Ptacek's IGA Serves Up Summer with Annual Produce Sale

IGA Hometown Healthy Challenge Perspective

July 21 2010

IGA Retailers across the country are taking advantage of summer weather to do some fun and effective outdoor marketing. Today, Pat Ptacek of Ptacek's IGA shares how he brought his annual outdoor produce sale back to a very appreciative community.

Every year around this time we hold our big produce sale at our store. Usually we put up a big white tent in our store's parking lot, and showcase a huge selection of fruits and vegetables at blowout prices. When our produce manager hurt his back last year we tried to hold the event on a smaller scale inside our store, but sales and our customer response just weren't the same. There are a lot of people in our community who use this sale to stock up to begin freezing and canning, and they've come to expect a lot of variety. When customers began to tell us that they missed the event altogether because they didn't see the tent, or that they didn't find what they needed because the assortment was smaller, we knew that this year's sale would need to be a much bigger deal.

We began planning early to bring back both the tent and the variety, then we began advertising the sale's outstanding deals in our weekly circular and in my weekly e-mail blast to our customers. We held our two-day sale on July 15 - 16, and it was very successful-in all we brought in about $13,500 in produce sales, which is fantastic for our store.

We learned a valuable lesson last year, and now we know that we have a standard to live up to with this sale. It's an event that I'm sure we'll be doing—on this scale—for years to come.

Thanks,

Pat Ptacek
Store Manager
Ptacek's IGA
Prescott, WI
Serviced by: Affiliated Foods Midwest