“Keeping It Fresh”

Town Crier with

Justin Tunstall

Retail consultant, shares with us his cheese selling experience

• “Sticky fingers”
• “Everyone’s a winner”
• “Myths and legends of Turophilia”
• “When ‘cheese’ is not cheese”
• “Don’t disrespect the Cheddar”

When we have a winning formula, we can be resistant to changing it. There’s an often quoted two year time period during which new businesses will succeed – or fail

Received wisdom says that if you are still trading after 24 months, then the enterprise probably ‘has legs’. At this point, with workable cashflow and reliable turnover from a solid customer base, it’s tempting to hunker down and just get on with running the business as efficiently as possible, crossing our fingers and hoping for organic growth. But that way, danger lies.

If you are a Rolling Stones fan, you’ll expect to hear your old favourites if you go to see them in concert. However, the most ardent follower will tire of hearing EXACTLY the same set night after night. Those fans will want an obscure oldie, a classic cover, a B-side or the dreaded ‘new material’ (a fag/beer break for some) in order to ring the changes and keep the experience fresh and exciting.

A good cheese counter should always carry a solid core of staples – your classic hits: perhaps regional specialities and continental ‘must-haves’ – and the majority of sales and profit come from those lines. Fine for visitors and occasional shoppers from some distance, but to continually engage your most loyal shoppers, you will undoubtedly need to inject some regular variety into the offering. A weekly shopper reliably started each visit to our shop with “What’s new?”. Sometimes I would deflect the question with the assertion that a particular (regular) cheese was particularly good at the moment, but his approach gave a necessary spur to innovate.

One of the big cheese wholesalers gives a sampling discount on three new lines each month, which encourages retailers to chance their arm on something they haven’t stocked before. Any new selection does pose risks: sampling may be a prerequisite for every sale, denting margin a little; it just may not be to your customers’ tastes, and wastage may ensue. But even if you do have wastage, consider looking at the exercise as an investment in your brand. New lines keep the proposition to customers fresh and always interesting.

I use a variety of ways to source new and interesting cheeses for the counter and my clients. Leafing through wholesalers’ price lists and catalogues can remind me of cheeses I haven’t tried for a year or two. But perhaps the best (and safest) way to introduce a guest cheese is to respond to a customer request. If someone asks you for a cheese that you wouldn’t normally stock, take their contact details and consider listing it as one of the next ‘cheeses of the month’. Giving a customer a call to say that their favourite is now ‘in’ is great for building customer rapport, and they’ll usually take a sizeable piece to get that that cheese’s sales underway. Sometimes it can pay to agree with them in advance to take 500g or so from a large cheese about which you are uncertain. Stocking new award-winners can be useful – as can monitoring what’s being talked about in magazines such as this. Setting up a ‘one-off’ direct supply from an interesting artisan producer can be great for both parties. Consider resting a line that you usually stock, just for a week or two. This can stimulate greater desire for that line from its fans and create a little space in the shelf.

Any effort put into refreshing the offering comes to naught if you and your staff don’t know the story behind the cheese. To sell a new item successfully, we have to be able to enthuse our customers with its provenance and, most importantly, where it fits into a cheese selection. We make sure that every new cheese is tasted by each staff member before they start selling it. We also discuss what accompaniments to suggest with it – having an up-selling suggestion ready can really add to the takings!

As much as a refreshed cheese list will engage and interest customers, there’s an even greater benefit for the team of cheesemongers. Having a new cheese about which to enthuse is the very reason I love selling cheese. Apparently Stones drummer Charlie Watts relishes the challenge of playing new and different songs, too, even though Satisfaction will always be a solid staple of their set.