Dear Customers,
Back a little more than a month ago, our wholesaler held their semi-annual food show in Connecticut. Because they’re a pretty big outfit, they try to locate it where it’s most convenient for themselves rather than for the hundreds of member grocery stores located in and around our area!
In fact, our manager made the nearly 500-mile trip to the Mohegan Sun resort and casino located nearly to the Rhode Island border just to take advantage of all the special buys and new items available only at the “show”. As inconvenient as it is, it’s also vitally important for us as a small grocery store. The pricing isn’t available on-line and you have to attend to be afforded the savings.
The whole reason for attending is so that we can offer discounts and cost savings on a huge assortment of seasonal items. The food show items we ordered in August will begin trickling into our store over the next several weeks and months. This is the time of year that Halloween, Thanksgiving and even Christmas items will make their way to our aisles and shelves.
When my brother, Sam was alive he had an unreasonable hatred of cardboard “shippers” that clog up most store’s traffic pattern. A few strategically placed shippers would make it necessary to weave a snake-like path through our aisle, making it more difficult to navigate. It wasn’t uncommon for him to come in, espy a display in one of our aisles and summarily dismantle it – usually with the toe of his boot. He scared a lot of cashiers in his day and even the managers caught on quickly – keep the aisles free of clutter!
Since his passing, I’ve watched as more and more cardboard displays appear in nearly every aisle. The reason is obvious. They contain relevant, seasonal products, at often substantial savings. Nothing like tripping over something to realize, “hey I should get some of that!”