ABSTRACT

The retail store provides the test of a successful apple marketing program. It is only after the consumer buys apples, takes them home, consumes them, is satisfied, and returns for more, that the task begun many months earlier by the grower in a distant orchard is finally completed. It is at the retail level that the shopper faces a myriad of choices: to buy a fresh fruit or an alternative snack, to buy fresh apples or an alternative fresh fruit, or to buy one kind of fresh apple or another. Not all retailers are the same. Fresh apples are sold in conventional supermarkets, in giant discount warehouses, in specialty produce stores, and from wheelbarrows on city street corners. Alternative retailer outlets are continually evolving. Supermarkets continue to be the major interpreters of what consumers want in a fresh apple. They decide how many varieties will be stocked.