inStorebuyer - March 2012 - (Page 42)

cheesecorner INNOVATIONS IN DELI CHEESE Strategic Sampling Promotions and demos provide great opportunities to add revenue. At the supermarket, shoppers arrive ready to spend money. An instore cheese sampling can produce sales, but there are some details that need attention. When putting on a sampling event at your store, put yourself in a position to make the most of it. most of time. “If someone is there and they eat something that’s salty and tasty, and it’s reasonably priced, there’s a good chance they’ll buy it,” Chertoff says. “Passive sampling can usually do quite a bit for sales.” Offsetting the cost of passive sampling events can take care of itself through vendor discounts. Usually when you’re buying something, you’re buying a lot to get the discount; that covers the cost of sampling out so much to the people who don’t end up buying. “If your vendor is lovely and nice, they’ll sometimes give you a sampling allowance, which you should ask for,” Chertoff says. Both large and small supermarkets can work with their vendor and arrange for them to have someone come in and do a demo at a popular shopping time. While there might be some cost, vendors will have an expert who can engage customers on the particular cheese(s) you’re sampling. These demos usually last two to three hours and keep from tying up staff. “Monday and Tuesday night, Thursday and Friday evenings and Saturday and Sunday afternoons are usually good,” Chertoff says. “A lot of times your vendors will have somebody that they can send.” Oftentimes, you can hire an outside demo company to come for not too much. If paying an outside company to do the demo falls within your budget, it offers the same advantages as having your vendor Sampling style options Specialty cheese shops have advantages over the grocery store that has a cheese case built into its operations. Specialty shops come equipped with cheese experts or cheesemongers on staff, counter space specifically designed for cutting and sampling cheeses and the ability to focus solely on the sale of cheese. But the supermarket does have options when working to sample cheeses. To make up for the disadvantages, supermarkets can hold passive samplings with minimal, if any, extra staff or outside equipment and furnishings. Simply putting out a bowl of cubed cheese samples with toothpicks next to a display of the product wrapped and ready for purchase is an excellent and easy way to grab customers’ attention. “The product will sell itself,” says Samantha Chertoff, long-time veteran of the artisan and gourmet cheese industry and sales representative for Fresca Italia Inc. in Brisbane, CA. Creatively arranged displays impress shoppers | 42 | inStorebuyer | March 2012 |

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of inStorebuyer - March 2012

inStorebuyer - March 2012
Editor's Note - Perking Up Profits
Table of Contents
Frontline News - Clabber Girl is DDA Vendor of Year
Frontline News - IDDBA Scholarship Deadline June 1
Frontline News - A Super Sculpture
Frontline News - Standard Market to Open in Chicago
Frontline News - Caravan Names Product Category Manager
Foodservice Retail - Pizza Done Right
Baking&Decorating - Cake Designs & License Agreements
Baking&Decorating - University Trademark Licensing
Bakery Development - Cakes Continue Sales Growth
Deli Development - Sandwiches Increase Deli Sales
Overcoming the Daily Grind
Kings Better Than Ever
Food Safety - Prepare for New Rules
Health&Nutrition - Reaching Out to Runners
Cheese Corner - Strategic Sampling
Product Trends
Product Showcase
Marketplace Network
Ad Index

inStorebuyer - March 2012