Small Bites July 28, 2021

dedicated to creating opportunities to promote & sell more VT products
to more buyers
Grocery Sales Strategies

Creating an effective sales strategy provides the opportunity to match your store mission to your community through preferred products. Generally, this includes value & favorable pricing. Paying attention to "the numbers" helps stores successfully create a strategy where product turns & margin contribute to the overall goals for store margins. By understanding product sales velocity, it becomes easier to anticipate purchase amounts for items on sale, this in turn helps meet your pricing, promotion, & sales goals.
 
Each store & each department has pressure from direct or indirect competition; this can include a nearby store or an online market. By matching your store values & ethos you can create "everyday low prices" to foster a positive price image. An additional value is by creating a deliberate strategy that offers "truck load" specials tied to distributor incentives or through direct from vendor sale pricing.
 
Food coops have a history of building their customer allegiance on value & producer "story telling". Hunger Mountain Coop in Montpelier has a very deliberate & effective methodology for their sales. Their strategy is comprehensive & very purposeful. A few of their touch points for their promotions include the following recommendations which we are happy they shared with us:
 
Be conscious of prices when selecting items to feature outside the store & close to the entryways, first impressions are made there. Promote popular products that are preferably $5 & under.
 
Focus on excellent deals for endcaps, displays & case stacks near the front of the store. Keep the endcaps focused & with only a few complementary products.
 
Consider the dollar amount of the item. Regardless of how great a deal it is, products that cross the $9.99 mark encourage a high price perception, so focus on $9.99 & under for displays. 
 
Tell the story. If a product’s price is higher than similar items but has a great story behind it, tell it! Artisans, farmers & small-batch producers of all kinds have a story to tell about what goes into making their products. Often, when a shopper has context, they are more appreciative of the price. Local Vendor signs are great for this as well as blog posts. 
Product Highlights

For 30 years, VT Fresh Pasta has been cranking out handmade pasta. We celebrate this milestone with a shout out to their delightful raviolis available in food service & retail pack sizes.
 
As former restaurant owners, they strive (& succeed!) in making products that stand up to the rigors of food service & the convenience for meals prepared at home. If your deli or prepared meals program needs a monthly special to round out your promotions, think VT Fresh Pasta! Every month they create a seasonal ravioli flavor available in both pack sizes. This month it is Sweet Onion Chive Ricotta. They have historically purchased local ingredients both for their pasta & their signature complimentary sauces. Their local procurement support currently includes Kingdom Creamery cream, Crowley Cheese & Vermont Creamery chevre. The company is a long-standing member of the VT Specialty Food Association.
 
Distribution is available through locally owned Upper Valley Produce in White River Junction & through Performance Food Group's Black River Produce, owned by affiliated Blackstone Private Equity. The full line of products is available to stores & farm stands & farm CSA's. Contact them to round out your easy to prepare dinners with Vermont Fresh Pasta's 30 years of service to stores. 
Traditional bakers of Italian breads, La Panciata Bakery has recently launched new products & branding that
include wonderful cookies with easy to stock retail, stand-up packaging
designed by Rival Brands. For details on flavors & pricing view the product spec sheet. From humble beginnings selling at the Montpelier Farmers'
Market, their products are now widely available across Vermont via BOL shipping through BRP & Farm Connex. These cookies are perfect for farmstands, add-ons at CSA's
& of course retail stores. Some of the LaPanciata baked goods are available
in food service bulk packaging too.
Beverage Highlight

Local Sweet is a small VT beverage company focused on refreshing tropical flavors made with maple syrup & honey. The drinks are made in Williston, sold across northern VT via Pumpkin Village Foods & also available to stores dropped shipped through their website.  
 
If your store is tired of the same-old, same old bevies & your customers are interested in buying from VT owned business, contact Josh & fill the cooler at your store or farmstand. 
Full Belly Farm's farm store cooler is stocked with small-batch, local beverages. On hot summer days you too can sell cold VT drinks including Local Sweet & Venetian
Chilling out this week with Fairy Tale Farm Gelato. Recently rebranded packages help drive sales of their small-batch sheep milk gelato. It is rich & creamy but surprisingly low-fat compared to cow milk ice cream. It is also gluten free, lactose-intolerant-friendly & made with all-natural ingredients. They offer different flavors every week announced on their facebook page. 
Recently Vox had an article on food waste & the culture of change needed to address our nation's ongoing & systemic issue. It focused on issues surrounding "expiration", "best used by" & "sell by dates". The author lays out the lack of understanding by consumers & the underlying rationale for the terms being used.
 
All along the food supply-chain there are avenues to throw food away. 40 % of food is wasted in the USA. It happens in your store via over buying, lack of product rotation, over-buying on products on sale, & not catching short-dated products at receiving. Obviously, it happens at the home level too.
 
In 2020 Vermont passed, Act 148 Vermont's Food Rescue law which diverts food waste away from landfills. Along with the Good Samaritan Law for Donations of Food, we are able to place more food in the hands of those in need, & less in the waste stream. Store staff & distributors might benefit from both the article & better understanding our laws around charitable food donations. 
While on the subject of waste, did you see that Maine has a new law where companies pay for recycling?
 
"The recycling market is a commodities market and can be volatile. And, recycling has become extremely expensive for municipal governments. The idea behind the Maine (and Oregon laws) is that, with sufficient funding, more of what gets thrown away could be recycled instead of dumped in landfills or burned in incinerators.

Fossil fuel companies need to take responsibility not just tell people to drive electric cars or turn off the lights."
 
Thus, the law will remove the cost burden of recycling away from taxpayers & onto packaging. Seems like the way to go. 
Where's Sam Today?

There are so many variables affecting logistics of food delivery. One area of concern is in hiring key staff to appropriately carry the mission of the business, troubleshooting & being a rep for prospective products by knowing the store buyers & their customers. Driving their routes, every day is a bit different than the day before with unforeseen challenges.
 
When a driver is courteous, enthusiastic & detail oriented, it can really help at the store's loading dock. Judging from the picture above, you can conclude that Sam fits the bill as a full-service driver! Delivering for Pumpkin Village Foods, he has taken his detail-oriented skills gained from working on farms & applies them to accuracy & a pleasant disposition at delivery. Ask anyone on his route whether he is picking up food to bring back to the warehouse, or delivering to stores & farmstands, folks really look forward to his smile & his commitment to delivering even in these times of multiple disruption. BTW, we ran into Sam at Full Belly Farm ;-)
Across the country there are enormous logistics interruptions some of which are global such as shipping containers stuck in San Diego. They are stocked with equipment for manufacturing & cardboard used here in VT by food businesses.
 
Covid-19 Delta strain is hampering manufacturing & supply chain variables across the world & the ocean-spanning supply chain. Products & equipment for production are backing up one they are off loaded in US ports. Outbreaks in the developing countries are impacting our local producers through disruptions that are compounded. Diving into the variables of current supply chains, this WAPO article might be of interest to Small Bites readers.  
 
Delays in delivery for corrugated carboard are running up to 10 weeks. This ends up infringing on production & shipping dates which compounds further upheaval all the way through to a delivery driver like Sam. He may not have products available due to these conditions out of his control; he becomes “the messenger” of potentially bad news. That's where a positive disposition comes into play. Furthermore, product gaps or "shortages" can mess with a store's margin & even their most well-conceived sales strategy.
 
Another significant impact, closer to home, are the fires & the droughts in the west affecting crops, shipping & even availability of gasoline for shipping. Remember the freeze in Texas last winter? Well the gaps in resin production used in packaging continue to throw manufacturers & logistic teams in a tizzy. Of course, we have the climate concerns & chemical variables causing bee colony collapse disorder affecting pollination of produce crops around the globe. (Read the state of bees in VT in the Farm to Plate Bee Brief)
 
If it seems like things are wacky-not just in staffing- they are. As for the global supply chain impact across all sectors a bleak forecast lies ahead. “Freight forwarders are telling us to plan for this lasting for a really long time.” -WAPO
"It's time to lock your car, zucchini season is in full swing!"
- Wellsmere Farmstand
Summer Produce

Dang, it’s the end of July already & across Vermont stores & farmstands are featuring a full slate of amazing mid-season produce. Wholesale warehouses are jammed with 1 1/9th boxes & 10-pound flats of tomatoes!
 
This week a few highlights include:
Everbearing strawberries at Full Belly Farm (available into October!)
Blueberries galore at Liberty Hill Farm & Berries in Enosburg
Peaches at Pomykala Farm
Plums- red & green gauge on the way
Garlic drying in barns & greenhouses
 
Produce merchandising pointers:
 
Always stock your freshest, most vibrant produce. Do not wait for old product to sell before putting out the freshest. Your farmstand gains a reputation based on being "fresh".
 
Wipe field dirt off cukes & zukes (& other produce with field dirt) This enhances the customer experience for "fresh".
 
If you sell value-added & specialty products cross promote! An easy one to drive sales, fresh mozzarella with tomatoes or VT Fresh Pasta with seasonal grilling vegies.
 
Keep shopping baskets in more than one location, especially if you are a super busy market. Have bags handy for your corn sales & always double check that you have easy to read signage in place.
Arbor Farm Market in South Hero is lively with local produce, breads, specialty foods, gifts & more. By supporting local producers, they are enhancing the multiplier effect of keeping spend-dollars local with a broad selection of producers including Our Family Treats, Blue Heron Farm, Sandy Bottom Farm & Pomykala Farm, among many others!
 
Local producers deliver their goods in this high summer traffic area of the state. Boaters, campers & travelers are accessing products to enjoy while adventuring & getting turned on to Vermont products to take home. Shopping at the Arbor, they are for sure enjoying the Bounty of the Grand Isle County. 
Pomykala Farm crew juggles the corn, peach, & tomato & basil harvests. This basil will be delivered to The Skinny Pancake & turned into pesto!
Coming up in August, Farrell
Distributing is partnering with Snow Farm Winery for a give-back program to the Vermont Fresh Network. For all bottles of Marquette & Naked Mermaid sold, Farrell will donate $1 back to the network. This is for both retail & bars/restaurant sales (off premise & on premise.) Now's a good time to plan a display to support this valuable mutually beneficial promotion!
Since 1796, The Putney General Store has served & fostered strong community connections. They are currently working on reducing their climate impact & increasing purchases of food produced with regenerative practices.