In the grocery business, you’re only as good as your last product. That’s because shoppers judge grocers not just on their prices and promotion schemes, but also on the quality of the products they put on shelves. If too many red tomatoes are crushed or blemished apples go into that perfect basket of fruit, word gets around fast. It’s harder to maintain tight quality control in produce departments than in almost any other part of a grocery store. After all, shoppers see and handle every piece of fruit before choosing to buy it or leave it on the stalk.
And yet, there are still plenty of places where the produce is literally picked fresh from the vine — like The Garden Ridge store in Lewisville, Texas. This unique regional grocer opened its first store in 1987 and has since added 20 more outlets in cities such as Dallas and Fort Worth. All of them feature an extensive selection of high-quality fruits and vegetables grown right on site by