Creating Destination Cheese Departments

Ask any retailer what they want their specialty cheese department to be, and you will hear the same enthusiastic proclamation: “a destination.” They want a case that customers will travel across town for, and a counter that gives people a reason to choose their store.

After more than three decades in specialty foods, I can tell you that the destination is never because of the cheese alone.

Anyone can buy cheese. What makes a destination is what never appears on an invoice: relationships, planning, and a showcase. There is no one-size-fits-all formula, but there are principles, and they have never failed me.

KNOW THE FAMILY BEFORE THE PRODUCT

Everything in my department starts with a relationship. Before a wheel ever reaches my counter, I want to understand the origin of its story.

Why did this person, this family, choose to bring this product forward? What makes it unique? How is it different from everything else in the case, and is it relevant to the season I am building? Respect between merchant and maker is the first step in managing a stellar department.

That means taking the time to visit a brand’s homebase. You do not forget where a cheese comes from after you stood in the place where it was conceived. Knowing the family changes everything.

You come home with more than an order. You come home with a story your team can tell at the counter, and customers can taste the difference between a product that was bought and a product that was cultivated.

Believing in a product carries an obligation. You cannot chase every brand that walks through the door. You must be selective, and you need integrity to know whatever brand you choose, you are going to own it, support it, and make it work.

After every program, I touch base with my makers and ask the simple questions: What worked? What didn’t? Why not? What can we do better to entice our customers? That conversation is what turns a vendor into a partner.

Domestic partners deserve the same commitment. Wisconsin Cheese has been a tremendous ally for exactly this reason. They are consistent, they support the programs, and they are genuinely invested in helping retailers build business in a way that communicates heritage and drives identity.

When your partners know you have their backs the way they have yours, you are doing business the right way, and it shows in the case.

PLAN THE SEASON, NOT THE TREND

The calendar drives the case. Whatever cheese or idea I bring to relevancy is planned against that season, and it is never a spontaneous decision.

I began planning fall’s merchandising in early spring. That lead time makes it possible to select the right items, visit the cheesemakers, understand their stories, and make sure every partner knows what we were building together.

I study trends, and every merchant should. But I am not driven by them. I will not chase the goose that lasts a week or two and leaves me sitting on 2,000 pounds of a cheese nobody wants.

Stay in touch with what your customers are actually looking for, stay the course, and create a theme.

BUILD THE TABLE

Once the partners are chosen and the season is planned, I design the layout of the department around key drivers that I call “feature tables.” A feature table has one job. It stops the customer with something unique, something different, and something that drives profitability for the department.

Uniqueness and difference are not decoration — they are standard.

I don’t want what everybody else has, not the same Pecorinos and not the same Gouda. If a customer can find the identical item anywhere, the table has failed.

The table is also where the first two principles payoff: the whole wheel from a family the merchant has literally visited, the sign that tells the customer why this cheese exists, the taste offered before a word is spoken.

Nobody asks for a cheese they never heard of. They ask for the one they tasted.

Signage matters more than most retailers believe. A good sign is the maker’s voice at the counter, telling the customer in a few lines why this product is worth the trip.

TRANSLATING IT TO YOUR COUNTER

If you want a destination department, start where the invoices can’t take you. Choose fewer brands and own them completely. Support them, believe in them.

Put next season on the calendar now, because the department you want in October is designed in April. Then give your best stories a stage: a table, a sign, a taste.

And remember, none of this is about the merchant. A destination department is an ecosystem of passionate people. My job is to keep that ecosystem healthy. Products fill a case. People, planning, and passion fill a store.

Franklin A. Fernandez is director of specialty cheese at Uncle Giuseppe’s Marketplace, where he leads cheese merchandising, private-label development, and producer partnerships across the company’s stores in New York and New Jersey.