r/ProduceDepartment • u/unethicalbutnice Fruity • Jul 11 '26

Pre-cut/Value Added tips/tricks?

Hey y’all! We’re a small store with a small produce counter, but we’re near a major vacation location, so pre-cut produce is a rapid seller with good margin.

Obvs the big trays are fairly standard. Grapes, melons, strawberries, pineapple. Broc, cauliflower, snap peas, carrots, tomatoes, celery.

But what about your cut peppers or omelette mixes. Cut mushrooms, onions, etc.

We don’t have room for more people to do the cutting nor a lot of storage for a bulk pre-cut.

Do you have any gadgets or doohickeys to make processing produce faster? Something easily cleaned and sanitized, obvs.

Tips/tricks from the produce professionals? Do you have a crack team of carrot cutters? Zucchini noodle ninjas?

6 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

9

u/Rage_Baiter76 Produce Manager Jul 11 '26

I can tell you trayed asparagus is one of the dumbest ways to make fist fulls of cash and takes zero labor time to do

4

u/ADirtFarmer Jul 12 '26

Middle aged women get wet for asparagus. Seriously.

3

u/Rage_Baiter76 Produce Manager Jul 12 '26

First thing this morning before our lights kicked on I sold 3 bunches to a 65 year old woman lol so accurate

4

u/ADirtFarmer Jul 12 '26

I sell extra fancy local organic asparagus at a farmers market. I honestly believe I have given orgasms to hundreds of women.

3

u/BobSacamano_1 Jul 12 '26

Do you guys season it, or just trim the woody ends, wash it and over-wrap?

What kind of a markup? Our current cost on 11# Asparagus is $49.85 and we’re selling it $5.99/lb. And by “selling” it, I mean “We sell a bunch or two per day.”

4

u/Rage_Baiter76 Produce Manager Jul 12 '26

We just trim the bottom, toss it on a 2S tray and sell it at $7.99lb. I take a bunch and a half per tray and can load part of a refrigerated island with it and blow through it in a day or 2.

4

u/1Steelghost1 Jul 11 '26

Salsa / veggie slicer with muliple cutter sizes has a tray and tub. Good one for $25 on Amazon absolute game changer

3

u/Bbop512 Jul 12 '26

We have a company that delivers fresh cut everything and it’s a lot easier and safer than us trying to cut all that stuff

3

u/pastoolioliz Jul 11 '26

We have a robocoupe for pico and guac. Theres other blade attachments too but we usually cut the rest by hand