UGLY PRODUCE MAKES BUSINESS SENSE

If you could buy healthy, nutritious produce that looked a little different for 30 to 60% less than regular produce, would you be interested? Or if you were a grocer and you could raise sales and reduce food waste by selling different—some say ugly—produce, would you be interested? In other parts of the world, both consumers and grocers are saying yes to “ugly” produce, but US grocers have not appreciated the business case for selling ugly produce. In 2014, French supermarket Intermarche developed a highly popular and creative marketing campaign for these “inglorious” fruits and vegetables that raised store traffic 24%. Early on this year, Australian grocery giant Woolworths inaugurated a similar ugly produce campaign called the Odd Bunch. The campaign was a wild success, with 3.6 million kilos of produce sold at a discount, resulting in a 40% sales increase.

Source:  Foodtank, 4/14/15, Ugly Produce