’t on sale at supermarkets

Supermarket ad flyers feature what the industry calls loss-leaders, items a supermarket is marking down to draw you into the store so you’ll buy processed foods with higher mark-ups. Vegetables used to be among these loss-leaders but I’ve been noticing lately than they’re not popping up on sales as much as they once did.

The reason is that people apparently are finally getting the message that they should be eating more fresh veggies and fruits and so are buying more. This was driven home to me in a recent Supermarket News opinion piece that’s worth a read. While it’s aimed at stores, it makes the point, “The growth of fresh and perishable products has been steady and strong.”

Consultant Bill Crawford (who in the interest of full disclosure I should mention I’ve interviewed in the past when I was writing for a supermarket industry publication) goes on to note: “More Boomers, who have been the dominant demographic group to which food retail catered for years, are retiring and more Millennials, who demonstrate a penchant for fresh, non-processed food, are in the workforce and shopping for groceries.”

Sorry Millennials, you’ve been found out, be ready to see fewer specials on fruits and veggies, stores have to make money somewhere on what they sell.

John