by Megan Minnick, Purchasing Director
I’d like to introduce you to an underappreciated class of super heroes—the Produce buying team at Willy Street Co-op.
We’ve been doing local produce so well for so long that it seems natural to find anything on our shelves that’s able to be grown locally in a given season and as fresh as you might find it at a farmer’s market. Unlike a farmer’s market, though, it’s also imperative that (just like any other grocery store) we always have a consistent array of fruits and veggies on hand, whether they are local or not.
Our local Produce selection may seem simple and expected from a customer’s view, but maintaining the consistent, fresh, local selection we’re so proud of is actually quite a complex undertaking—there’s a reason very few grocery stores do it!
In the height of the local season, we receive local produce deliveries seven days a week. Our Produce Buyers purchase more than 150 local items (plus about 150 non-local ones) from over 20 local farms and three regional distributors. Each of those farms has a unique order delivery schedule—for example we order Tipi Produce on Sundays for Tuesday delivery and Wednesdays for Friday delivery; Harmony Valley is ordered on Tuesdays for Thursday delivery and Thursdays for Saturday delivery, and so on. On top of that, for each produce item, we have specific farms we’ve agreed to purchase from, so buyers need to make sure they are anticipating with as much exactitude as possible what future customers will purchase, and buy just what our stores need from each farm in order to keep everything in stock, fresh, and to honor our supply contracts.
So how do they do it?
I started as a Produce Buyer at Willy Street Co-op nearly 20 years ago, and though the technology our Buyers use has changed considerably, the method has not. Here’s how it goes:
A Produce Buyer’s day starts at 6:00am. The first part of their shift is spent, clipboard in hand, counting all of the produce we have on hand—both in our backstock coolers and on the sales floor. As they are counting, they mentally add the produce that’s scheduled to be delivered that day to ultimately come up with an exact count of what we have on hand.
Then the real fun begins. After taking the physical count, Buyers head to the computer and meticulously look through the daily sales records of each individual item on hand, determining how much we will likely sell, and how much they will need to order from each vendor to make it through to the following delivery.
So if I’m buying organic cilantro—a product we have contracted Harmony Valley Farm to grow for us—and it’s a Thursday, my internal dialog might sound something like this: “I have 15 bunches (half a case) in my backstock, and another 15 bunches in my retail display, and four cases (120 bunches) coming in from Harmony Valley later today. So I have a total of five cases on hand. Based on the last few weeks of sales data, I expect to sell about eight or nine cases between now and next Thursday….. So I will order four cases to come in on Saturday and hope that gets me through to the following Thursday’s delivery. Oh wait — it’s going to be really hot this weekend and we’ll have tomatoes on sale. I bet people will be making salsa. I’ll get five cases.... Maybe I should order an extra case of limes as well….”
Now multiply that mental exercise by 150 items and 20 vendors with 20 different delivery schedules, and you might have an idea of why a Produce Buyer’s brain can sometimes feel a little fried at the end of the day!
Things really get interesting when the unexpected happens—a hailstorm that knocks out all of the cilantro that was supposed to come in tomorrow, or that pesky raccoon that raided our weekend’s supply of sweet corn the night before it was to be picked…. The Buyer has to take a deep breath, accept that the best-laid plans can go awry, and act quickly to determine the best course to keep the local offering on our shelf and not disappoint our customers.
Our buyers
There are six people at Willy Street Co-op who are primarily responsible for purchasing produce. I talked to four of them in preparation for writing this article: Sadie from Willy East, Cassidy from Willy West, and Emily and Brandy from Willy North. Between them, these four women have almost 30 years experience buying local produce. Here’s what they had to say about the joys and challenges of the job.
What's your favorite thing about being a Produce Buyer at Willy Street Co-op?
Sadie: Knowing that I'm part of a unique food system! I love that we have such a great relationship with local farms and are able to source so much of our produce locally.
Cassidy: My favorite thing about being a Produce Buyer at Willy Street Co-op is the relationships that I get to build with all of the farmers. This is something that is unique to us and allows me to have an even better understanding of where my food is coming from and all of the hard work and commitment that goes into it as well throughout each season.
Brandy: I love how being a Produce Buyer gives you the opportunity to connect with local farmers and be in tune with the seasonality of produce. I like having the "inside scoop" on availability of local and non-local produce. Providing quality produce to my community is very fulfilling.
Emily: I get to work with local farmers and can eat some of the best produce in the Midwest!
What's the most challenging thing about your job?
Sadie: The fact that everyone can see my mistakes, and there are also many things that look like mistakes that aren't my fault. And then similarly, when I do a good job it means that nobody notices anything is wrong (it’s business as usual), so you can't see the effort I put in to make sure everything is running smoothly. My excellence just looks normal!
Cassidy: As a Buyer you are juggling a lot of different things and different tunnels of communication at once (i.e.: with Managers, Produce staff, other store staff, farmers, sales reps, customers, etc). I also think that since we are at a desk most of the day, a lot of the hard work and brain power behind buying can go unnoticed sometimes.
Brandy: Supplies on various items can be limited at times, so when that happens, it can be a scramble to try to procure what we need in order to not run out. It is a big puzzle!
Emily: It's a balancing act of buying enough product from a local vendor so that we have enough, and ensuring that we have the space to stock and back-stock it.
What do you think sets Willy Street Co-op’s Produce department apart?
Sadie: We intentionally do things a little less efficiently (in a purchasing/buying sense) in order to work with so many local farms. I think this is an awesome, unique practice! And our staff is so highly skilled and knowledgeable—I learn something new every week from each of my co-workers.
Cassidy: When you go into a Willy Street Co-op store you can see how much we care about the Produce department and the efforts that we go to to support and highlight local farms. Our quality is top notch. We display things beautifully and in ways that best show off each individual item.
Brandy: Our commitment to buying local and the quality of our produce.
Emily: The amount of local products that we offer is so impressive! I also think that we have very high quality standards that differentiate us from other markets.