Unified Grocers Show, June 20- 21, 2012, Long Beach, CA, Long Beach Convention Center

Record show, will follow up on number attended. Our cherries were tied into a huge produce department. The department was at the entrance of the show. There were a few commissions that attended including California Avocado Commission, California Strawberry Commission(Jan Garrett who previously worked for the Northwest Cherry Growers) and and Northwest Pears. We displayed two of our banners, displayed point of sale, profit piece, 5-state map, point of sale order sheet, and Northwest Cherry nutritional flyers.

Talked to the following retailers at the show:

Gelsons 18 store Upscale Chain Southern California, Mark Carroll, Produce Director, will be breaking a Cherry Contest next week, started carrying Rainier Cherries from Washington, but still carrying red cherries from California, the buyer thinks the brix are not there yet from Washington. We had some some samples from Borton Fruit, personally taste was just ok. 10 1/2 row. I met with Mark back in May.

Cardenas: 30 Store HIspanic Retailer , Southern California, Inland empire, plus stores in Nevada. Jose Garcia, Buyer, I had not met with him this season. They will be breaking a Northwest Cherry Ad next week. I let him know I have him set up for the ad program. I sent him ad intent but he requested more funding as they charge high dollars for ad, we will look at "other" program. He mentioned they were currently running a .99lb California Cherry ad.

During the convention several of the Hispanic retailers mentioned running hot California Cherry Ads with huge movement. Northgate Markets, Rio Ranch Markets from Southern California and La Bonita from Las Vegas and others.

Northgate Markets 34 store Hispanic Chain, Anaheim, CA. Lisa, the buyer came by and mentioned they would be breaking their contest next week for their stores.

Superior Grocers: 38 Stores, Santa Fe Springs, CA, Leading Hispanic Chain in So. Cal stopped by the booth mentioned they are starting to promote Northwest Cherries

Jons Marketplace 15 stores, Vernon, CA, David Merjimekyan, Produce Director and George Akopian, buyer, came by our booth. They are signed up for ad intent program, plus will run an August sales contest.

KV Mart 25 stores, Carson, CA, Don Stalcup, Produce Director came by our booth, since the show I have sent him an ad intent form. They are definitely in to low price produce for promotion.

Pros Ranch, Ontario, CA, another 11 store Hispanic Chain, James Galindo, Produce Director, stores are in Arizona and New Mexico, great stores, James said they had been running hot California Cherry ads and will start up with Northwest next week. since the show I have sent James an ad intent form for the program.

Vallarta, 38 stores, Latino Chain, Bob Rapp, Produce Director, came by booth, Vallarta already signed up for the ad program.

Other retailers included Stumps, from Rancho Santa Fe, Hammer & Wikan, from Persbuery Alaska, Ben Lomond, Market, Super A stores, Commerce, CA,

Super King(Latino So. Cal Chain) Harry Cherkesyan, Senior Buyer mentioned selling cherries EDLP of $1.29lb.

Unified Grocers, Portland, OR office, Scott Neuberger, Produce Merchandiser requested at the end of the show if they could use our display banners at some of their top stores. His thought would be to move the banner around each week to some of their top store in Oregon. I let him know we have great point of sale signs, posters etc, he knew that already and said they ordered pos already. Personally I think the expo banners should be for the show, as they are fixtures are probably very expensive and they could get damaged at store level. Plus we have great pos.

In-store radio: Unified has over 250 stores on our in-store radio program. I let the participating stores know they are part of the program which starts on 6/28. Jim Winter, Produce Director for the Unified division mentioned Mike Monahan, the account executive had told him about the program. Also Mike came by the booth and was very happy we were signed up for the program and that I was telling retailers about the tags.

I also spent some time discussing the Northwest Cherry season with the following Produce Personnel with Unified Grocers:
Northern California: Jim Winter, Director
Seattle: Omar De Los Santos, Sales Specialist
Los Angeles: Ester Hernandez, Account Executive, Lisa Garcia, Senior Produce Buyer
Portland: Doug Brady, Sales Manager, Scott Neuberger, Merchandiser, Dave Swartz Produce Director