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OPINION: Doing local differently

In Gary Pilsworth's latest column for Retail Express, he looks at how he gets local right with his takeaway food range.

We get local people who come in for toasted sandwiches, teas and coffees, so I’m looking to rip the takeaway food fixture out and try something different.

local productsWe’re going to completely rearrange it, so I’m thinking of moving newspapers, magazines and drinks to where all the takeaway food is. We’ll also move the cooking apparatus down near the till end so it’s closer to the fixture and we won’t have to have our regular local customers going backwards and forwards.

I’ve had a new drinks fridge from Lucozade put in recently, which is looking really good. I’ve always done reasonably well with Lucozade but now I’m stocking the full range, including more obscure flavours, and I’ve seen sales grow as a result.

We change things all the time. Because we’re in the country I promote lots of country-style food, such as jams, and it goes very quickly at first, but customers get bored so you have to change things quickly.

We still go quite well on local food – I’ve got a farm near me that produces pork, lamb, beef and chicken so we can get fresh meat on a daily basis if we want.

The farmer comes in every day and checks with us and even though Christmas was very quiet for us, we did lots of turkeys, chickens, beef and pheasant. I get better margins on local produce too.

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