Print: 2010 Best Merchandising Ideas

2010 Best Merchandising Ideas

Just in time for the fourth-quarter, we’ve assembled our best merchandising ideas for everything from baking mats to wine aerators and everything in between.

This year’s Best Merchandising Ideas supplement features a wide assortment of merchandising ideas in specialty food and kitchenware categories.

Our editors have created snapshots of displays, promotions and demonstrations for each product category. Our goal here is to make your day-to-day operations a bit easier by creating this comprehensive, category-approach merchandising program to help you move your traditional promotions to a new level.

We enjoy sharing these ideas with you and hope we’ve provided a starting point for some new merchandising efforts in your store. We’d also like to hear your thoughts about the ideas we’vegenerated. Tell us what you think or send us photos of your own success stories.

Email Anna Wolfe at awolfe@stagnitomedia.com.

Food
Mixes	44
Wine & Chocolate Pairings	56
Gadgets
Baking Mats	32
Spice Mills	50
Wine Aerators	54
Small Electrics
Blenders	34
Electric Kettles	36
Food Dehydrators	38
Juicers	40
Knife Sharpeners	42
Slicers	48
Wafflemakers	52
Storage
Reusable Produce Bags	46

BAKING MATS
Home baking has enjoyed a revival in recent years, with home cooks taking pride in off ering friends and guests a special gift that is made with love. With a growing number of consumers baking for special and everyday occasions, the home baking trends continues to strengthen, bringing the old-fashioned favorites back to the table, as well as some new traditional treats.
Anyone who has baked knows that having the right tools on hand make the experience more pleasurable and the results more delicious. Whether they’re baking from scratch, rolling out refrigerated, pre-made dough, or creating delicious homemade candy, home bakers want to ensure that their eff orts will turn out perfectly. To help them achieve perfect results, the seasoned home baker (as well as the beginner baker) realizes that baking mats are an essential baking tool. From preventing dough from stick to the counter to providing sizing guides for pastries, baking mats help making baking at home more enjoyable, less stressful, and help produce better results.

Features of Baking Mats

Flexible and easy to clean.
Nonstick surface, so extra fl our is not needed for rolling our dough.
Tacky on the back to prevent moving around the counter when in use.
Anti-microbial surface.
Handy measurements for creating perfectly sized dough.

Pie Days
Pie is a delicious comfort food. They’re simply delicious and they’re an American tradition that everyone loves. Hold a series of Pie Days throughout the year, highlighting a diff erent seasonal pie and all the necessary tools for making pies. In spring, highlight Rhubarb Custard pie, for summer create a berry pie, in fall highlight the pumpkin or a pecan pie, and in winter, showcase delicious dinner pies such as a Creamy Chicken with Stuffi ng Pie, or a traditional Flaky Beef Pot Pie.

Promote Pie days as a fun way to bring customers into the store to learn easy tips on how to make these delicious everyday and celebration pies. During the presentation, show customers how quick and easy it is to make a pie dough. Touch on each tool needed to create perfect results. For instance, a crust can often make or break a pie. When demonstrating how to create the perfect crust, customers can see fi rst-hand the benefi ts of using a baking mat. As you roll out the pastry dough, talk about how baking mats are nonstick, therefore they don’t require any added fl our, which can make the crust too dry. Also highlight how handy measuring guides on baking mats can let the baker know if the dough has been rolled out to the proper size.

Don’t forget to serve customers some pie while they listen in to the presentation, and set up a display that showcases the piemaking essentials. Include items such as baking mats, rolling pins, pastry scrapers, bowls, cherry pitters and pie plates along with high quality ingredients such as fl our, sugar, yeast, fl avorings, and nuts.

Send everyone home with a pre-printed recipe card featuring the seasonal recipe, on the back include a checklist of pie baking essentials that includes anything from baking mats to measuring spoons.

Candy Land
Baking mats aren’t only for baking, they are a handy tool for use when making candy at home. Highlight the versatility of the baking mat beyond traditional baking, and showcase the baking mat as is the perfect tool to use when creating a variety of candies, from chocolates to peppermint. Its nonstick properties are a great way to keep the counter clean, to make the process of making candy more precise, and cuts down on clean-up time.

Create an exciting Candy Land promotion, showcasing all the great candies that can be made at home. Using the classic Candy Land game for a backdrop to the promotion, create a series of candymaking demos throughout the month-long promotion. Each week, choose a diff erent type of candy to promote that correlates with the game, highlighting a variety of candy-making supplies. Choose from the fun themes of Candy Land Trail: Gumdrop Pass, Lollipop Woods, Peanut Acres, Chocolate Swamp or Peppermint Forest and demonstrate how to create these delicious candy treats.

Following each demonstration/candy class, give customers a Candy Land card representing the topic covered. Customers can trade in these cards for a discount on candy making supplies (thermometers, baking mats, assorted molds, confectionery coating, wooden spoons), or collect them all and trade them in at the end of the promotion to be entered to win a collection of candy making supplies.

Everyday Merchandising

Bundle baking essentials together — baking mats, measuring spoons and cups, mixing bowls, decorating accessories.
Bundle together baking products and off er a discount. For instance, give a discount when customers purchase a rolling pin and a baking mat together.
Cross merchandise baking mats with high quality ingredients, with candy making supplies, or next to the pie plates.
Demonstrate how the baking mat makes rolling dough for pastries easy and convenient. Keep recipe cards on hand to pass out to customers. On the back, include features and benefi ts of using a baking mat.
Especially during the holidays, create a Baking Essentials checklist and keep them within the baking tools section, or place them in bags with each purchase.

BLENDERS
When was the last time you truly wowed a customer with a kitchen appliance? If it’s been awhile, unpack one of today’s high-performance, professional-quality blenders, dust off that demo table and let the wowing begin. These machines are seriously loaded. Between their performance, speed, power, durability, reliability and versatility, professional-quality blenders are the unsung dynamos of the modern kitchen. The best in the category can do the work of 10 kitchen appliances, without requiring attachments; achieve dozens of food preparation and culinary tasks; plus deliver some features that no other single kitchen appliance can claim. So what are you waiting for? Now is the time to wow!

Go Pro
Rev up your demo calendar with a month-long promotion spotlighting the advantages of “going pro” with a professional-quality blender. Start by creating a list of the 25 to 50 best uses for a professional-quality blender. Get your staff’s input as well. You may want to personalize these lists by assigning each employee the task of writing up his or her top-10 favorite uses for a professional-quality blender. Turn these list makers into shelf-talkers and additional signage.

Be sure the lists include the reasons why a professional-quality blender is their favorite way to prepare certain foods, such as: Makes juice from whole foods in one minute; cooks soup from scratch without a stove; makes ice-cream in 30 seconds; and grinds grain and kneads dough for bread bakers in just five minutes. Demo the best of your staff favorites throughout the month. As you show customers how to make homemade soup in a snap and grind grain for fresh bread in no time flat, discuss the versatility that comes with blenders that offer a wet blade and dry blade. While the wet blade works for those who don’t intend to grind grains, homemade cereal and bread lovers, and gluten-free cooks will want the dry blade option. With each demo, point out different features from an efficient motor to high-speed horsepower to dual lids.

Blend for Better Health
The health benefits of blending your own fresh juices and soups and grinding your own grains cannot be denied. Educate your customers about the features and health benefits of high-performance, professional-quality blenders with a “To Your Health” weekend-long promotion in your store. You also may want to incorporate other small electrics, cookware and kitchen tools that help us eat more healthfully.

Show customers how to enjoy better eating habits and fresher foods throughout the day. In the morning, demo whole juice made in a professional-quality blender that allows you to include both the juice and the fiber from vitamin-rich fresh fruits and vegetables. Simply toss the whole fresh fruits and veggies into the machine, and in one minute you can sample the deliciously fresh and healthful results. Other healthful options on your morning demo roster might be smoothies, freshly ground grains for cereal and homemade bread.

Speaking of bread, show customers how to effortlessly grind grain and knead dough in a single operation that takes only five minutes. Look for a machine with a dry blade container designed to push food up and away. Ideal for both grinding dry ingredients and kneading sticky dough, this type of blender will grind everything from wheat berries to rice into fine flours in just 60 seconds. Pop the dough into a bread machine for a powerful cross-merchandising opportunity.

During the lunch and dinner hours, move into demoing soups, fondues, desserts and more. For example, show your customers how to cook soup from scratch in four minutes using a professional-quality blender. Thanks to the rotating hammermill and cutting blades on some of these high-performance machines, there’s enough speed and power to actually heat and cook a half-gallon of piping hot soup in just minutes. Not fast enough for you? Cut the cooking time in half, when you start with boiling water. These soups are packed with vitamins and nutrients because they start with fresh whole vegetables that cook without the need for peeling or seeding.

And for dessert? Healthy frozen treats are just 30 seconds away in a high-performance blender. The same high-speed blade action that cooks soup also allows you to make low-fat frozen treats from frozen fruits. Simply add the frozen fruit to the blender, push a button and the high-speed machine will crush and cut up the fruit, and then speedily refreeze the ingredients into a refreshing dessert. When your customers see how quickly and easily fresh, whole foods can be made into meals, they’ll be wowed once again.

Return on Investment
Purchasing a high-performance, professional-quality blender represents an investment. Help your customers to understand the return on this investment. Of course, there’s the convenience, versatility, etc., but there’s also a money-saving factor over time. Take homemade fruit and vegetable juices, for example. High-performance blenders break down the fruit or vegetable fiber down to tiny microscopic particles, thereby releasing more juice. These blenders use less produce and create less waste, ultimately saving consumers money.

Fans of frozen drinks from expensive coffee concoctions to smoothies to margaritas, will really enjoy the savings that comes from making commercial-quality frozen drinks at home. Even something like cereal, which can be pricey in packaged form, becomes an economical choice with the highly versatile, highly functional, professional-quality blender.

ELECTRIC KETTLES
“Put the kettle on,” sounds downright quaint, but today’s electric kettles are giving those words a powerful surge of high-tech hipness. Advanced energy conserving models have it all: Precise temperature control, speed, sturdy construction, automatic shut-off and much more. Plus, they’re not only highly functional; they’re also artfully designed with cordless options, glass kettle models and sleek stainless steel. Who knew boiling water could be so cool?

The World Cup
The 2010 World Cup in South Africa created a buzz heard around the globe (quite literally, thanks to the soccer fans’ obsession with vuvuzelas). As so many cultures came together for a common purpose, the sense of worldwide enthusiasm was undeniable. In this spirit of cultural camaraderie, here’s an idea for bringing an international vibe and a sense of excitement into your store: Host a World Cup tea promotion that spotlights the heating performance and ease of use of electric kettles, while giving your customers an introduction to tea traditions around the world.

Your World Cup promotion is all about preparing a proper cup of tea, with the help of an electric kettle, of course. There are many types of tea, methods of preparation and tea service favored around the world. Some teas are delicious simply steeped in just boiled water, but there are other teas, such as herbal, white, green, oolong and rooibos that are more temperature sensitive. These teas truly benefit from the advanced electric kettles that heat water to an exact temperature (some within 2 degrees Fahrenheit accuracy) and then hold that temperature. The key with temperature-sensitive teas is to steep them at a lower precise temperature to bring out the optimal flavors and aromas.

Consider hosting your World Cup promotion over a weekend. Throughout the weekend host ongoing demos of your electric kettles and show customers how to make perfect tea in a variety of international styles. For example, in Morocco green tea is served with fresh mint and sugar. In India, a cup of spicy chai hits the spot. While in Thailand, a strong tea is served with condensed milk and sugar over ice. China’s green and oolong tea traditions are well established, as is the afternoon tea culture in England, where black tea is the frontrunner favorite. All of these tea preparations give you an opportunity to promote the features and benefits of your electric kettles.

You may want to offer take-away educational reference sheets for customers that list a variety of popular tea types and the preferred temperature range for steeping each tea (your tea supplier can provide these optimal temps). With this in hand and an electric kettle on their kitchen counter, your customers will score a winning cup every time.

Energy Boost
The new high-tech electric kettles are also energy-efficient. These kettles will heat water to a precise temperature, and heat it faster than a microwave or traditional kettle, while using half the energy it would take to boil water or stovetop kettle. Get the word out and give your bottom line and your environmental messages a boost with an electric kettle Green Day promotion. Choose one day of the year (Earth Day is one option), and throughout that day invite customers to bring in an old teakettle in exchange for a special price on a new electric kettle. Make arrangements in advance to donate the used kettles to a local charity and tout this connection as part of your promotion.

Your Green Day promotion is also a great time to underscore the energy efficiency of using an electric kettle to prepare more than the perfect cup of tea. An electric kettle is ideal for preparing hot water for hot chocolate, hot cereals, instant soup and Jell-o.

Tech Talk
The most advanced electric kettles are technological masterpieces. Use shelf talkers to convey the features and benefits of these kettles, and supplement your signage with regular demos that emphasize their ease of use. On your shelf talkers highlight kettles with electronic controls that detect the boiling point regardless of altitude; conveniently remember the last programmed setting; and shut off the kettle automatically.

Other features that make some kettles an intelligent choice include a concealed heating element that never comes in contact with water, thereby avoiding mineral buildup on the heating coils. This prolongs the life of the kettle and its ability to maintain its heating efficiency.

Drive home the convenience, speed and ease of use of these high-tech wonders, by bringing a stopwatch to your demo. Invite customers to time the quick and simple steps of boiling water in an electric kettle and then the time it takes to clean it, which, incidentally, takes no time at all.

FOOD DEHYDRATORS
Food dehydration is one of the most effective and nutritious ways ofpreserving food today. A renewed interest in home gardening, combined with a surging interest in buying local and eating healthier, has increased the demand for food dehydrators to dry fruits, vegetables and spices. With the downturn in the economy, more and more consumers are looking to stretch their food dollars. With a food dehydrator, your customers can stretch the summer’s bounty to be enjoyed year round.

DIY–Dehydrate It Yourself
Showcase the versatility of dehydrators in making healthy treats for the entire family. In your store, create signage that compares the cost of home dehydrated fruit to dried fruit purchased in the store. The cost savings is tremendous, plus home dehydrated fruit is fresher and tastier.

Beef Jerky is one of the most popular snacks – and it is also driving demand for dehydrators. Show your customers how easily they can make great tasting jerky at home for a fraction of the price using a dehydrator.
Show your gourmet cooks how they can easily create their own custom spices by drying herbs in a food dehydrator.

Display the Many Uses of a Food Dehydrator
What do gardeners, cooks, crafters, hikers, healthy eaters, pet owners and outdoor enthusiasts all have in common? They all benefit from owning and using a food dehydrator.

Mix small jars of dried flowers, dried, colorful peppers, vegetables or fruit chips next to your food dehydrators as visual suggestions of the multiple uses of the product. This makes an effective, colorful and aromatic presentation.

You’ve heard the idea of making lemonade when life hands you a bunch of lemons – well, keep the lemon rinds after you make the lemonade. Cut them into strips, dry them in the food dehydrator then chop them fine in a small food chopper, and you have a terrific lemon spice. For a powerful example of how much better this is, buy a jar of lemon spice at your local supermarket – then let your customers inhale the aroma of homemade vs. store-bought. The much fresher and much more powerful aroma of your own spice will really impress them.

Peppers also make for a colorful and extremely aromatic demo. Show your customers how easy it is to dehydrate peppers and used them to spice up their cooking year-round. Other possible effective displays are fruit chips, fruit rollups, granola, jerky, vegetable powders and flakes, trail mix, bread crumbs, croutons and bagel chips – all products of food dehydration.

Max Out Your Dehydrator Sales Potential
Accessories are key to the full and continued use of this product: additional trays to increase dehydrating capacity, fruit roll sheets, mesh screens for herbs & spice dehydrating, jerky spices and jerky guns for making your own jerky. A dehydration book or two are excellent to have in stock. Many retailers offering food dehydrators fail to capitalize on the accessories which bring customers back again and allow them to fully utilize their product. Accessories enhance the category’s margin as well. Most dehydrators are expandable by adding more trays. For example, one popular model sold with four trays is expandable to 12 trays. It’s important to carry the additional trays for any dehydrator you stock to allow the consumer to dehydrate the most possible.

Jerky spices are another great sales producer – combined with ground beef or mixed with water for a marinade for whole meat – they provide great tasting jerky or a base for custom creating flavors.

Jerky guns are used to extrude the jerky strips onto the dehydrator trays for drying. Stock one that holds a pound of meat. Jerky made using whole meat like beef or venison can sometimes also generate the sale of a food slicer. Whole meat jerky is made by slicing the meat into thin strips with a food slicer, marinating it with the marinade made from the jerky spices and drying it with the food dehydrator. In most cases the cost is only one-third of store-bought jerky – with improved taste.

Promote All Uses of the Dehydrator
Dehydrators offer multiple year-round promotional opportunities, and using accessories to their fullest you can build a growing, year-round, profitable business – while at the same time saving your customers money and improving their nutrition.

Earth Day
Promote the ecofriendly features, in addition to the money-saving features, of a food dehydrator. Preserve produce, nutrients – and the planet.
Harvest Season
Show displays of fruits, vegetables and spices with dehydrators featuring accessories such as fruit roll sheets, mesh screens and extra trays.
Hunting Seasons
Sponsor a jerky contest among your customers – you’ll be surprised how passionate some consumers are about their gourmet “secret recipe” jerky, and surprised by how good some of it is. Showcase your selection of jerky making accessories such as jerky guns, jerky spices and extra trays.
Back To School
Show how much kid-appeal dehydrated fruits are by offering some in your store. Dehydration removes the water and in the process concentrates and intensifies the sweet flavor of fruit – it’s like candy to kids, and so much more natural and healthful. For busy moms on the go, show them how easy it is to create organic fruit leather. It can even be as simple as buying a jar of organic applesauce at the supermarket, pouring it on fruit roll sheets and dehydrating it – then layer on a favorite fruit or preserve, to create one tasty fruit rollup.

JUICERS
The picture of health, today’s high-quality juicers look great and perform even better. And with so many of us looking to eat more healthfully, it’s not surprising that more and more consumers are turning to juicers to tune up their diet. As a retailer who may be looking to expand your offerings in this category, look for a supplier who offers a range of juicers at different price points and styles. This will enable you to create a complete picture of healthy lifestyle appliances for your customers.

SPA Day
While the state of the economy has impacted some folks’ discretionary spending on things like spa vacations, it hasn’t curbed our nation’s enthusiasm for better health. Help your customers to recreate the spa experience at home—at least from a spa beverage standpoint—with the assistance of one of the kitchen’s healthiest small electrics: The juicer. Host a Spa Day or a Spa Weekend during which you demo your high-performance juicers and some of the tasty spa-inspired beverages that can be made quickly and easily with a juicer. You may want to create “Spa Menu” cards that list the beverages you are sampling and their ingredients for customers to take home.

As you serve up delicious samples of carrot-celery-apple or apple-beet juice, educate your customers about the different styles of juicers. There’s the straight-up citrus style for consumers interested in freshly made orange, grapefruit and other citrus juices only. Then there’s the centrifugal style, which are perfect for small families and individuals. With this style, the juicer holds the pulp inside its basket in order to continue to spin the pulp and extract juice. These juicers are ultra-efficient and easy to clean. Then there’s the pulp ejection style juicer. These juicers eject the pulp into a separate container, which allows you to produce more juice while maintaining high efficiency. Finally, there’s the masticating juicer. This low-speed juicer can do it all—it can make juice like the centrifugal and pulp ejection juicers, but it also juices wheatgrass and leafy greens. What’s more, masticating units have non-juicing functions for pasta extrusion and making homemade nut butters.

As you demo the heavier duty juicers, be sure to remind customers that when juicing combinations of fruits and vegetables, the best results are yielded when you alternate fruits and vegetables. Create a soothing environment in which your customers can receive this information and enjoy their juice samples by incorporating other spa-like items from your store in your demo area. This may include candles, attractive pitchers for serving the juices, fresh veggies displayed on a beautiful platter, etc.

Lemonade Stand
Lemonade stands are like the smells of freshly cut grass and barbecues; they are the quintessential hallmarks of summer. Attract the attention of parents and kids alike by creating a colorful lemonade stand either on your store floor or just outside your front doors. Of course, yours isn’t going to be an ordinary sugar-laden, nutritionally anemic lemonade stand. This is going to be a secretly vitamin and nutrient-packed lemonade stand. You and the parents shopping your store will know it’s healthy lemonade, but hopefully the kids will think it’s just the same old lemonade they love to drink.

Pass out samples of freshly made apple lemonade, pear lemonade, and orange-grapefruit-lemonade. One of the reasons these fresh lemonades are so much healthier is that they combine sweeter fruits with the lemons rather than adding heaps of sugar. Some of the recipes allow you to use the skin and peel of the fruit as well, thereby extracting the health benefits from these parts of the fruit. Create recipe cards for each juice that you sample so parents can see that you’re using only the freshest, best ingredients.

The Whole Deal
In the world of juicers, one of the most notable developments of late has been the availability of units that are approved for both household and commercial use. The fact that consumers can have the same juicer in their kitchen as the one behind the counter at their favorite neighborhood juice bar is a strong selling point.

These powerful juicers offer versatility when it comes to preparing a variety of healthful juices and foods from whole ingredients. Some juicers allow you to take whole foods like peanuts or almonds and make your own nut butters. They allow you to create a feast of freshly made pasta with the pasta extruder feature. Perhaps most importantly, they quickly and easily turn whole fresh fruits and vegetables into the most delicious and nutritious beverages. And don’t forget the pulp. More than a byproduct of juicing, pulp packs a punch in a variety of applications from flavoring soups to moistening cakes to reinventing salads. When diluted with water, pulp can also be used to make healthy homemade baby food.

Through informative signage, attention-grabbing demos and thoughtful merchandising, your customers will soon know the whole story behind today’s high-end juicers—a story that finds them living happily and healthfully ever after with a high-performance juicer from your store.

KNIFE SHARPENERS
The knife sharpener market has been revolutionized by technological innovations from leading manufacturers. As a result, many types of knife sharpeners have appeared on the market. There are sharpeners that will sharpen both Asian and European/American knives, both fine-edge and serrated blades.
Also available are electric sharpeners for Asian knives that will, in addition, convert a 20-degree edge into a durable, 15-degree edge. Knife sharpeners are typically offered in three distinct categories; manual, electric and hybrid (which combines electric and manual sharpening).
With so many options, your job is to make sense of it all and educate your customers who have invested a small fortune in their knife collections. Once you’ve identified a trusted supplier that offers a broad array of electric, hybrid and manual sharpeners at a variety of price points, forge a strong relationship with them. Use their expertise and training materials to educate your customers and to give you a competitive edge in this category.

Relax, Sharpen, Hone
Many consumers are intimidated by the idea of knife sharpening, and thus laboriously continue to slice and dice with dull knives. Because all knives dull and lose their factory edge after the first several uses, the subsequent edge performance of every knife — from the top of the line to the most affordable — depends on how they’re resharpened.

Education is the key to overcoming the intimidation factor. This year, why not commit to a calendar of regularly scheduled knife sharpening demos that helps customers understand the good, better and best alternatives in maintaining edge quality?

Incorporate lessons for using manual, electric and hybrid sharpeners. It is important to note that properly designed hybrids can be very effective, affordable sharpeners. As you move into the higher value range of the sharpener category, you’re looking at 100 percent professional electric sharpeners, which with their sharpening and honing stages, will deliver the best edge quality overall. Then there’s the speed factor. Electric sharpeners are faster than manual and hybrid sharpeners.

Walk customers through the surprisingly simple process of achieving a razor-sharp edge with a professional electric sharpener. Explain that electric sharpeners allow you to quickly and effectively build the blade’s edge geometry. A superior edge is achieved with a combination of 100 percent diamond abrasives, precision angle guides and multiple sharpening stages for a stronger multi-bevel edge that stays sharper longer. Conventional hollow ground and “V” type edges, will quickly bend over and fail. Also note that all knife sharpeners are not created equal. While a superior sharpener can restore a better-than-factory edge, a lesser quality sharpener can actually damage a knife’s edge.

Some advanced sharpeners also offer a finishing step that polishes the edge with a flexible stropping or polishing disk. Explain that this feature can also be used to sharpen serrated knives. In spite of their “never need sharpening” reputation, serrated knives do need sharpening.

Asian Sensation
The demand for Asian-style knives has increased as more consumers are preparing their favorite Chinese,

Japanese and Thai dishes at home. Indeed, some leading retailers report that Asian knives now account for half of their cutlery sales. Put an Asian knife sharpening demo or Asian cooking class/knife education session on your store calendar now, and you’ll be sure to gain a nice slice of this business.

Begin your demo or cooking class by educating customers about the difference between Asian knives and European and American cutlery. Euro/American knife blades have been traditionally made with a 20-degree edge, while Asian knives offered a 15-degree edge. The 20-degree edge on a Euro/American knife lends itself to chopping and heavy duty repetitive cutting tasks. Meanwhile Asian-style knives are distinguished by their thinner cross section where the edge facets are formed. Explain that this thinner blade is what makes these knives perfect for slicing vegetables, filleting fish and preparing sashimi, but it is also what makes the edges of Asian-style knives prone to fold over and dull more quickly, thereby requiring more frequent sharpening. Point out the importance, particularly for the more fragile 15-degree edge, of using a sharpener that provides an arch-shaped edge for improved durability versus a conventional hollow-ground or “V” edge, which fails quickly.

Diamond Ringer
With electric sharpeners, diamonds are a girl’s and guy’s best friend in the kitchen. That’s because diamonds are the hardest material known and therefore can sharpen any metal; even the hardest alloys. Diamonds are also the most efficient abrasives and will not overheat or detemper the knife blade. They offer superior sharpening and provide the longest lasting abrasive for sharpening any metal alloy.

Knife sharpeners make a great gift for anyone who owns knives. Play up the gift-giving appeal of this category and spotlight your sharpeners with 100 percent diamond abrasives with a bridal-themed display that will also attract the attention of wedding registry, anniversary and birthday present shoppers.

Gain attention for your display by hanging a sign depicting an enormous diamond ring. Use additional signage at table level to communicate the fact that 100 percent diamond abrasives and precise angle control while sharpening will deliver an extremely sharp, durable edge for effortless cutting and slicing.

Round out your display with signage that tells customers what to look for in a quality professional electric sharpener. For example: A trusted brand; multi-stages to achieve a sharper, longer lasting edge; precision angle guides; 100 percent diamond abrasives and an ultra-fine finishing stage.

MIXES
Americans are eating and entertaining more and more at home, but that doesn’t mean we’re chained to our kitchen stoves. We love culinary convenience, especially when it comes to products that help us create a homemade-style dish without the from-scratch labor. Take today’s specialty mixes, for example. There are delicious mixes for everything from olive tapenade to artichoke dip to smoothies and milkshakes. Attractively packaged, the true beauty of these mixes is the ease with which they allow us to entertain a crowd or create a gourmet meal for one in just minutes. With today’s high-quality mixes, it’s like having a caterer in a box — one who’s always on call and always ready for a party.

Party Mixers
This year design a display sure to make your store the destination for every party host and partygoer in town. At the center of your display will be the high-quality mixes you carry. Include mixes to make sweet and savory dips, smoothies and milkshakes. Round out your display with colorful serving pieces and, if you carry perishable foods, all of the ingredients needed to prepare the mixes.

Encourage customers to purchase more than one mix by designing menu card handouts for different parties. Think about the party features you’ve seen in lifestyle magazines. These publications typically turn to a celebrity party planner to create a menu for a certain occasion, such as a baby shower, a garden party, a retirement party, a girl’s night in, etc. They’ll usually suggest a beverage, several appetizers and a dessert, all with a similar theme that ties into the party. For example, you might suggest a Latin-inspired girl’s night in fiesta. Your menu would start with mojito smoothies made with a mojito smoothie mix. Then include appetizers such as roasted red pepper dip, guacamole and salsa—all made from gourmet mixes from your store. For dessert you might recommend a double fudge dip with fresh fruit. Again, if you carry perishables, merchandise all of the ingredients customers would need to prepare the menu in one convenient spot. You may also want to promote your themed party menus and mixes in your e-newsletters as well.

Today’s upscale mixes are not only perfect for those who like to entertain; they also make thoughtful hostess gifts. While the gorgeous packaging on some of these mixes virtually eliminates the need for gift wrapping, consider adding a bit of ribbon to some of your mixes and merchandise them with signage that suggests them as ready-to-give hostess gifts.

Rock the Mixes
Beautiful packaging and delicious ingredients make today’s specialty mixes a true feast for the senses. While these mixes can be attention grabbing on their own, appeal to all five of your customer’s senses with a music- and mix-inspired promotion.

Next summer when the music venues in your area publish their outdoor summer concert schedule, plan to host a series of demos that match up with the musical acts coming to town. Many of these outdoor concerts invite patrons to picnic prior to or during the concert. Your selection of mixes for appetizers, drinks and desserts are the perfect addition to any tailgate or picnic party. During demos, show customers how easy it is to make everything from artichoke dip to spinach dip to cheddar onion dip using a mix. And don’t forget the sweet dips paired with pound cake or fresh fruit for a quick and easy dessert.

As you serve up samples of sweet and savory dips, along with festive beverages made from your smoothie and milkshake mixes, play the music of the band or symphony that is coming to town. You can start this music and mixes demo several days before the concert through the evening of the concert. This will get ticket holders excited for the upcoming show and for some freshly prepared appetizers and drinks made in minutes with mixes from your store.

Sweat Deals
Frozen yogurt is back and bigger than ever thanks to the growing number of frozen yogurt bars around the country. The new yogurt bars allow consumers to serve themselves and then select from a menu of toppings. The only snag with these sweet spots is the price. The yogurt and toppings are usually priced by the pound, making it easy for customers to tip the scales at $4 or $5 per serving. Why not promote an economical and equally delicious alternative using the frozen yogurt mixes from your store? Begin by turning your demo table into a dessert bar. Line up toppings including fresh cut fruit, minced candy bars, cereal and chopped cookies. Demonstrate how easy it is to make frozen yogurt from a mix. Serve up samples and invite customers to top their sample from your “toppings bar.” After one bite of these luscious treats, your customers will realize that with today’s high-quality frozen yogurt mixes they can recreate the yogurt bar experience at home for a fraction of the cost.

Milkshakes and smoothies are also incredibly popular with consumers, so you may want to alternate your yogurt demos with demos featuring smoothies and milkshakes made from mixes. Do the math on these made-at-home treats by comparing the cost of a serving of each made from a mix with that of a similar treat purchased from a local smoothie shop or yogurt bar. Include the cost comparison in the signage around your demo area and let the facts and the flavors of specialty mixes speak for themselves.

REUSABLE PRODUCE BAGS
Like most specialty retailers today, you do your part to deliver a more environmentally responsible shopping experience. And like many eco-conscious retailers, you’ve probably been using recycling bins and selling reusable shopping bags for years. The irony is, in spite of all of our efforts, we’re still using plastic bags in what should be the greenest part of our stores: The produce department. Now thanks to some earth-friendly suppliers, there are reusable bags designed specifically for produce. Some of these are simple mesh produce bags and others are more elaborate carrying cases that have been designed to lie flat in a grocery cart and safely tote a variety of produce. These new items are easy to merchandise in the produce department with the help of low-profile packaging and clip strip options.
Not only do these reusable produce bags make sense from an environmental perspective, they also make cents from a sales point of view, with average gross profits on these bags ranging from 40 to 60 percent. What’s more, increased usage of reusable produce bags will reduce the supply costs associated with providing free plastic produce bags to consumers.

Fresh Outlook
Mesh bags look great and they’re better for the environment. Let your customers see for themselves by merchandising your mesh produce bags in a high-visibility area of the produce department. In some cases, the reusable mesh bag sets are available on pre-loaded clip strips that may be hung from existing plastic bag dispensers, vertical refrigerated produce cases or floor displays. All of these areas would benefit from a little signage explaining why the mesh bags are better than plastic for produce and for the planet.

A Sack for All Seasons
Today’s customers are looking for alternatives to single-use plastic bags, so transferring this sensibility to the produce department and reusable mesh and tote-style veggie shoppers is a no brainer.

While reusable produce bags are important year round, consider stepping up your merchandising and promotion of this category during certain seasons. In April, rather than celebrating Earth Day, pull out all the stops with an Earth Month promotion during which you create a special display featuring eco-friendly products from your store, such as reusable mesh produce bags and tote systems.

As you head into summer’s bounty of fruits and vegetables, create a farmer’s market-style display in your store or just outside your front doors. Merchandise your reusable produce totes around the entire perimeter of your farmer’s market display. To show customers how it’s done, have several employees dressed in street clothes shopping your produce stand using a reusable tote.

Follow this up with a similar how-to-shop with a reusable tote demo in the colder months. Create a root vegetable farmer’s market-style display designed to fight the winter blahs with some earth-friendly shopping fun.

Build a Case for Reusable Bags
One of the most effective ways to spotlight the tremendous value of reusable produce totes is to simply fill them with terrific-looking produce, stand back and let your customers be compelled to buy. Load the various sections of the reusable tote with colorful seasonal fruits and veggies and place them in your produce bins. Consider designating an entire produce bin to pre-filled veggie totes. This will allow customers to see that the veggie totes lay flat and contain different sections to keep produce neat and organized.

If you prefer a more active approach, set up a demo station on a busy day. Give your demo person a supply of reusable veggie totes and surround him or her with fresh produce. Then have your demonstrator show how easy it is to load these items into the bed and pods within the tote. No doubt, customers will be amazed at how much produce these reusable tote systems can carry. This demo will also give them a sense of how portable the system is for shopping. Explain to customers that the totes can be used to carry their produce out of the store and straight into their kitchens.

Mesh produce bags are best demonstrated by filling the sacks with bright and colorful fruits and veggies and then letting them “hang out” in the produce department. To attract additional attention, you may want to fill a number of mesh bags with whatever produce item that you have on sale during a particular day. You could then offer the mesh bag and the sale item for one special price.

By demo-ing and merchandising your reusable mesh and tote produce bags, you’re building a strong case for a more sustainable shopping experience, while at the same time, raising customer awareness about your store’s green efforts.

ELECTRIC FOOD SLICERS
Spend a little; save a lot. That’s the story behind today’s high quality electric food slicers. These easy-to-use small electrics allow home and professional chefs to prepare fresher food more conveniently and cost effectively. From portion-controlled meals to sandwich staples to bountiful party platters stacked high with deli-thin sliced meats and cheeses, it’s clear that electric food slicers are an investment that help to get the job done fast, fresh and for less money.

Slice and Save
Now more than ever, consumers are looking for ways to trim the fat from their household budgets. One simple, yet significant way to save is by packing a lunch to work or school rather than buying it from a restaurant. Want to help your customers save even more? Show them how with informative signage and demos that explain the savings of buying meats and cheeses in bulk and slicing them at home.

Use signage and shelf-talkers around your electric food slicer display to convey these cash-saving stats: Home slicing bulk meats and cheeses can save you more than 50 percent per pound as compared to supermarket-sliced meats and cheeses. With certain meats, such as roast beef, the savings with home slicing can be more than 70 percent per pound! If you’re feeding a crowd with a deli platter, the savings of home slicing soars when compared with purchasing a catered platter. Do your own comparative price shopping at retailers in your area and share these money saving-facts with your customers.

Super Heroes: In the fall, as busy school day schedules resume, host a demo entitled: “Super Heroes.” Demonstrate the ease with which your affordable advanced technology food slicers can help customers to save money and time, while eating better, fresher foods — such as an array of hero sandwiches made with precision-sliced meats, cheeses and vegetables.

Get creative with the Super Hero theme and you’ll be sure to grab the attention of parents of school-age kids. Then let your heavy duty electric food slicers show the crowd what they’re made of: Key parts constructed of cast aluminum and stainless steel; features such as precision thickness control; powerful universal motors; gear-drive operation; and cantilever designs that accommodates most tray and platter sizes for easy transition from preparation to presentation.

Use this demo to show busy customers how electric food slicers save time. Point to your selection of advanced slicers that are designed for continuous operation rather than those that require periodic shutting down to allow the motor to cool. Today’s state-of-the-art machines don’t keep users waiting; only wanting more freshly sliced foods. And speaking of fresh, be sure to let customers know that because of the oxidation process, luncheon meat sliced from bulk as needed stays fresh longer than pre-sliced meats.

Finally, you’ll be your customers’ super hero, when you explain how electric food slicers save money. This is no bologna: The average savings on a turkey sandwich made from bulk turkey sliced at home versus a supermarket bought sandwich is 57 percent, and the savings on a home sliced roast beef sandwich is about 73 percent (based on a 4-ounce serving of meat).

Bread & Cutter
Electric food slicers lend themselves to cross promotions in general, and to cross merchandising with bread machines specifically. Consider hosting a cross-promotion during which you offer a special savings on the purchase of both a bread machine and electric food slicer. During your promotion, schedule regular demos to show customers how easily electric food slicers perfectly slice a variety of breads. Be sure to incorporate a variety of bread types from traditional loaves to crusty baguettes to highlight th versatility and uniform slicing precision of your electric food slicers.

Food dehydrators also lend themselves to cross promotion with food slicers. When fruits are seasonal and plentiful, pop them in a food dehydrator. Today’s electric food slicers will provide uniform and precision slicing of these dried fruits. Add the sliced dried fruits to your bread machine mix, and you’ve got a trifecta of small electric winners.

Home for the Holidays
An electric food slicer is a holiday host’s best friend. Beautiful party platters can be created quickly, easily and cost effectively with a high-quality slicer. Why not show your customers how to entertain for less while wowing their guests with a holiday spread like no other?

Host a Home for the Holidays promotion and put your electric food slicers on center stage. Begin by demonstrating how to “Up the Antipasto” with precision-sliced prosciutto, salami, Italian cheeses, tomatoes, fennel and more for a gorgeous holiday platter. This demo will give you the chance to highlight the optional ham-slicing blade that comes with some slicers, allowing for the creation of ultra-thin slices of specialty meats.

When preparing party platters during holiday crunch time, speed is of the essence, so be sure to spotlight electric food slicer models with gravity feed modes. These create an invaluable tool for the home and professional chef. With gravity feed (true gravity feed is at a 30 percent angle), slicing fruits, vegetables, breads and more is a snap, as the foods are essentially self-fed, producing precision slices in no time at all.

Your customers will have many reasons to celebrate the holidays at home when they learn the important features and benefits of your electric slicers, including high-quality construction; quality and durability of the blade; precision and uniformity of sliced foods; continuous operation; and ease of cleaning and use.

SPICE MILLS
Today’s cooking styles are all about adding flavor and cutting fat. That’s why spice mills are an essential part of any kitchen. As consumers become more interested in creating great-tasting and healthful foods at home, provide them the proper tools that enable them to capture the intensity and true flavor of a particular spice. Whether it is the everyday pasta dish or the Indian-inspired meal, you’ll have them enjoying a range of freshly ground spices from the well-known ready-to-grind Italian spices, to the more exotic bold, pungent aroma of a Tellicherry black pepper.

Not One Size Fits All
From classic, wooden mills to novelty shapes, spice mills come in a variety of shapes, materials, sizes and price points. And as a gourmet retailer, it is important that you stock a well-rounded selection. For a relatively low investment, you can showcase the diversity of the spice mills on the market today. Doing so will make a statement to your shoppers that spice mills are essential kitchen tools, and like knives, it is beneficial to have more than just one.

Having an educated staff who can explain features and benefits of various spice mills is vital to converting the casual shopper into a buyer. Partnering with a vendor that has a broad selection of grinders—and point-of-sales materials available—will make staff training on details such as grinding mechanisms, use & care, and manufacturers’ warranties, a breeze.

Points to Highlight

Highlight how a mill’s adjustability gives the user the ability to grind at different levels, taking the guesswork out of finding the right grind for any dish. For instance, a fine grind is ideal for incorporating spices into the meal while cooking, whereas a coarse grind adds the perfect finishing touch to soups, stews, and grilled meat. Mills that have preset grind levels make it even easier to find the right grind.
Discuss how ceramic mechanisms can give the consumer the flexibility to grind anything from sea salt to chili flakes to dried herbs. The anti-static, non-clogging mechanism is also anti-corrosive to give the mill durability throughout the years.
Educate customers about how the mill’s mechanism does the job. For the best flavor release, look for mills with mechanisms designed to strip the layers of peppercorns, instead of just crushing the spice.

Grinding Station
Of course, there is no better way for your customers to understand the features and benefits of a product than by trying it out themselves. Spice Mills is the perfect category to do this, as they require little overhead, small space and can provide big fun.

Set up a grinding station and get the mill into the customers’ hands. Showcase different styles of mills and inspire customers to try freshly ground spices: Sarawak peppercorns over strawberries, sea salt over vegetables, or cardamom on a freshly brewed cappuccino. Be sure to highlight the basics of the spice mill and help customers make the choice that best suits their cooking needs and compliments their décor.

Let Your Signage Do The Talking
Take advantage of the diversity of mills and promote them to customers based on their design or material. At the Grind Station, use signage to help guide customers to choose the right mill for their style.

Through proper signage, wonderful displays and intriguing promotions, retailers can open up new opportunities to sell spice mills for every cooking and eating occasion. And, because there are a variety of different types and styles of spice mills, this category is ideal for creating effective displays throughout the store. Acrylic stands, easels and other POP pieces are the perfect way to educate customers on the features and benefits of the mills.

Simple verbiage, such as:

A classic mill is the perfect addition to an elegant dinner table.
Hit a home run with Dad this Father’s Day (placed near the whimsical baseball bat shaped mill.)
An acrylic mill– perfect for the picnic table.
Try the one-handed operation of an electric mill. (Also great for people with limited hand mobility.)
Fool your friends with a beer bottle peppermill.
Create a coordinated look with your stainless steel kitchen.

The Perfect Year-Round Gift
Spice mills make a perfect year-round gift for new and experienced cooks. Highlight an eye-catching design, a gift set, or a whimsical shape that will bring a smile to the face of the recipient. Bundle salt and pepper mills together with spices for the perfect gift – for hostesses, bridal showers, Father’s Day, holidays and birthdays. Give customers a discount on the purchase of two mills to make a set.

Highlight a Recipe
Educate customers of the benefits of freshly ground spices for use when cooking, barbecuing, entertaining or picnicking. Highlight a recipe that uses a freshly ground spice. In your demos and your cooking classes, show how a spice mill can quickly enhance everyday favorites. Freshly ground cloves give baked goods a delicious touch, and nutmeg adds a depth of flavor to mashed potatoes and cheese sauces.

Here are some suggestions to bring customers into your store time and again:

With each purchase of a spice mill, the customer could receive three coupons to be used on their next three purchases of spice blends at your store.
Hand out recipe cards that promote the use of freshly ground spices.
Create a spice booklet that highlights the uses and flavor profiles of various spices, including peppercorns and sea salt.

WAFFLE MAKERS
If the fresh crop of gourmet waffle trucks hitting the streets in San Francisco and New York are any indication, waffles could very well be the next “it” dessert trend to sweep the nation. And it’s about time. From Belgian to krumkake to pizzelles, what’s not to love about the many warm and wonderful styles of waffles? Serve these comforting sweet treats with ice cream, whipped cream, fresh fruit, or mascarpone and they’re utterly irresistible.
In fact, the only improvement to this decadent waffle menu would be the ability to prepare these delights quickly and easily in the comfort of one’s home. That’s where you and your, hopefully, extensive array of waffle makers come in. Your goal: Become the “it” retailer for this sizzling small electric.

Make a Statement
The first step in becoming a destination store for waffle makers is to carry a brand that offers a complete line, including waffle makers for Belgian waffles, heart-shaped waffles, krumkake, petite cones and pizzelles. The second step is, of course, educating customers about the features and benefits of today’s advanced technology waffle makers, such as models that allow users to customize their waffle texture, color and flavor to toasty golden perfection.

The ability to personalize the waffle making experience is one of the great advantages of these high-quality machines. Consider publicizing this strong selling point in your next newsletter. Write about waffle makers and how they allow you to prepare delicious waffles to your particular taste. For example, if it’s a crisper waffle with a soft, moist interior you desire, use the fast bake option. But if it’s a more uniform all-over toasty texture you crave, then a deep bake is your best bet.

Your newsletter feature on waffle makers can also tell the story of advanced technology waffle makers with electronic controls that automatically detect the presence of batter. These controls start the baking timer and tell you when the waffle is done by beeping or illuminating a ready light. Some waffle makers feature baking plates that create uniform waffle thickness by evenly distributing the batter without the need to flip. Also point to waffle makers with spacious and easily accessed overflow channels that make for an easy-to-clean machine. What’s more, these high-tech waffle makers are fast and efficient. Some bake delicious waffles in just 90 seconds or less, and instantly recover their temperature for continuous baking.

Waffle Trend Spotting
Earlier this year, The Food Channel® presented its Top Ten Dessert Trends for 2010. The list, based on research conducted jointly with CultureWaves® and the International Food Futurists®, put waffles in the No. 4 spot. Under a category called “Transformers,” waffles were cited as an example of taking everyday foods, combining them with familiar flavors, like ice cream or fruit, and then transforming them into provocative new desserts.

Take a peak at The Food Channel’s trend list online and you’ll also find a link to a recipe designed to illustrate the Transformer appeal. Accompanying the recipe is an enticing photo that captures luscious layers of Belgian waffles sandwiching strawberry and vanilla ice cream, all of which are dripping in hot fudge sauce. Let’s put it this way, if you didn’t own a waffle maker, and you saw this photo, the impulse to buy would be epic.

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Invite your sales staff and customers to take pictures of their favorite waffle creations and email them to you. Make enlarged prints of the best examples, and place the mouthwatering images around your waffle maker display for a subtle, yet compelling sales strategy.

Pretty as a Pizzelle
Pizzelles are an enduring and endearing holiday tradition. Indeed, some consider the pizzelle the world’s oldest cookie. These pretty and delicious waffles are also super easy to make with an advanced pizzelle maker. In under a minute, you can make two five-inch pizzelles ready to eat on their own or for serving rolled and stuffed with a tasty filling. Other models, allow you to bake three thin, delicate pizzelles in less than 60 seconds.

Christmas is an ideal time to promote your pizzelle makers, but don’t forget other holidays like Mother’s Day and Easter. Consider creating holiday dessert cart displays for all three holidays and feature them at appropriate times of the year. Park your dessert cart in a high-visibility area of the store and fill it with various seasonally inspired sweets made with pizzelles. Merchandise your pizzelle makers next to the dessert cart. Make a dessert menu sign that names each treat and its ingredients. Chocolate mousse-filled pizzelles that have been formed into a basket shape, cannoli-style pizzelles stuffed with mascarpone or whipped cream and fruit-filled pizzelles are all tempting options. If you carry petite cone waffle makers, these little waffles are also perfect to feature rolled and filled for savory and sweet holiday delights.