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…

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…

Dave Dunkak on accountability, communication and priorities as a manager

We've got an extra-special guest on this week's episode of The Produce Retail Podcast — longtime sales director and manager Dave Dunkak, who also happens to be the dad of host Ashley Nickle! Dave is in a different industry, but he has extensive experience navigating some of the key challenges that …

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…

Getting your team to buy in — Wendy McManus on the power of finding the purpose in your work — State of the Produce Manager Series

Do you ever get frustrated because it seems like certain team members just don't care about the work as much as you do? If you're trying to move people from the "just a job" mentality to a place of pride and ownership, give this conversation a listen. Our guest is Wendy McManus, leadership coach an…

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…

Merchandiser/broker/consultant Scott Horner on labor and customer service — State of the Produce Manager Series

We're delighted to have as our guest on this episode Scott Horner, owner of EMP, Everything Matters Produce. Scotty has a long history in produce retail, starting with about 20 years as a produce manager for Ahold, Shaw’s, Big Y, and Tri Town Foods. Since then he’s been a merchandiser, supervisor, …

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 …

Produce manager and buyer Donovan Jackson of Seed to Table

We're delighted to welcome as our guest on this episode Donovan Jackson, manager and buyer for Seed to Table, an independent grocery store in Naples, Fla. Check out Donovan's LinkedIn for a glimpse at the top-notch merchandising that characterizes this unique store. In his conversation with The Pro…

Harps VP of produce operations Mike Roberts on supporting produce managers — State of the Produce Manager Series

We're delighted to have Mike Roberts, vice president of produce operations at Harps Food Stores, as our guest on this episode of The Produce Retail Podcast. Mike, a former produce manager himself and a longtime champion of professionals in that role, joins the show to discuss with The Produce Retai…