Albertsons SW:

Keith Boxley, Cherry Buyer

Keith mentioned the California season is not going well. Prices range from $65-$80 and it just varies day to day on supply. Suppliers have maybe a couple pallets on a given day. He thinks there will not be any overlap. They ran a $5.99lb ad, but the retails are just too high. He did say the quality-taste has been good this year compared to other California years.

He has been one of the accounts that is not a huge fan of the gusset bags. He would rather show the product in the clear bags. The gusset sometimes hides the actual produce Plus he said you are never are able to use just one supplier, so if a customer has a bad experience with a specific bag of cherries with a company name, they may not try that brand next time.

They will run all the ads they can: at least 6 red cherry and at least 2 rainier ads. Everyone is starving for cherries: retailer, and customer. He was aware of the top cherry customer will purchase cherries every week.

He is not worried about cherry fatigue and he hopes there will be a 20 million box crop.

Several suppliers have been contacting him with the big crop news. His answer back to the suppliers is let me know when you start harvesting and he is aware that it will be early.

Keith said they will take advantage of Washington Apricots this season but will stay in California soft fruit for peach/nect/plus season

Keith mentioned there are no updates on the Safeway Merger