From Produce Problems to Retail Performance
When one of the nation’s largest produce retailers needed a better way to merchandise bananas, the goal went far beyond creating a more attractive display. The challenge was to develop a fixture that could improve capacity, speed up merchandising, protect the product and make day-to-day store operations easier.
Working in partnership with Stephen Gould, Tailgate Creative designed, engineered and manufactured a new produce fixture built around the realities of the retail floor.
Designed Around the Product
Bananas present a unique merchandising challenge. They’re high-volume, highly perishable and easily damaged, which means the fixture needs to do more than simply hold product.
Our solution combined a structural steel frame with custom-formed shelves designed specifically to cradle and protect the fruit while maximizing usable merchandising space. Mobility was also built into the design, allowing store teams to move and reposition the fixture more easily.
The result was a fixture that delivered approximately 30% more product capacity within an efficient retail footprint.
Making the Store Team’s Job Easier
Capacity was only part of the equation.
The fixture was designed to make stocking and replenishment faster and more intuitive for store teams. Early feedback from the field showed that stores were able to merchandise bananas in approximately half the time compared with the previous display.
That combination — more product, faster replenishment and better product protection — creates operational value well beyond the fixture itself.
One member of the retailer’s store team summed it up simply:
“Best thing we’ve gotten in years… so much easier and saves so much time.”
From Concept to Retail Floor
Projects like this are a great example of what happens when thoughtful design, engineering and retail experience come together.
Through our partnership with Stephen Gould, Tailgate Creative was able to take the fixture from concept and engineering through prototyping, testing and overseas manufacturing — balancing aesthetics, durability, cost, pack-out and real-world store functionality throughout the process.
The finished fixture wasn’t designed just to look better on the retail floor. It was designed to work better — for the product, the store team and the retailer.
That’s the kind of retail design we love: solving an operational problem through better design and turning a simple fixture into a measurable improvement at the store level.
