In Print » August 2011 » Features » Best Merchandising Ideas

Food dehydration is one of the most effective and nutritious ways of preserving food today. A renewed interest in home gardening, combined with a surging interest in buying local and eating healthier, has increased the demand for food dehydrators to dry fruits, vegetables and spices. With the downturn in the economy, more and more consumers are looking to stretch their food dollars. With a food dehydrator, your customers can stretch the summer's bounty to be enjoyed year-round.

DIY — Dehydrate It Yourself
Showcase the versatility of dehydrators in making healthy treats for the entire family. In your store, create signage that compares the cost of home-dehydrated fruit to dried fruit purchased in the store. The cost savings are tremendous, plus home dehydrated fruit is fresher and tastier.

Beef jerky is one of the most popular snacks — and it is driving demand for dehydrators. Show your customers how easily they can make great-tasting jerky at home for a fraction of the price using a dehydrator.

Show your gourmet cooks how they can easily create their own custom spices by drying herbs in a food dehydrator.

Display the Many Uses of a Food Dehydrator
What do gardeners, cooks, crafters, hikers, healthy eaters, pet owners and outdoor enthusiasts have in common? They all benefit from owning and using a food dehydrator.

Mix small jars of dried flowers, colorful peppers, vegetables or fruit chips next to your food dehydrators as visual suggestions of the multiple uses of the product. This makes an effective, colorful and aromatic presentation.

You've heard the idea of making lemonade when life hands you a bunch of lemons — well, keep the lemon rinds after you make the lemonade. Cut them into strips, dry them in the food dehydrator, and then chop them fine in a small food chopper, and you have a terrific lemon spice. For a powerful example of how much better this is, buy a jar of lemon spice at your local supermarket — then let your customers inhale the aroma of homemade vs. store-bought. The much fresher and more powerful aroma of your own spice will really impress them.

Peppers also make for a colorful and extremely aromatic demo. Show your customers how easy it is to dehydrate peppers and use them to spice up their cooking year-round. Other possible effective displays are fruit chips, fruit roll-ups, granola, jerky, vegetable powders and flakes, trail mix, bread crumbs, croutons and bagel chips — all products of food dehydration.

Max Out Your Dehydrator Sales Potential
Accessories are key to the full and continued use of this product: additional trays to increase dehydrating capacity, fruit roll sheets, mesh screens for herb and spice dehydrating, jerky spices and jerky guns for making your own jerky. A dehydration book or two are excellent to have in stock. Many retailers offering food dehydrators fail to capitalize on the accessories that bring customers back again and allow them to fully utilize their product. Accessories enhance the category's margin, as well. Most dehydrators are expandable by adding more trays. For example, one popular model sold with four trays is expandable to 12 trays. It's important to carry the additional trays for any dehydrator you stock to allow the consumer to dehydrate the most possible.

Jerky spices are another great sales producer. Combined with ground beef or mixed with water for a marinade for whole meat, they provide great-tasting jerky or a base for custom-created flavors.

Jerky guns are used to extrude the jerky strips onto the dehydrator trays for drying. Stock one that holds a pound of meat. Jerky made using whole meat like beef or venison can sometimes generate the sale of a food slicer, too. Whole meat jerky is made by slicing the meat into thin strips with a food slicer, marinating it with the marinade made from the jerky spices and drying it with the food dehydrator. In most cases, the cost is only one-third of store-bought jerky — with improved taste.

Promote All Uses of the Dehydrator
Dehydrators offer multiple year-round promotional opportunities. Using accessories to their fullest, you can build a growing, year-round, profitable business, while at the same time saving your customers money and improving their nutrition.

Earth Day
Promote the eco-friendly features, in addition to the money-saving features, of a food dehydrator. Preserve produce, nutrients — and the planet.

Harvest Season
Show displays of fruits, vegetables and spices with dehydrators featuring accessories such as fruit roll sheets, mesh screens and extra trays.

Hunting Season
Sponsor a jerky contest among your customers — you'll be surprised how passionate some consumers are about their gourmet, "secret-recipe" jerky ... and how good some of it is. Showcase your selection of jerky-making accessories such as jerky guns, jerky spices and extra trays.

Back To School
Show how much kid-appeal dehydrated fruits have by offering some in your store. Dehydration removes the water and, in the process, concentrates and intensifies the sweet flavor of fruit — it's like candy to kids, and so much more natural and healthful. For busy moms on the go, show them how easy it is to create organic fruit leather. It can be as simple as buying a jar of organic applesauce at the supermarket, pouring it on fruit roll sheets and dehydrating it, then layering on a favorite fruit or preserve to create one tasty fruit roll-up.