Small Bites August 25, 2021
dedicated to creating opportunities to promote &
sell more VT products to more buyers
Summer in Vermont, heirloom tomatoes cradled in the Delicious Dirt Farm display basket
Buying Decisions: It's a strategy

No matter the size of your store, purchasing should be strategic. At Small Bites, we love talking up local food producers & local distributors. But how do stores really create & adhere to a defined mission statement/purchasing policy? Pressure on price image & “buying on sale” inundates all buyers in all departments.
 
Looking at product mix is all about your customer & meeting their needs while also expanding potential for new products. That can be stocking the latest food trends, introducing new local products, expanding healthy food choices, buying from businesses with aligned values, or having a high-low price range that satisfies current & potential new customers.
 
Creating an articulated buying strategy takes time, effort, diligence, teamwork & a lot of "work arounds" to try to find the products or producers to best meet your needs- which in turn best meets your sales goals. Maybe your store can create a purchasing policy pledge. But how would you even begin to assess the variables? Could a matrix tool be helpful in creating a strategic process? Take a look at this guideline. Or begin your process with a rubric-scorecard that is embedded in this summary as an excel tool easily tailored to your own procurement guidelines. Consider it a starting place.
 
Identifying every product attribute in the matrix is not feasible. It is however valuable to begin to focus your mission with actions that reflect your store values. This increases positive decision making for your store or farmstand. The links might help you wrap around variables & attributes to develop a better values-based buying program. Meeting customer expectations with a value-based approach creates a positive impact & can support a variety of goals, including reducing purchases from the "ten global food conglomerates". 
"We emphasize natural foods and products that support the health of our customers and community. Our buyers consider the environmental impacts of the production, distribution, and use of the products."- Hunger Mountain Coop
Made in town for locals. Main St Market is selling from within their community via DSD
Independent stores & coops often have info on their websites to help food producers learn how to work with them to find out if products are a match. This aligns with a values-based purchasing strategy.
 
Stores can learn from each other on ways to bring on new vendors. The vendor should do the diligence & be prepared by doing their share of outreach to prospective stores (or distributors). Each store may have different values & attributes as previously noted. Explore these links on stores add local products to their shelves:
Local Food Definition-a reminder from VAAFM: When promoting local foods, be aware of the Vermont definition as enacted by ACT 129. Check out the fact sheet so that your purchasing values-based strategies & promotions comply.
The Elmore Store is going through a revival with support from the community & the Preservation Trust of Vermont. General stores are integral to our cultural landscape. Once they were the centers of our rural communities. Currently there is renewed interest in preserving & re-engaging stores as the town center. Read about the Elmore project in the Happy Vermont article.
 
Utilizing the Farm to Plate resources, stores can learn about purchasing & onboarding new vendors & vendor relationship building tips. The tools are designed to guide processes & procedures to expand local food sales through sound operations & management. 
Are you a Vermont food producer looking for a bit more visibility? Alderman's Chocolates seeks new products for their VT gift baskets. Contact Darcee & tell her Small Bites sent you: sales.aldermansofvermont@gmail.com

While you are at it, become a member of the VSFA  for excellent resources, workshops, & a collaborative listserv that will build your Vermont specialty food business! Also, consider your values-based ingredient buying policies too! Here’s the tool to begin the process & you can view & edit the excel UVM matrix at end of this document. These are tools to help you think, they are not perfect; they flexible.

Thinking of selling wholesale through a distributor? Read this!
Healthy Living Market informing customers & creatively including their logo in the image
Details matter. So does information to make shopping easier in these still uncertain times. From changes in mask protocols to easing up on past restrictions, helping customers navigate is best when clear signage is in place.
 
Signage also has a huge impact on sales when onboarding new or seasonal products. Use this Farm to Plate tool to facilitate internal store communication for signage & new products. It can help simplify the process of reintroducing seasonal or new products.
Vermont Product Highlights

Fill your freezer with family friendly easy to cook frozen foods. Go beyond pizza (we have nothing against Vermont made pizza BTW!)
 
Global Village Foods, based in Windsor, has a focus on allergy-safe foods with an African flavor profile. Read all about them in the Brattleboro Coop producer profile. For stores upping their BIPOC representation as part of their purchasing strategy, GVF gives you points on your matrix with their fabulous ready to eat meals & snacks including their Samosas in retail & food service pack sizes available through Associated Buyers. For other shipping or product details contact Global Village Foods. Listen on WCAX the story of their current expansion!
 
Another fabulous easy to stock, easy to rotate, & super family friendly food that transition to school schedules are the Moska Eggrolls. The farm-based products are all vegan, organic, plant-based. Their ingredient buying strategy includes using eggroll wraps made by VT Fresh Pasta. The frozen eggrolls are a hit at coops, indie & farm stores throughout the state. Available through Pumpkin Village Foods & Black River.
Douglas Sweets has reached out to stores introducing their new branding
& packaging seeking to align with stores that share their values. Their
products may check off several boxes in your matrix.  As a new Vermont product at the Main Street Market in Richford, they brought on several flavors of these delicious cookies & will adjust product location if needed to enhance sales. As always new products might need a nudge to gain traction on the store shelf. Lantman's in Hinesburg, a busier store with a different demographic, has a wide selection of Douglas in a more vertical set on a bump-out display. As regards their ingredient purchasing, a little more info might be needed, but their values will match yours for buying from an independently owned small VT business! As seen on the Douglas Sweets website "We are very deliberate with all our choices from ingredients, recipes, packaging, & our representation as a small business."
Control is held by these 10 companies, learn about them & believe in a new buying strategy
Loaded Big Picture Stuff

If ten corporations own & control the food we sell in our stores, then how does change to more local food work in the big scheme?
 
Distributors buy on contract from the "Big 10". But it is not as easy as just saying that. There is an intertwining of brokers, deal makers, & freight forwarders engaged in making food available with profit generated at every step to the store shelf. There are also global investors & shareholders accounting for product portfolio decisions.
 
Shoppers are learning more about food & making choices for personal health, climate impacts, worker rights, water & land. Change takes place at corporate levels when consumers send ripples of concern. With the climate impacts -floods-fires-droughts visually amplified in 2021, connections are being made & it is easier than ever for shoppers to present concerns to corporate offices. Take for instance the Behind the Brands campaign & The Scorecard to help rate businesses on values & attributes of concern. (Read about Danone, & Horizon Dairy at the Behind the Brands profile). For more info on the ownership structure, check out Belgian based Sofina Group or Danone investor relations.
 
Locally produced food is seen as a proxy for food produced with integrity, is healthier & with less climate impacts. A magnifying glass on the Big 10, sure makes it seems like the better choice is for more local food. Our food producers, stores, & distributors can aide the process of transparency by indicating values & attributes in the order guides, on their websites, & in sales fliers by promoting the businesses with aligned values. In POS systems, adding local as a product attribute ((as defined by the VFFAM) can also be tabulated on customer receipts helping to promote the values of your stores, while also collecting useful sales data. (think Local Food Count 2020!)
Sylvester's Store in Montgomery is selling local, fair trade, single origin, organic coffee roasted by Big Jay Roasting Company. By the looks of it, it is selling better than the 'on sale' international, publicly traded, Starbucks!
"Too many of today’s food and beverage giants are crossing their fingers & hoping that climate change won’t disrupt the food system,” A study from Oxfam America found that these 10 companies (which include Associated British Foods, Coca-Cola, Danone, General Mills, Kellogg, Mars, Mondelez International, Nestlé, PepsiCo, & Unilever) emit so much greenhouse gas through their supply chains that if they were a single country, they would be the 25th most polluting in the world."
Seen all along the northern section of the state, signs supporting local Olympian Elle Purrier St Pierre. You cannot help but smile. The signs have been spotted in other dairy-rich parts of the state too. Vermont proud!
August farms in the 802

Getting ready for a gorgeous apple crop, orchards across the state are a busy hive of activity. Here at Yate's Family Orchard, things are full tilt in the retail store cleaning & organizing, receiving pallets of new crates, & new VT products from vendors are ordered & arriving through food hubs & distributors. The orchard, as are many this year, reports a FABULOUS apple crop ahead!
 
Getting things ready may look chaotic, but that's just part of setting up a great customer service-oriented retail farm operation. Read more about them & other VT fruit tree growers in 
Corn delivery from their field to their farmstand at Hartman Farm on RT 105 in Enosburg Falls
Making award winning cheese is made at Boston Post Dairy. Sales are up for their fabulous goat cheese available
through several outlets including Provisions International, a VT owned distributor (score a matrix point for you!). Their retail store stocks their own wide range of goat products &
from VT producers via DSD & local distributors with routes in the area. Contact the team at BPD for products to match your buying strategies & stock your store helves
or round out your farm CSA mix. The friendly folks at BPD are super stoked to
add new stores for their range of products. They are also value-based buyers, contact them for more info.
Let's Support Farmers

VT Veg & Berry Grower Assoc offers excellent trainings for farmers. Check out what's coming up often led by UVM Ag Engineer Chris Callahan. Farms (& Produce teams at stores) should explore the amazing resources they provide.
 
Buying local means supporting the Vermont economy. You can effectively support the research & education of our farmers when you buy an annual membership into the VVBGA. This is one way to state your procurement values. Your logo will be listed on the website promoting your support of VT farmers. They offer an informational listserv which can help train your produce team on production issues. A great option for store members, the weekly listserv summary. A goal of Small Bites: 20 new stores as members by the end of 2021. Support local farmers by signing up today & promoting VVBGA!
Is product stacked too high for safe &
easy shopping for all?
Merchandising for All:
ADA Compliant

Displays cannot infringe on ability for all to shop. According to ADAAG, there must be a minimum of 32 inches of clear space between the face of the door & the opposite stop when a door is opened 90 degrees to allow for customers who use wheelchairs, crutches, & other similar devices to enter your retail store.
 
Additionally, improve the functionality of your aisles & sales areas for disabled persons by placing heavy items on lower shelves & light items on higher shelves. Lowering a heavy object from a high height can be difficult even for able-bodied persons. Rethink product placement & consider lowering the height of your top shelves. Train the sales teams to assist shoppers of all capacity & be sure there is at least 32 inches between shelves & displays for wheel chair access. Find more ADAAG compliance & retail info here
 
Want to learn more about ADA standards? Attend a webinar Sept 2 "Common Sources of Confusion"
Retail training resources are free from Farm to Plate & our partner organizations. Check out the
Celebrate all things maple with Vermont Maple 100 this fall!