Serge, Fruits & Vegetable Manager

Serge is one of the advisors of the fruits and vegetables department at our Auchan Differdange store.

Every day, he offers his clients fresh and high-quality produce!

• Serge, what is your job as a fruits and vegetables department advisor?

  I always say that my job goes from seed to plate! To me, being part of the Auchan team is about staying in touch with my providers all the time, while closely listening to my customers’ needs.

  We challenge ourselves every day to offer the freshest and highest-quality fruits and vegetables. We get deliveries 2 to 3 times a day, from 4 am to 4 pm – whenever you come and shop for your groceries, you will find the best produce on our stalls!

• Does the quality also depend on the providers – market gardeners and arboriculturist – you choose?

  It is of course crucial, we choose them very carefully. No fruit or vegetable can be sold in our store if we do not know where it comes from!

  For example, we visit all our providers to make sure that they do not use any of the pesticides that we completely forbid.

  At Auchan, the health charter is more demanding than most of the European standards!

• Does this special quality care also make you give organic produce more space?

  20% of the fruit and vegetables we sell now are organic! It is a lot and it is important for us, because the more organic produce we eat, the better impact we have on our environment. That is why we try and make the price difference – there unfortunately still is one – between organic and non-organic food as little as possible…

• Is the value for money a daily fight to offer as tasty fruit and vegetables as possible?

  It is not a fight; it is a commitment we share together with our partners. We believe in the same values: respect, offering products at the right price. Every day of the year, we offer 12 fruits and vegetables for less than 1 euro per kilo.

• Does choosing local provider help you to get and offer lower prices?

  Working with local farmers does help us keep our prices low, but our first goal is to be as environment-friendly as possible. We are very committed to shed the light on local market gardeners! Local farmers produce a lot of potatoes; these potatoes are of course on our stalls! The same goes for salads: our farmer is 12 kilometers away from the store. A salad harvested at 4 pm is on the next day at 8 am on our stall. Just imagine how much nutriments it has! Our customers’ health is an incredibly important issue for us…

• Well, how important are your customers?

  Every decision we make, everything we do is done with keeping them I mind. Our customers need to feel helped, advised… Just like at the farmer’s market! If a customer needs a product but we do not have it in-store, we will do everything to find it in a few hours.

• How do they like these small gestures?

  We often feel like we are from the same family: a lot of customers recognise us, call us by our name! They talk to us very naturally: “What do you have in store? What should I buy today?” And of course, no question remains unanswered! If only you knew how many recipes and cooking times I wrote on ticket receipts… And how many are probably attached to fridges with a magnet! At Auchan, we take care of you everyday.