Category: Produce Blueprints

Clamshells led to other effects and efficiencies in packaging. The same goes for most UPC-coded produce items.

The adoption of clamshells resulted in selling more strawberries, many more. As well as other berries like raspberries and blueberries in clamshells.

Picture the so-called “berry patch” at your favorite retailer. It’s likely a cooler case of neat and tidy rows of shiny clear plastic clamshells.

Companies kicked around the idea of bagged salad for foodservice applications in the late 1970s, but it wasn’t until the 1980s that Salinas, CA-based Fresh Express, Inc. bought the first packaged salad to market with a shelf life long enough to allow for retail distribution on a small scale.

“Did the shipper provide product that would arrive at the contract destination without abnormal deterioration under normal transportation conditions as required by the warranty of suitable shipping condition promulgated under the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act?”

The prominent balance sheet leverage or debt ratio is the debt-to-equity ratio.

Liquidity ratios measure the short-term ability of a company to pay its maturing obligations and unexpected cash needs. Balance sheet liquidity ratios include the current ratio and quick ratio.

Four documents—the balance sheet, income statement (or profit and loss statement), cash flow statement, and statement of owner’s equity—make up what the financial world calls “financial statements.”

Many of the new produce and transportation businesses Blue Book lists have a limited number of personnel and often do not have a financial person on staff, such as a bookkeeper or controller.

Leveraging technology can provide grocers with a competitive advantage. For many retailers, however, the critical question is which technologies to implement if they’re to move forward successfully.