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We are well into the 4^th quarter! Vendors are prepping shipping for the holidays, distributors are receiving products featured for their 'holiday' sales, & stores are tweaking their buying to match merchandising capacity. And here we are approaching anticipated Thanksgiving sales by double-checking systems & ordering amounts. 

In this issue we touch on promotions along with tips to enhance an understanding of impacts to profitability across food related businesses which might be "code for the art & science of store sales". Creativity dovetailed with data helps generate end of the year profits. Read on for new products, store updates, distributor insights, resources, glossary terms & welcomed seasonal changes.

We recognize the hardship Mainers are experiencing & believe that we as a nation will finally address dismantling of our assault rifle gun culture.

Great News & News Worthy!

Part grocer, part health center, part social service agency

A 'social grocery' is responsive to the needs of the community it serves. When Vista Mart announced it would be closing its Richford location in 2020, NOTCH (The Northern Tier Health Center) intervened & purchased the grocery store, reopening it as the Main Street Market. Without the Main Street Market, the nearest grocery store for residents would have been 10 miles away.

The store provides Richford & area residents with access to nutritious, fresh, & affordable food choices as a baseline for health & wellness. For residents without transportation, the grocery store offers a place to purchase wholesome food & essential household items within walking distance with the use of hand trollies facilitating "walk to shop".

This social grocery integrated into a robust health center in the heart of town provides access to valuable resources including food programs, nutrition, & culinary education, as well as jobs offering livable wages & benefits. Read more about this unique store & its conception during the worst of the pandemic & goals to further the wellness of its population & the local economy. "The market team is currently working on expanding the meal program for customers to include store-made breakfasts & dinners to help people with limited time still put healthy foods on their tables."

In the picture above Secretary of Ag Anson Tebbets & Sec of Human Service Jenny Samuelson were among many who attended a tour of the store & learned the intricacies of the NOTCH programming

It is that time of year:

4th Q Sales Really Kick In

Turkey farms are staging for receiving orders from stores & preparing for processing. Misty Knoll, Adams Turkey, & Stonewood Farms are two of Vermont's largest poultry, producers selling their premium birds that become the centerpiece of Thanksgiving tables.

Historically stores begin the pre-order process for turkeys beginning at the end of October. This year we are right on track. Creating a system requires back-end arrangement for ease of ordering, payment & pickup. This includes the ordering & possible pre-payment deposit, range of weights clearly declared (& not absolute). Further organization should be in place staging the turkeys for pick up. Often this can include delegating staff as a "concierge" service to carry turkeys to cars. Is there an app for turkey management?

By reviewing the prior years' sales

data, stores can prepare their systems & train new staff on the expectations & process pre-orders through pick-up.

Keep Your Eyes on These Stores

Chloe's Market

After a closure of 11 years, & a long renovation, (a pandemic, & area

flooding) the former Plymouth Country Store is back in business as

Chloe’s. Store manager Hannah Davidson noted that they are still hiring but they are also filling the shelves with a mixture of national, regional & Vermont brands including a nice selection from Lesser Distribution. Their opening motto as they get things running is “We’d like to under promise and over deliver.”

Commodities Natural Market

Having closed their Winooski location earlier this year, they are focused on their flagship Stowe store. This includes a move to a new larger location up the Mountain Rd with easier parking & delivery & receiving area. This store is certainly going to grow their local food footprint with the expansion.

Sterling Market closed since the July flood, in the heart of Johnson & the primary grocery store for many area towns will not be reopening as recently reported. Owned by AGNE cooperative, the board of directors recently voted against reopening in the flood prone area.

In November, Mac's Markets with locations in Essex, Woodstock, & Stowe will change ownership to AGNE. This expands their retail food store portfolio. Despite being cooperatively owned this distribution company each AGNE grocery store has a certain level of local food purchasing autonomy to meet the needs of its customers. The addition of three new stores in new areas, might foster new opportunities to expand sales of Vermont products through direct to store deliveries & through our VT & our food hubs.

Who is Your Competition?

Being successful in business always requires an understanding of who your customers are & who you are competing against. This holds true for all businesses & is especially valuable in the world of food.

For food manufacturing companies, "competition" is thought of within the category. However, it can be competition across categories. And for stores, competition is often seen as stores within the community. We know now more than ever that online sales, Dollar General, Walmart, multinational grocery chains all represent places where customers have options to spend food, especially for "center of the store" items.

Vermont brands consistently vie for

shelf space from store buyers & distribution purchasing teams competing against large retail & wholesale within, & beyond, their category, & against enormous marketing & sales budgets. Rhino skin (& perseverance) is a must as we grow local food business.

"Managers at Procter & Gamble estimate that 25% of salesperson time & about 30% of brand management time are spent in designing, implementing, & overseeing promotions. "

Holiday Sales: Store Prep

The 4th Quarter is known as a very good time of year for food businesses. This applies to food manufacturers, distributors, & stores.

Being prepared requires forward

thinking & forward buying. (see more on forward buying in the glossary block) Stores often place orders long in advance via distributors & brokers’ deep discount promotions. With each delivery comes the possibility of "surprise" orders. Think of them as products purchased long in advance & not properly organized for receiving the products. Buyers try to capture ‘extra margin’ by purchasing on promotions, then prominently merchandising for a period. If the product remains, they then raise

prices back to standard retail for the gain. This can be risky for cash flow

& requires an adept understanding of your shoppers’ patterns.

Often, promotions & “discount

deals” come in cardboard "shippers" set up in aisles. The grab & go displays are seen as money makers due to being purchased on discount.

Sometimes a buyer jumps at the opportunity to make "good margins”, but it can end up that the products were not what the shoppers were interested in.

This is just one of the balancing acts a buyer undertakes to sell at a store.

Distributors have their own version of sales & promotions.

"Holiday time is a period where people are making more impulse decisions & take chances on new brands of food & beverages". -Alli Ball Consulting & Food Biz Wiz

Vendor Promotions: 4th Q Holiday

Product samples & demos build relationships with shoppers tied to an inherent sense of reciprocity. These in-store promotions also provide visibility for new or seasonal products that can also dovetail with well thought out displays & other promotional tie-ins. Staff learn about a DSD vendor’s products, their story, & become ambassadors to drive sales.

Food brands are encouraged to build

their relationships with wholesale store buyers (& distributors for presenting at 'show & tell sales team meetings) long before the busy 4th Q. Having the pitch in place shows buyers professionalism which helps the product rise in visibility increasing its potential for sales. Vendors need to assess their products' viability for holiday gift or seasonal application as part of developing their sales skillset.

4th Q Cheese

Cheese is big business in the 4th Q with so many parties, gifts, & comfort foods with cheese as an ingredient. Upper Valley Coop is one of our stores with a dedicated cheese monger helping to create effective displays while offering top notch customer service built on years of experience & a love of the craft of our artisan producers. Above, Cobb Hill Cheese gets special attention front & center.

Mixed Up has gift packs of nut butter f

or the holidays

Vermont Way Foods established in 2020 through the Vermont Food Hub Collaborative (Food Connects, The Center for an Agricultural Economy, Intervale Center, and Green Mountain Farm-to-School), to create market opportunities for local producers in Vermont.

Vermont Way Foods supports the

regional farm & food economy & aims to localize the supply chain. They

do this by facilitating small farms' participation in retail merchandising & promotional programs typically dominated by national distributors. Currently, their products are being launched into Massachusetts via regional grocery chains. Products will expand to include potatoes, kale, parsley, & maple syrup.

Follow on Instagram @VermontWayFoods

Seeking Input for Planning Ahead

Vermont Specialty Food Association wants to help get producers more funding! VSFA and the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food, & Markets are collecting information on how grants have helped food businesses & if available how you would use the funds for your business.

The info will help advise legislators

& state agencies of the value of funding services to grow & support

food businesses that will strengthen Vermont’s brand. Fill out the survey here. Email additional thoughts to info@vtspecialtyfoods.org

Managing Inventory: Distribution

When it comes to distribution sales, inventory is an art & a science that is hugely incumbent on data analysis & projecting sales to have the appropriate amount to meet store needs. From supplies to products for sale, data management systems can make or break a business.

Every business in the supply chain manages their inventory. This includes products coming into as well as going out & all shipping material such as packaging, labels, plastic. The puzzle of receiving products & loading onto delivery trucks to be delivered to the right store has similar variables for small or large operations. Inventory accuracy matters.

Distributor sales teams are advised

on overruns or gaps in availability to better service customers. Updated

inventory & analysis helps identify excess products. Warehouses can easily be overrun with short-term seasonal products from forward buying product that didn’t turn, consequently tying up warehouse space & money. Having

accurate systems in place to enter product data helps to manage inventory & sales.

Filling in the Gaps: Logistics

Most food is shipped in Vermont by distribution companies that buy the food from producers & resell it to retail outlets. Farm Connex is unique, operating exclusively as a delivery service for small & medium farms & food businesses. The service provides a way for over 60 farmers & food companies to access markets that would otherwise be difficult to get to. In many cases, products shipped by Farm Connex represent all or most of a business’s wholesale sales. It is also a valuable shipping service for the Green Mountain Farm Direct, Deep Root Co-op & ships Just Cut, CAE’s farm product to institution program.

As a logistics company, they pick up

products delivering them to their markets via Bill of Lading. It is not a distribution company selling products but rather think of it more like a fee-based trucking operation servicing the needs across most of Vermont. They operate 15 to 20 truck routes a week in 12 of 14 counties in Vermont, all but Rutland & Bennington. For info on their shipping routes & products currently shipped contact them for details.

Glossary Term

Forward Buying refers to the opportunity to make extra profit when a vendor offers temporary special terms, or when a cost increase is about to become effective.

Stores are bombarded with monthly

specials, broker deals, & vendor discounts on volume. Juggling these

decisions with their standard inventory is a huge task especially when you consider the impact on cash flow.

Forward buying as a tool can help

drive sales & create margin opportunities through economies of scales. It can also help keep products on the shelf in the event of a shortage, or to speculate in the event of an anticipated price rise. However, buyers must be judicious in their decisions because it ties up working capital. This buying technique is used by both stores & distributors.

An abundance of the product may be

hard to sell after the sale price has been lifted & then moved to regular

pricing. Excess 'forward buy' inventory needs to move quickly to not tie up money & space becoming an opportunity cost where other products could have been sold. Read an academic study of forward buying to better grasp its intricacies.

Attention Stores!

Nov 8th Workshop with Jeanie Wells & James Morrell on Pricing Strategies & Merchandising is full but you can get on our waiting list.

The Small, Yet Mighty training is sure to be a day of great learning & an on ramp for more store technical assistance with these nationally recognized retail leaders.

Putney Coop prominently posts their turkey signup to encourage sales

Seasonal Highlights

The shortest short list!

Vermont Cranberry has harvested & are selling their fresh berries & juice. Available through Pumpkin Village Foods

Krin's Bakery has rolled out pie crusts for holiday baking! Sold frozen & made with luscious Cabot butter.

Pie crusts are available through Lesser Distribution. The full line of Krin's wholesale baked goods is available through Killam Sales.

Magic Spoon Bakery in Hardwick are bakers of beautiful seasonal & festive goodies made with VT ingredients King Arthur Flour Co flour, Cabot butter & Callebaut chocolate. Middle East date squares, rugelach, chocolate babbka, raspberry litzer cookie, & the best ever cinnamon rolls can be yours! Available through Killam Sales.

Fall brings with it a need for warming foods. Funjshrooming fits the bill with their locally raised mushrooms. Sold to stores including Sweet Clover Market & Village Grocery in Waterbury.

Edible Vermont Fall Issue

This issue tells our stories of resilience, strength, & care from all over the state. It is packed with its focus on community building & the impact of the July flooding & the deep freeze in May.

Consider advertising your business & or become a partner making copies available at your store or business. Supporting Edible Vermont aligns you with the local food community & allows for the continuation & promotion of its bounty.

The Holiday Gift Season:

VT Wood, Yep Wood!

Sylvacurl provides protective packaging to e-commerce companies that is safe, sustainable, high performing, & attractive, helping customers to meet government & consumer demands to reduce plastic in their packaging. This all-natural packaging material is made of wood curls from Vermont sourced wood. It is Sustainable, Renewable Resource, Biodegradable, Compostable & ready to protect your store-made gift boxes too!

Blake Hill Preserves is ready for the holidays with a trio! Some of their products are available to NE stores through Associated Buyers.

Farmers as Retailers

Farmstands are winding down with cleaning up. October & November is clearing our inventory not scheduled for winter sales. Then comes the beginning the winter task of data analysis, refining retail operations systems, attending conferences & maybe even some well-deserved travel.

Winter squash often end up at local

coops & winter CSA's. Some farmstands are putting inventory such as grocery & dairy products on sales & in "bundled" promotions to clear out as much as they can before their anticipated closing date.

Gathering Together: Nov 16-17

Join local food folks at the Farm to Plate Annual Gathering at Killington on Nov 16 & 17th. Be on the pulse of all things connected to our VT food economy! Pre-register here. No-cost registration is available to all farmers, farmworkers, food workers, small food business owners, legislators, and anyone that identifies as Black, Indigenous, or a Person of Color. Students who are not supported by their degree program to attend the Gathering may register at no-cost. Please select No-Cost Registration. 

 

Catch the current Farm to Plate News & sign up for monthly updates with jobs & event listings.

Food Producers...

Trade Show Grants Available

VAAFM Trade show grants are available for 2024 . The grants are useful for emerging brands to learn the language of sales & gain confidence & proficiency to get brands in front of more buyers, at stores & distributors. And check out the tradeshow guide

What it Means: VT "Local"

Vermont is the only state in the northeast with a local food definition. Stores & distributors need to fall in line & be in compliance when promoting your 'local' sales.

The VT Agency of Agriculture, Food, & Markets, the State Attorney General (which oversees consumer protections), & the legislature agreed on a uniform definition to protect producers & consumers.

Because Vermont has an "official" local foods definition in ACT 129 we urge you to become familiar with it. We need our stores, distributors & any promotions you do as a VT business to comply with the state local food definition. If it hasn't been a priority yet, it is time for all stores & distributors to tweak their product attributes in their POS & inventory management software to comply with the state definition. This will make it so much easier when Vermont does its Local Food Count.

Small Bites comes to you via USDA grants. Created for farmers, food manufacturers, distributors, & grocers to increase VT food sales

We support the New England State Food System Planners Partnership

Contact: Annie Harlow

smallbites802@gmail.com



Unless otherwise noted, photo credits are from company social media, websites or Annie Harlow

Special Thanks to: NOTCH Main St Market, Killam Sales, Pumpkin Village Foods, Lesser Distribution, Farm Connex, AGNE Retail, White River Land Collaborative + so many more



All info is subject to change; thank you to all who contributed to this BIG issue