So this strategy worked to reach whoever was making the purchasing decisions. Now, with the grocery store promotions, we had the opportunity to point a focus to our inshell peanuts. Moving a greater volume of inshells seemed like a good idea since most of the inshell peanuts sold are the Virginia type variety and that's what we grow. Before the first inshell promotion was held the greatest volume sales occurred in the fall and holiday season, so we chose the month of January to be our grocery store promotion focus. Today we continue the January promotion and sales of inshells are equivalent to or exceed the fall and holiday sales.
Peanuts are an impulse item.
Capture the shoppers' attention and they buy. Virginia type peanuts have sturdy shells that withstand handling and processing giving our peanuts an advantage in the inshell market, a market niche that we should capitalize on, and perhaps best of all, when you sell an inshell peanut there are no mediums, splits, etc. left over to worry about marketing. In addition to the above reasons to promote inshells is the support this provides to the five major inshell processors who process in the V-C area. Although VCPP still successfully promotes with recipes to newspapers and magazines and the Web site, we need to do more. We assist businesses and potential businesses with solving problems related to the sale and marketing of peanuts.