Consumers taking spinach recall in stride
Consumers taking spinach recall in stride
For the most part, supermarket customers appear to be taking the spinach recall in stride and are not altering their produce purchasing habits significantly. At least that is the view of a handful of retailers interviewed by The Produce News from different regions of the country, which mirrors many media reports across the nation.
"We do not believe this has caused our customers to leave the category," said Michael O'Brien, vice president of produce for Schnuck Markets Inc., a chain of more than 100 stores headquartered in St. Louis. "We've had a slight increase in sales in other bagged salad items, but not a big spike."
Mr. O'Brien said that there have been some questions from customers and intermittent request for refunds, which the store has honored. He said that most customers appear to be concerned, but not overly so. "It will take a little time, but we think most customers will come back even to spinach products pretty quickly."
Mr. O'Brien said that one might have guessed that consumers would completely abandon the bagged salad category but that has not been the case. On Wednesday, Sept. 20, he said that the chain's supplier of those products was reformulating its spring mixes to exclude spinach, and those re-mixed products "should be back on the shelves within a couple of days."
The Schnuck's executive said that the new mixes will be labeled with a sticker that lets consumers know that no spinach is in the pack.
Jerry Hull, senior produce buyer for Sam's Club in Bentonville, AR, agreed that "customers are being cautious but they are not overreacting." He said that sales of other bagged lettuce items appear to be on target, with a few items registering sales gains but most remaining fairly steady. "We've seen a slight bump in [sales of] Romaine hearts, but the other salad mixes have not been impacted," he said Tuesday, Sept. 19, speaking of weekend sales.
Contacted again the following day, Mr. Hull said that sales patterns seemed to be holding steady as the spinach issue moved into its second week. Like other retailers, Sam's Club was waiting for the reformulated spring mixes to arrive at its distribution centers and were expecting the shelves in its stores to start carrying the product by Friday, Sept. 22. Mr. Hull agreed that it was anybody's guess as to how consumers will respond to the "new" products. "Of course, the initial order was large as we have to restock the shelves. But after that, we are cutting back to 50-75 percent of normal, and we will have to watch it very closely and react quickly to what the customer does."
As far as returning spinach products to Sam's Club's produce departments, Mr. Hull said that the company is taking a wait-and-see approach. "We want the [Food & Drug Administration] to finish its investigation. Our main concern is our customer and we will not put a product back on the shelf until we are sure that our customers can have complete confidence in it."
A West Coast retail produce executive who asked not to be identified because of corporate policy regarding being quoted, said that he had been seeing the same type of consumer reaction that Schnuck's and Sam's Clubs have seen. "I have not seen scan data yet," he said Tuesday, Sept. 19, "but the orders from the stores are normal. We are seeing a little increase [in other bagged salad items], but not very much."
He said that without a full analysis of sales records, which would have to be done in hindsight, he is not sure what consumers are buying instead of spinach products. "Our bulk sales [of lettuce items] haven't been impacted at all, and [there had been] very little impact in the fresh-cut category. [Consumers] must be substituting something, but I'm not sure what."
Newspapers across the country were also surveying supermarket shoppers to ask for their reactions to the spinach situation. Of course, the reactions from individual shoppers varied widely, but reading many stories on the issue revealed that, again, most shoppers seemed to be putting the issue in its proper perspective. One wire story that appeared in many different publications quoted a Safeway shopper in San Francisco as stating that she had to settle for bags of Iceberg lettuce and Caesar salad instead of her normal salad mix, which contained spinach.
The same story quoted Marina Zecevic of West Los Angeles, shopping at a Trader Joe's, as saying that she served creamed spinach to her kids the day the story broke. "My sons started accusing me of premeditated murder," she joked.
Ms. Zecevic believes that the contamination issue is overblown. "The minute we get the all clear, the spinach is back on the table," she was quoted as saying.
On an Internet blog devoted to the subject in the San Francisco Bay area, many people seemed to be making light of the situation. Adisa Banjoko of San Jose wrote, "My family loves garlic and spinach. We had it with almost everything. Now we don't know what to eat. The beef has mad cow, the fish has mercury, now the veggies are gonna kill ya. It makes a McNugget sound real tempting."
Myrna Lim of San Francisco wrote, "I enjoy a spinach salad now and then. My family, on the other hand, doesn't care much for it. Now if we were talking about chocolate, it would be a different story."
A reaction that typified what retailers have been hearing was offered by blogger Emily Onglatco of Berkeley, CA. "I celebrated a family gathering at a Mediterranean restaurant recently and it's just not the same without the spanakopita. Just like the mad cow and bird flu scares, hopefully this situation will pass soon. I am taking precautions like everyone else and am abstaining from spinach until the coast has cleared."
But at a Stop & Shop supermarket in Meriden, CT, Michelle Bookey told a reporter that she is worried about the contamination reports. "I don't even want to buy lettuce."
All the retailers questioned for this story indicated that Ms. Bookey's reaction is not typical. In fact, the retailers said that the number of returns is lower than they had anticipated.
One retailer said that most shippers have indicated that they will work with retailers to make sure they make good on any returns, but he said that retailers may have to share in some of the costs. "In some cases we pulled the product from the shelves voluntarily and the shipper involved has not been implicated," said a retailer who asked for anonymity. "If the shipper doesn't want to give us credit, they don't have to."
Of course, he also said that he expects most shippers to at least work with him on some type of credit arrangement.
Most retailers said that they were making good on refunds to consumers with few questions asked. "If they tell us they threw away a bag of spinach, we will refund it," said one northeastern retailer.
"We do not believe this has caused our customers to leave the category," said Michael O'Brien, vice president of produce for Schnuck Markets Inc., a chain of more than 100 stores headquartered in St. Louis. "We've had a slight increase in sales in other bagged salad items, but not a big spike."
Mr. O'Brien said that there have been some questions from customers and intermittent request for refunds, which the store has honored. He said that most customers appear to be concerned, but not overly so. "It will take a little time, but we think most customers will come back even to spinach products pretty quickly."
Mr. O'Brien said that one might have guessed that consumers would completely abandon the bagged salad category but that has not been the case. On Wednesday, Sept. 20, he said that the chain's supplier of those products was reformulating its spring mixes to exclude spinach, and those re-mixed products "should be back on the shelves within a couple of days."
The Schnuck's executive said that the new mixes will be labeled with a sticker that lets consumers know that no spinach is in the pack.
Jerry Hull, senior produce buyer for Sam's Club in Bentonville, AR, agreed that "customers are being cautious but they are not overreacting." He said that sales of other bagged lettuce items appear to be on target, with a few items registering sales gains but most remaining fairly steady. "We've seen a slight bump in [sales of] Romaine hearts, but the other salad mixes have not been impacted," he said Tuesday, Sept. 19, speaking of weekend sales.
Contacted again the following day, Mr. Hull said that sales patterns seemed to be holding steady as the spinach issue moved into its second week. Like other retailers, Sam's Club was waiting for the reformulated spring mixes to arrive at its distribution centers and were expecting the shelves in its stores to start carrying the product by Friday, Sept. 22. Mr. Hull agreed that it was anybody's guess as to how consumers will respond to the "new" products. "Of course, the initial order was large as we have to restock the shelves. But after that, we are cutting back to 50-75 percent of normal, and we will have to watch it very closely and react quickly to what the customer does."
As far as returning spinach products to Sam's Club's produce departments, Mr. Hull said that the company is taking a wait-and-see approach. "We want the [Food & Drug Administration] to finish its investigation. Our main concern is our customer and we will not put a product back on the shelf until we are sure that our customers can have complete confidence in it."
A West Coast retail produce executive who asked not to be identified because of corporate policy regarding being quoted, said that he had been seeing the same type of consumer reaction that Schnuck's and Sam's Clubs have seen. "I have not seen scan data yet," he said Tuesday, Sept. 19, "but the orders from the stores are normal. We are seeing a little increase [in other bagged salad items], but not very much."
He said that without a full analysis of sales records, which would have to be done in hindsight, he is not sure what consumers are buying instead of spinach products. "Our bulk sales [of lettuce items] haven't been impacted at all, and [there had been] very little impact in the fresh-cut category. [Consumers] must be substituting something, but I'm not sure what."
Newspapers across the country were also surveying supermarket shoppers to ask for their reactions to the spinach situation. Of course, the reactions from individual shoppers varied widely, but reading many stories on the issue revealed that, again, most shoppers seemed to be putting the issue in its proper perspective. One wire story that appeared in many different publications quoted a Safeway shopper in San Francisco as stating that she had to settle for bags of Iceberg lettuce and Caesar salad instead of her normal salad mix, which contained spinach.
The same story quoted Marina Zecevic of West Los Angeles, shopping at a Trader Joe's, as saying that she served creamed spinach to her kids the day the story broke. "My sons started accusing me of premeditated murder," she joked.
Ms. Zecevic believes that the contamination issue is overblown. "The minute we get the all clear, the spinach is back on the table," she was quoted as saying.
On an Internet blog devoted to the subject in the San Francisco Bay area, many people seemed to be making light of the situation. Adisa Banjoko of San Jose wrote, "My family loves garlic and spinach. We had it with almost everything. Now we don't know what to eat. The beef has mad cow, the fish has mercury, now the veggies are gonna kill ya. It makes a McNugget sound real tempting."
Myrna Lim of San Francisco wrote, "I enjoy a spinach salad now and then. My family, on the other hand, doesn't care much for it. Now if we were talking about chocolate, it would be a different story."
A reaction that typified what retailers have been hearing was offered by blogger Emily Onglatco of Berkeley, CA. "I celebrated a family gathering at a Mediterranean restaurant recently and it's just not the same without the spanakopita. Just like the mad cow and bird flu scares, hopefully this situation will pass soon. I am taking precautions like everyone else and am abstaining from spinach until the coast has cleared."
But at a Stop & Shop supermarket in Meriden, CT, Michelle Bookey told a reporter that she is worried about the contamination reports. "I don't even want to buy lettuce."
All the retailers questioned for this story indicated that Ms. Bookey's reaction is not typical. In fact, the retailers said that the number of returns is lower than they had anticipated.
One retailer said that most shippers have indicated that they will work with retailers to make sure they make good on any returns, but he said that retailers may have to share in some of the costs. "In some cases we pulled the product from the shelves voluntarily and the shipper involved has not been implicated," said a retailer who asked for anonymity. "If the shipper doesn't want to give us credit, they don't have to."
Of course, he also said that he expects most shippers to at least work with him on some type of credit arrangement.
Most retailers said that they were making good on refunds to consumers with few questions asked. "If they tell us they threw away a bag of spinach, we will refund it," said one northeastern retailer.
