Small Bites October 20 2021
dedicated to creating opportunities to promote & sell more VT products to more buyers
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General Stores Matter
Governor Scott has proclaimed October as Independent Country Stores Month. "Our country stores are small businesses, which serve as the backbone of our communities & towns & have gone above & beyond during the pandemic to stay open & help provide essential goods and services. Whenever you get the chance, visit your local country store."
In the Summer of 2022, the renovated East Calais General Store will continue its long tradition of servicing its community. For the duration of the pandemic, the community came together to serve its population, even as fundraising & energy efficient renovations have been underway. Lacking a 'proper' building it provided meal services along with special events to folks on its porch.
Next up, they are seeking to fill the spot of store operator to run the store. The store closed in 2019 & is now entering its next phase of life. It is on a busy stretch of Route 14 considered the gateway to the NEK from Montpelier. Read the recent Hardwick Gazette article for more info.
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Is your farm, food manufacturing, or store in need of an HR support?
Human Resources (HR) is a department that requires legal compliance & contributes enormously to a businesses' culture. When HR genuinely cares for the employees & is not seen as adversarial, there is a higher level of staff performance & accountability leading to better overall company outcomes.
There are several key areas that fall under HR: recruitment, hiring, processing payroll, & disciplinary actions. Beyond those there is benefit analysis, properly maintaining employee records & reviews, updating & conveying changes to company policies.
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Quote of the Week
"We were super crazy busy for the 3 day weekend. Most customers adhered to our mask requirement (all customers, no exceptions for any reason). We keep an "incident report" for every interaction that is
threatening or adversarial. This documentation helps support our staff. It is
well worth the time & is minimal effort".
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Turkey Orders: No Time to Waste!
It's time to get your Vermont turkey sign-ups out to the public. Get the word out via email blasts, websites, social media outlets & captivating & engaging in-store signs. A few "early" tips:
Make sure all your staff knows the farms & your pre-order policies to answer customer questions, create a point person (if you can) that oversees the pre-order process
Create a home-page info sheet: focus on your key turkey attributes: VT fresh, cage free, hormone free, organic, whole turkey, turkey breast, etc
Clearly indicate the last day that customers can sign up & if a pre-payment deposit is needed
Be clear about range of sizes & do not guarantee a specific size
Encourage pre-orders for side dishes & be sure to talk to your local bakery about pie deliveries to match turkey pick up days
Vermont has several local turkey producers that sell direct to stores. If you need help finding a producer, reach out to us.
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Creating timely promotions & advertising pre-orders does too. Stores should start encouraging pre-orders pies & other baked goods now. It helps planning at our local bakeries. It is going to be a busy pre-order season as vaccinated family gatherings increase.
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Vermont dairies are squeezed on all fronts. Continued cost of production & changing market access have huge implications. The announcement by Danone to drop organic contract renewals was quickly followed by Stonyfield announcing that they would be accepting some of the NE organic milk. This will continue to be a developing story.
NOFA VT is working to promote organic dairies selling direct to stores. Are you buying DSD & keeping your purchasing dollars in state? Here is a list of organic dairies to explore. Non-organic single source small farms also sell direct to stores within distinct distribution ranges (DSD) & though not directly impacted by the Danone decision, the entire marketplace is impacted. Stocking store shelves with VT single source milk is a good thing.
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YES!! New Vermont Products
Wilcox Dairy, are long known as makers of premium ice cream from single-source milk from the Michaud Farm's Kingdom Creamery. For the fall & winter, they offer their legendary cinnamon with a graham cracker ripple & oatmeal crunch. Find all their holiday flavors including pumpkin & maple ice cream, the latter is sprinkled with VT Country Store gingersnap button cookies.
And for the non-dairy dessert case, Wilcox is rolling out a plant based frozen dessert made with a base of coconut & oat with the taste & feel so close to what people love about ice cream. The chocolate, vanilla & peanut butter pints are available for stores now with more flavors soon on the way as packaging arrives. The entire crew at Wilcox is thrilled with the outcome of this product line; it has all the wonderful mouthfeel of ice cream providing access to vegans & folks with other non-dairy dietary needs.
Sisters of Anarchy are also rolling out new products just in time for family celebrations & small gatherings. Their farm grown & frozen aronia, raspberries, blackberries & blueberries are now available in retail pack sizes. Shipping the frozen berries DSD to Healthy Living Market, they are ready to take on new stores. They now have the new berry retail pack, pint ice cream & soon the launch of 4oz single serve ice cream. Stores can think of these as add-ons to prepared food or holiday menus. Want to be a sister supporter? Join these stores. For the new products & shipping details Contact SoA directly.
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"What me want to know: What are the implications of supply-chain crisis for cookie?"
-Jason Adams Katzenstein
La Panciata has their rebranded cookies hitting new markets. They are
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Fantastic News from
Just Cut @CAE
Just Cut is minimally processed produce sold to stores, distributors & institutions. This past year has seen incredible growth. Recently they have been processing over 1000 pounds per day of fresh local produce! Sales increases in the past 20 months have included prepared foods departments in VT stores of all sizes. Congratulations to our growers, the Just Cut team, & store prep cooks. Want to save labor in your kitchen? Contact JC for product & shipping details.
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Consider Bardwell is Shipping Cheese Again!
Great news! At the 300 acre farm in West Pawlet that has housed a dairy since 1863 cheesemaker Angela Miller, is relaunching the line of Consider Bardwell (named after the original farmer-yes that was his name).
Long known as a premium goat & cow cheese producer their cheese has been sought by world class chefs, cheese shops across the country, & of course our local fan club. They are back with a cow-milk cheeses after a brief but challenging voluntary halt in production. Their Dorset has gone through rebranding with a new, smaller size "Dorset Minis" a perfect addition to your holiday cheese case. The cheese pairs well in promotions with Putney Mountain Winery Sparkling Cider & Tavernier Chocolate in Brattleboro.
Their cheese is available through Provisions International, the VT distributor specializing in cheese & specialty products.
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It has been a super busy October for delivery drivers. Key to getting in & out fast: store receivers |
Distribution: Delivery at Stores
We know. We have been living the distribution riddle for some time now. Food manufacturers having difficulty getting ingredients & supplies. Farmers waiting in line to drop product at stores while new staff get trained. There is upheaval & ripples due to lack of jobs filled & inadequate training. How do we all make this craziness work while keeping our good staff on board & be profitable?
It is now all the more critical to have a trained & attentive receiving staff. At smaller stores, that can mean all hands-on deck. At larger stores it is a dedicated position with high-level responsibilities. In any case it is one of the MOST important positions in the store & distribution warehouse. It can also be one of the lesser paid ones despite the critical role the position plays in obtaining overall margins.
There is a lot of potential loss at the loading dock. For the fun of it, take a look-see at this mash-up of roles & responsibilities of grocery store receivers. As remuneration goes, this is often under-valued both in terms of the level of responsibility tied to the bottom line & the 'lifestyle impact" of early morning arrival. Workers are often at the store well before opening to receive pallets of food, check in DSD vendors, & are responsible for quickly getting sales items to the floor for early stocking. Let's not forget to mention the range of temperatures, the heavy lifting & the credits to tally at each delivery or the extreme multi-tasking needed every day. There is also the accumulated weight lifted every day for some stores, that is over a ton of product moved box by box.
When a team approach is taken as it is often at smaller stores, it can be costly to the store due to lack of proper training & knowledge, inefficient transfer of food from the "backroom" to store shelves, mismanaged credit processes & lack of overall attention to the numerous tasks outlined in the mash-up above. The smaller store receives a fair amount of pressure from vendors who stock their own products (thinks chips & beverage deliveries). Stores may have receiving policies, but drivers are known to disregard them to expedite their stop. This adds stress to the store & compromises the process as well as margins.
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Specialty Food Producers
Are you shipping frozen products or are you a store looking for VT frozen products to round out your selection? Wilcox, specializing in the frozen category, might be able to help you. They offer freight services to stores & are hooked in with our food hub network to get products to stores across the state. Contact Wilcox to discuss your need & their fees & distribution options.
As with all distributors, route efficiency matters & several are beginning to retool their days as sales shift from summer products to winter ones. Be mindful of these seasonal changes from all your suppliers. Clearly indicate any changes to your receiving crew & customer service team. Want to better understand how food moves in the state? Catch this video of production & distribution through our food hub, Green Mountain Farm Direct.
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Thinking Holiday
Produce Sales?
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Produce Farmers Take Note
Pricing winter squash for retail sales: Many stores are stressed with gaps in staffing. To help generate sales determine your costs of production & sell different varieties of winter squash to store buyers at the same cost. This might not always be recommended, but it can help both you & store staff equalize margins by unifying the cost to shoppers. Farmers may want to offer a case of mixed varieties to smaller stores. This helps offer abundance & diversity while reducing overbuying.
There are so many fantastic squash varieties coming from farms across the state- but store produce staff or cashiers are not fully trained in the nuances of sweet dumpling, acorn or the cultivars from the Kabocha family. An understaffed produce department or untrained cashiers can mean lost margins due to lack of product identification. Shoppers may also be more likely to try a new variety if the prices are all equalized helping farmers gain more product visibility. The store will have more register-transaction accuracy. For staff training, here is a quick squash guide.
USDA announces new insurance policies for farmers producing for the local food market. Find details here.
For farmstands that are closing up, be sure to properly clean & organize baskets, bins & signs for a good start next year. You never know what might happen with staffing by then. It is also useful to remind yourself to conduct a self-evaluation of your farm store with the NOFA farmstand audit. Doing a self-critique at the end of the season helps prepare for next year.
Time is running out to sign up for the VAAFM Produce Safety Supply kit ; it includes a bucket, brush, squeegee, & a custom number of crates &/or attached lid containers based on their request & supply. Vermont farms that grow, harvest, pack, or hold fruits, vegetables, mushrooms, herbs, or nuts, should apply at the Vermont Produce Portal.
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Dog River Farm in the Montpelier area has extra pumpkins in case you need some! Contact them for amounts, prices & shipping details.
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Fun With Anson: Cider Donuts
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Good Heart Farm in Worcester, VT is loving the October morning light. It is a reflective & contemplative time as seasons shift.
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Expand exposure of your product at the Made in Vermont Marketplace 2021 November 19-21 in Burlington. As an exhibitor showcase to an estimated 4,000 attendees including store buyers looking for products across all categories.
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Support local farmers & research by joining the VVBGA; its not just for veg & berry growers. As members food manufactures, stores & distributors will support the full spectrum of training & research to strengthen our farmers.
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Because y'all wondered who this beauty is- her name is Princess Buttercup & she resides at Kiss the Cow Farm in Barnard!
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Through support from a USDA grant, content is created for farmers,
food manufacturers, distributors, grocers, & anyone else interested in how food moves
Contact: Annie H Harlow
smallbites802@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, photo credits are from company social media, websites or Annie Harlow
Sweet Dumpling Squash courtesy of Deep Root Grower Coop
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