Deep dive on category reviews with Associated Food Stores director of produce and floral Leigh Vaughn

We're delighted to have as our guest for this week's episode Leigh Vaughn, director of produce and floral for Associated Food Stores. In this conversation, Leigh takes us behind the scenes of category reviews, from the data his team examines in preparation for supplier meetings; to his recommended …

Sprouts Farmers Market produce directors Daniel Spivey and Reyna Graves

We're delighted to have as our guests this episode Daniel Spivey, national director of fruit for Sprouts Farmers Market, and Reyna Graves, national director of veg and floral. Daniel and Reyna discuss topics including seasonal fruit destinations that drove record sales this summer; switching to mor…

Longtime produce retail exec Scott Schuette discusses how to distribute decision-making between corporate and store level

We're delighted to welcome back to The Produce Retail Podcast longtime executive Scott Schuette. Over the last 35-plus years Scott has served in leadership roles with Fresh Thyme, Sprouts and Bashas. He’s been recognized as Produce Retailer of the Year and Specialty Food Retailer of the Year. He’s …

Associated Food Stores director of produce and floral Leigh Vaughn

We're delighted to welcome as our guest for this week's episode Leigh Vaughn, director of produce and floral for Associated Food Stores. Leigh has been with AFS for 16 years now and was with Lee’s Marketplace for 13 years before that. In this week's conversation, he and The Produce Retail Podcast h…

Former Walmart produce exec Dorn Wenninger talks indoor ag, data and more

We're delighted to welcome as our guest this week longtime produce executive Dorn Wenninger. His most recent role was senior vice president of produce for UNFI, and before that he was vice president of produce and floral for Walmart. Before he moved to the buy side of the business, he worked for re…

Director of produce and floral Lou Rotell of El Rio Grande Latin Market on the world's largest fruit display

We're delighted to welcome as our guest on this week's episode Lou Rotell, director of produce and floral for El Rio Grande Latin Market. The company recently set a new Guinness World Record for the largest fruit display, which featured avocados for Cinco de Mayo. Lou and The Produce Retail Podcast…

Claudia St. John on improving retention, reducing turnover, career pathing and more — State of the Produce Manager Series

We're delighted to have as our guest on this week's episode Claudia St. John, the founder and CEO of consulting, recruiting and training firm The Workplace Advisors. As regular listeners might recall, The Produce Retail Podcast host Ashley Nickle recently published the first-ever State of the Produ…

Veteran produce director Josh Padilla on forced distributions, merchandising and options, labor and more

We're delighted to have returning to the podcast as our guest today Josh Padilla, a veteran produce director who most recently led the produce team at Marketplace Bermuda. Josh has also led produce at Citarella in New York and at Gerrity’s in Pennsylvania. His career has also included Krasdale Food…

Dave Mitchell on career pathing — State of the Produce Manager Series

If you're a regular listener, you might recall we surveyed more than 200 produce managers a while back and recently released the first-ever State of the Produce Manager report based on the findings of that survey. One of our takeaways was on the importance of career pathing for produce managers. In…

Behind the scenes of the flourishing floral departments of Fortinos

We talk a lot on this podcast — advocate, quite frankly — about the amazing returns that come from investing in training and education for frontline professionals, particular produce managers. In this week's episode, we bring back Kevin Climie, senior director of produce and floral at Fortinos, to …