(Moderators feel free to move) I’m both confused and irritated! Recently I went to my local Schnucks looking for apple butter–it’s in season–didn’t think there’ll be any problem since apple cider is prominently displayed. Went to peanut butter section to find but couldn’t find so went to clerk for help; turns out apple butter was on bottom shelf in corner, almost invisible to find walking past. I know there’s pay-to-place by brands ‘incentivizing’ stores to place brand at most-visible location, but why would you place a seasonal item in an almost non-accessible location? Since I couldn’t see it standing up but have to get down on your knees to see–which is problematic for older or physically limited shoppers–why stock an item where people can’t find it to purchase? Any answers dopers?
There is finite space in a store. They place products based on their own voodoo (which is largely about who pays them more).
Apple-butter is not a big thing and they don’t have money to put their product at eye level. There is always a winner and loser for those spots.
Honestly, I’d be glad my store carries such fringe products (even if only on a bottom shelf in some remote corner of the store).
Disclosure: I spent the first ten years of my career working at manufacturers which made and distributed products sold in grocery stores (first at a personal-care products company, then at a breakfast-food company).
Agreed with all of the above. Shelf placement in most major grocery stores, such as the OP’s Schnucks, is driven by “placement fees” paid by manufacturers, and eye-level placement is extremely expensive.
Tens of thousands of new items for grocery stores are introduced every year, and the fight for shelf space is absolutely ruthless (and high stakes). If an SKU doesn’t sell well, it gets bumped.
Any new item that gets put on the shelf is replacing some other item. I’d have to guess that whatever the apple-butter maker is paying, it was just barely enough to get it on the shelf at all.
If it’s only stocked seasonally, I’m honestly surprised that it’s on a regular shelf at all – a lot of that kind of item tends to get put on an endcap display, or a free-standing display outside of the regular aisles, until it sells out, and then it’s out of stock until next year.
Has the popularity of apple butter substantially declined? I remember it from when I was a kid, but not since then. Or is this popular only in certain regions of the country?
Grocery store worker chiming in. This time of year pretty much all of our dry display space is dedicated to Thanksgiving goods - canned vegetables and soups, cranberry sauce, stuffing, soft drinks, paper plates and utensils and towels, instant mashed potatoes, evaporated milk, and the like. Apple butter is a niche product and it wouldn’t make sense to display it prominently when those other products sell like crazy this time of year.
I never thought of Apple butter as seasonal. Just my thinking.
It’s year round here in the South.
But, yeah at the grocery it’s almost always on a bottom shelf. Always some generic brand. Do big brands even make it anymore?
Amazon has it. I’d hate to think what that box would be like if it broke open. What a mess.
If you have trouble bending to get it, ask and any employee will help you.
Oh, if the jar is dusty check the sell by date. If you couldn’t find it neither could the shelf facers that restock, and pull aged out items.
Some checking at a few online retailers indicates that Musselman’s and Smucker’s both still make it, though to what extent they’re in broad distribution is another question.
You’re right, that’s what I was expecting since that’s what they did with apple cider. Thanks for reply
I don’t even know what apple butter is. I may have heard of it before, but I’m not positive about that. I’ve certainly never used it or even noticed it in a store. Maybe it’s a regional thing, or maybe I’m just clueless.
You can make sandwiches with it or spread it on toast. It’s alright, but I don’t think I’ve ever sought it out. It feels like one of those old-timey preserved rocery products that people used to eat but not so much anymore, like potted meat or chipped beef or navy bean soup.
I’m still trying to figure out why a local supermarket puts jars of Hatch chilies in their “International” section instead of with all the other American condiments.
Dontcha know that New Mexico is a foreign country?
Sounds like a meal plan to me 
My mother used to make and can her own apple butter. She stopped when she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. I don’t think any of the rest of us missed it very much when it wasn’t around any more.
- You mostly use it for making dishes that would be considered “Mexican food”
- Chili peppers would be an odd fit in the condiments section, which is mostly made up of mayo, ketchup, mustard, and their derivatives
- The rest of the canned/jarred chiles and salsas are already in the Mexican section, so it makes sense to stock them with similar items (though this rule doesn’t always hold true - in my store, American hot sauce, Mexican hot sauce, and Asian hot sauce are in three different sections)
what, nobody eats navy bean soup anymore?
My church in my old town had “Apple Butter Day” where dozens of us would get together and prepare hundreds of jars according to a long-running recipe. We could also sell it commercially (bazaars and the like) because we had a commercial kitchen. It was delicious!
Products like this are often made locally, or regionally, and are more likely to be found in a specialty store. Mass-produced apple butter would be in the jam and jelly section.
My experience with apple butter is as a fund-raising food. Get local apple growers to donate enough bushels, prepare the ingredients, then cook outside during the Fall Fair (or whatever) in a BIG kettle that is stirred constantly.
Sell in mason jars to support the Rescue Squad (or other group).
I can’t remember ever seeing it in any grocery store (which, I guess kinda relates to the point made in the original post, doesn’t it?)
I know right?
So explain the presence of pepperoncini and jalapenos to me.