Robertson County Connection
SPRINGFIELD WEATHER
physicians-mutual-dental-insurance-banners

Steve Haley: The art of retail merchandising


One of my earliest recollections of shopping in Guthrie revolves around the short-lived produce stand owned by Mr. Joe Stahl. His stand was located beside the Wishy-Washy laundromat on the corner of Second Street and Ewing. 

When my dad moved us to Guthrie from Adams, we rented a two-bedroom cinder block house from Mr. Stahl. Our house was in the backyard and perpendicular to the Stahls’  house. The block house sat on Third Street with the Stahls’ home on Cherry street. Our home was two blocks from Ewing Street.

Steve Haley

We lived an easy walking distance from my dad’s work, the church we attended, and the stores in downtown Guthrie. My small hometown was bustling with foot traffic then. The retail merchants catered to our citizens’ basic needs.

On a sunny summer day, my mother headed to Mr. Stahl’s produce stand to pay the monthly rent. She carried my sister Denise on her hip as I followed behind kicking at rocks and listening to the songbirds. When we arrived I noticed a plank across the doorway.

 We had to step up and over the plank to enter. Once we were inside, it seemed like I sank up to my ankles in a soft wood-smelling substance my Mother called sawdust. Mr. Stahl explained to me that the plank was there to keep the sawdust in his store and prevent it from spilling out onto the sidewalk. The sawdust also allowed good Southern gentlemen a way to discard their tobacco juice without him having to clean up after them. Sawdust seemed like a sponge to me.

We stood in the middle of the one-room stand as Mr. Stahl and my mother talked. I was fascinated by his set-up for fruit and vegetables. The display tables were different from any others I had seen before. The tables we had at home, the coffee table, and the

 kitchen table had flat tops. The small grocery stores that we frequented, Mr. Muggins Riley’s and Bill Longhurst’s, had shelves arranged like a pyramid that went straight up in the air. Mr. Stahl’s produce tables had slanted tops allowing the fruit to roll forward as it was purchased. 

My mother told me this helped him with rotation. She said that as the produce sold, Mr. Stahl would put the fresher fruit in the back. This way of merchandising his fruit and vegetables was ingenious in my young mind. I wondered why people didn’t buy what was in the back if they knew it was fresher. Later in life, I would experience rotation and merchandising firsthand when I worked in grocery stores.

Mr. Stahl’s stand had a single bulb hanging from the ceiling to light the small room. Even with limited light the fruit and vegetables seemed to have a glint and glimmer to their colorful texture. The smell of fresh homegrown tomatoes, green beans, squash, and melons was wonderful. All the smells blended like the instruments in an orchestra performing a symphony. My favorite smell was the fresh cantaloupe. I hoped so much that we would buy one to carry home. 

To the left of the shop’s door was a gray produce scale hanging by a lightweight chain from one of the rafters. The scale was made up of two distinct parts. The top part had the features of a clock. The face had a zero at the top rather than 12. There was also a single red hand. The hand was fat like the hour hand on a clock. Below the clock was a scoop similar to what was used by the ladies at Mr. Bentley’s Dime Store candy counter. My mother said that some fruits and vegetables were sold by ‘the piece’ and others by their weight. So four apples could cost more than five apples depending on size and weight. As Arte Johnson would say years later on Rowan and Martin’s show Laugh-In, I found this “Verrrrry interrrrresting.” 

As we made our way home, I was left to ponder the curious slanting of shelves, the placement of the fruit and vegetables, and all the wonderful sights and smells. This was my first experience in retail merchandising that made sense. This ingenious way of merchandising made a lasting impression on me.

 As we slowly walked, I thought about how I wanted to own a produce stand someday.  

After college, I worked for Nabisco Brands. Nabisco was the top cookie and cracker manufacturer in the world. Some of the cracker products they sold were Ritz and Premium saltines. Their cookie line included Oreos, Chips Ahoy!, and Nilla Wafers. 

At company sales meetings, we would be shown the “latest, greatest cookie or cracker” that was entering the market. The sales managers told us where to merchandise these items on the shelves for optimum sales. They demonstrated which way to turn the package for maximum placement and the correct spot to put the price label. 

Then we were told, “If you can’t do this right, just bring in the company car keys. We have paid thousands of dollars to individuals with MBA degrees to determine the best way to merchandise this new product to maximize sales.”

I sat there as they lectured and pondered Mr. Stahl’s stand. They could have saved a TON of time and money if they had spent a week helping him sort and organize his fruit and vegetables. He could have taught them all they needed to know about merchandising in his produce stand on the corner of Ewing and Second Street in downtown Guthrie.

 Steve Haley spent his childhood in Guthrie, KY during the 1960s and 1970s. He loves to recount the stories of his extraordinary ordinary upbringing in a small Southern town with his many friends. If you have any comments or suggestions you can email him at Setsof4Haley@ATT.Net or call/text him at 615.483.2573.