Great meeting today with Butch Smathers.  We met for almost an hour and discussed many things in the produce department.  He is a big fan of Northwest cherries and believes in promoting them heavily when he can.  He has been a big supporter in the past and plans on doing so in 2017 even with the later start.  He looks at it as an opportunity to gain additional sales in August from Cherries that he did not have last year.  He currently has  California cherries in the stores at $7.99 lb.  He was very upset because he was cut Cherries and did not receive any for past 2 days.   He also directed me toward their newest store that has only been opened about 8 months.  WHAT A STORE!!  They definitely cater to the high end customers and not afraid to put the prices out there.  I would put this store up against any in the country.  This store had no corners.  Each corner either had curved refrigerated or frozen food cases.  If not that there would be a very fancy deli department with anything you could imagine, or a floral department.  In one corner was a wine cellar cove with a wine selection with everything with bottles of wine like Don Perrion that was $179 per bottle.   There was also a coffee shop up stairs, complete with wifi for customers.  They also provide a conference room upstairs that their customers can reserve AT NO CHARGE!!!!  It would probably hold 30-35 people comfortably.  Unbelievable store!!    We can expect big support from this high end store in 2017.