After surviving the cold and slow sales of winter, we’re finally nearing the events-packed months of summer. RN finds out how three top retailers take advantage

Alison Greenow – Pughs Londis, Hay-on-Wye

Hay Literary Festival

 

Champion local produce
During the Hay Literary Festival, we bring in higher volumes of a lot of local produce, including cider, ales and jams.

Concentrate on customer service
It’s a lovely time, it’s much busier, and we get families coming in buying picnic food, takeaway rolls and crisps. We try to be as friendly as possible to everyone who comes in.

Remember the basics
We just make sure we’re well stocked one, put signage outside the store.

Christine Hope – Pontrilas Post Office & Shop, Pontrilas

Our own
 ‘Plastic-free’ festival

Put on your own event
We run a pop-up shop for four days in August during our own ‘Plastic-free’ festival at a local farm.

Commit to your plans
It takes a lot of planning and logistics but it’s worth it. We make about 75% of what we would take in January over that four-day period alone.

Look out for local events
We’ve also connected to the Herefordshire Walking Festival – so after their walk people can come and have tea and Welsh cakes here which boosts sales.

Soban Shanmuganathan – Burgess Stores, Goudhurst, Kent

Village fete

Run a stall
During the village green fete last year, I ran a Pimm’s stall, which helped expose our store to a wider audience – people were coming up and asking us about it.

Amend your orders
We get extra barbecue meats in and make sure the full range is displayed well in store. We also do a larger range of cider, beer and rosé wines.

Be creative
Our sales go up by 30% during summer – it really is the busiest time of the year. So we’re always open to opportunities for creative promotions.