Banco Fresco, retailer of the Prosol Compagnia di Gestione Srl Group, a supermarket specialising in fresh and ultra-fresh food, has opened its third Italian shop in Crema.
According to Alessandro Franceschini of myfruit.it, the first impression you might get is that you are inside a covered market, with a predominantly gourmet outlook. But this is not the case. Or rather, it is also, but not only. "We are not a boutique. Our aim is to be able to serve all customers," emphasises the general manager of Banco Fresco, Riccardo Coppa, " from those who are looking for tomatoes at 14 euros a kilo to those at 2 euros. Since we have an important offer there is a lot of choice. We don't have first prices, but entry-level products that must have a certain quality standard, otherwise we prefer not to have any product at all.
At the moment, for example, the offer of Moroccan fruit stands out. blueberries, of excellent size, both loose and in boxes, exclusively Moroccan, or two references of French strawberries, Portuguese and Argentinian pears and so on.
At berries Banco Fresco has made some bold choices in terms of both format and sales methods. The blueberries and raspberries are offered in a 1kg box, a particularly original choice for the raspberries, which are also available in the standard 125g package. Supplies come from the production countries (Morocco in this case) and the product does not appear to have passed through an Italian importer, apart from the redcurrants.
The 1kg cardboard box is covered with a polypropylene sheet: the product, of Moroccan origin, is fresh, of good size and taste.
The most unconventional choice, however, is to sell the blueberries in bulk. On the display, the fruit is arranged so that the consumer can take the desired amount with a paper cone and put it in a plastic bag, which he then weighs on a small vintage scale, which prints a receipt to show at the checkout.
From a product point of view, the blueberries are suffering from excessive handling and there are bruised, broken fruits. Maintaining blueberries to an acceptable standard certainly requires special care from the staff.
The prices for blueberries are Eur 14.80/kg for the loose bulk and Eur 11.80 for the 1 kg pack (prices recorded in the Turin shop on 26/04/2021 by theMyfruit.it Small Fruit Observatory)
Banco Fresco therefore offers an original range of products for both raspberries and blueberries at prices that are considered to be in the low to medium range for this time of year. However, there is no shortage of problems arising from the free handling of blueberries sold in bulk, which is not without its defects.
