Top Stories » Special Features » Profiles & Trends

The online quiz for this story is available in PDF format. Click here to download.

---

If the world was fair and the budget unlimited, every young or aspiring cheesemonger would spend a few days in Paris perusing a selection of the neighborhood cheese shops that inhabit that city. Whatever one can say about the French — and I’m sure there is plenty to say, they do know how to display cheese. Beautiful, natural-rind cheeses sit in neat rows on woven straw mats and sport elegant, terse signs that bear little more than each cheese’s name and price. The selection is typically not huge but the cheeses are pristine, perfectly aged, and obviously cared for as though the whole place was a nursery, a fromage daycare. Often, no other products are in the store save wine, possibly some sort of crackers, or condiments specific to cheese. Sadly, most of those lovely displays would never get past the local health inspectors here in the U.S., and of course, many of the cheeses themselves would not even make it into the country. Nevertheless, there is much to learn from our French cousins when it comes to merchandising cheese. They understand and appreciate the cheeses’ innate beauty — their forms, their colors, and their textures. They also understand that the serious cheese customer needs to consider the cheeses, smell them, poke them to determine if they are ripe enough, and ultimately, to decide whether or not they will be right for their tables on this particular night. Alas, the world is not perfect, and the modern American Cheese Department often has special needs to consider and many more cheeses to display. Still, dressing the cheese case is one of the most important tasks of the cheesemonger. So if you think you have a hard time getting dressed in the morning, consider what it’s like to dress a cheese case for success.

MAKING A CASE
A staggering number of cheeses are produced in the world. Hundreds of fine domestic cheeses are submitted each year for judging at the American Cheese Society competition. France has even more, prompting General DeGaulle to make his famous statement about the difficulty of governing a country that offers so many types of cheese. Add to all of these the great cheeses of Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom and you have — even if you only carry a fraction of the total — an enormous number of cheeses to display, describe, and merchandise. Unfortunately, the result is that too many cheese cases are packed so tightly that it is difficult to see the forest for the trees. This is an important consideration because your cheese cases, whether they are full- or self-service, speak volumes about your product and the reputation of your store.

One of the most important considerations for a cheesemonger is the type of fixtures they use to present their selection. For a long time, at least in specialty cheese shops, European-style glass-front cases were the standard, with or without a display area on the top. Though these cases can be very elegant, they can also be very difficult to maintain. Additionally, the cheeses down in front may be difficult to reach, especially if the counter person has short arms. Some models open in the front, making it easier to build displays and maintain the case, but they are not as practical for servicing the customer. European-style glass-front cases seem better suited for Fresh Meat Departments or pastries than they do for a specialty cheese selection and retailers are using them much less often.

Increasingly, what are known as coffin cases are favored by cheesemongers. Despite the morbid name, coffin cases are great because you can assemble displays for which you would normally have to use a countertop, which in most cases would conflict with local health codes. Instead of filling them up with cut and wrapped cheeses, however, line the bottom with marble or woven mats and build displays that evoke those Parisian cheese counters. You can make varying levels in the case, include whole wheels, and even use them to cross-merchandise products that complement the cheeses. Best of all, they are easy to maintain, and can be accessed easily by both customers and employees.

Working in conjunction with coffin cases, many cheese retailers are using upright cases that can showcase large, whole wheels, such as those of Cheddars, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and so on. Upright cases don’t consume much real estate, which makes them very good display units for items that are not fast turnovers, and they can also be used for self-service out on the sales floor where again, they sit flat against the wall, out of the way of traffic.
Two other types of cases are useful, the first being a multitiered island case much like what you might see in a produce aisle. These are terrific for self-service if the volume is high enough because they hold a great deal of cheese. The other case type, a variation of the island case, is an island case with work space in the middle. In other words, it’s basically a coffin case that wraps around a service station, allowing workers to cut and wrap cheese, wait on customers, and perform the routine chores of a Cheese Department, all in full view of the shoppers.

As far as merchandising the cases, some people have an innate sense of composition and an artistic flair, resulting in cases that come alive and look stunningly beautiful. Others for whom style is an elusive goal need guidance in setting up the cheese case. Others still, especially nascent cheesemongers, may have style but lack a full understanding of the cheeses and therefore, although their displays are attractive, the cases end up being confusing and hard to shop. Again, there is a big difference in self-service cases whose goal is to make it easy for the customers to make their selections and find what they are seeking, as well as easy maintenance, and service cases in which aesthetics and dramatic presentations are more important.

Several methods exist for arranging your cheese selection in the case and often a combination of styles is appropriate. You can group by texture or degree of hardness (soft, semi-soft, firm, hard), by type of milk used, or even by country or state of origin. Most people group the cheeses by texture since cheeses of the same degree of hardness share common traits in terms of storage and handling. However, you may wish to group together your Italian cheese selection, or do a special group of cheeses made in your state.

Although they come in different textures, it is still a good idea to keep certain like-minded cheeses together, such as goat, blue, soft-ripened, and washed-rind cheeses. All tend to be specifically requested cheeses rather than random selections. In other words, shoppers who want goat cheese or blue cheese probably want to see them all and choose. Also, you may want to group together all the cheeses specific to cooking, such as many of the cheeses of Italy and Switzerland. Finally, consider displays of whole wheels or cut wheels of cheeses that can stand out of refrigeration for extended periods, such as farmhouse English Cheddars, grana-type cheeses, Gruyere, and Emmental. These can make for very dramatic and impressive displays and indicate that yours is a serious place to buy cheese.

Change can be a good thing, but when it comes to your regular cheese display, don’t change it too much too often or your regular shoppers will find it difficult to find what they want. Dedicate a place for revolving displays, such as specials, new cheeses, or promotions. All of this is even more important in a self-serve case of course, but even at the service counter, you want customers to feel a sense of familiarity with their Cheese Department and not have to start at square one every time they shop. Leave some space in the case so the individual cheeses can be seen and not look like one big mass of cheese, and intersperse some related merchandise from around the store that cross-merchandises well with cheese, such as dried fruits and nuts, fruit pastes, fresh herbs, and olives. By the same token, don’t be afraid to merchandise cheese in other departments. For example, create a display of blue cheese crumbles with the ground beef in the fresh meat area, or put feta and fresh goat cheese in with the fresh produce to help spur add-on sales for salads.

SIGNING IN
Every cheese in your case — either self-service or full-service — should have a sign of some sort sticking out of it with at least the minimum amount of information. Signage is a fabulously effective tool and it is one that is sadly underused. Signage not only helps your customers with their selection process, but it also gives you an opportunity to show off how much you know about your product, to bolster the reputation of a relatively unknown cheesemaker, or just to help educate your customers. Be creative. Be bold. Be informative. Be noticed.

A good example of the importance of signage is in the case of genuine Emmental cheese from Switzerland. This is the cheese whence the term “Swiss cheese” originates. It has a host of imitators both in Europe and the United States, and many of them are very good. Why should a consumer pay considerably more for the original when they can obtain a very good facsimile? In the end, a customer may opt for the imitation but you owe it to the Swiss dairy farmers and cheesemakers to inform customers of the difference. We know why it costs more. It’s because it’s made in a time-honored tradition that dates back hundreds of years, with every step of the process highly regulated — from the birth of the cow to the moment the cheese comes off the shelf and goes to market. It’s because the verdant Alpine pastures produce superior milk and the final cheese has depths of flavor that most of the imitators can only imagine. Now, a knowledgeable salesperson can impart that information but too often, the decisions are made while a shopper is perusing the cheese case before they are even assisted.

Good signage should include the cheese’s name and/or type (e.g., “Keen’s Farmhouse Cheddar”), the country of origin, and where it is applicable, the specific region or state (i.e., “Piedmont, Italy”, “Vermont, USA”). There should also be a description of the cheese, the type of milk, and the price per unit of sale (pound, half-pound, piece, etc.). The description, of course, is where you can become creative and even set your store apart from your competitors. You can romanticize the cheese, waxing poetic about the cheesemakers, the land, the animals, or some interesting aspect of the cheese or the cheesemaker’s history. Creating a story around the cheese and letting the customer in on little-known facts can create excitement that will directly affect sales.
And don’t neglect the back of the signs. Many retailers use the back of signs to list information that the salesperson needs to know. Examples of this type of information include pronunciation help (Asiago, AH-see-ah-go), PLU numbers, whether the cheese is pasteurized or not, and technical descriptions of the texture, type, and flavor of the cheese. In training material issued by the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board (WMMB), they even recommend using the back of the sign to diagram cutting techniques for whole wheels. Anything you can do to make even your greenest employees appear knowledgeable will be good for your business.

Beyond all the merchandising techniques, the single most important thing you can do to increase sales is to have customers taste your cheeses. As the poet T.S. Elliot advised us, no amount of information can compare with personally examining the cheese. Let us not forget either that specialty cheese is a living, breathing, and most of all, a changing entity. That’s another reason to hold tastings as often as possible, and to work the cheese case as if you were tending a garden. Cheeses need to be nurtured and cared for like children. Otherwise, you might just as well be selling Velveeta and Cheeze Whiz.