Speciality-Food-Magazine-November-December-2024

4 @specialityfood The additional activity was “definitely worth it” Geoff adds. “Our 3Dmaize maze field has become a real family attraction. It basically takes everything that works for us in summer, and translocates that into autumn.” Secretts of Milford in Surrey also ‘goes big’ at Halloween, with an enormous amount of effort going into planning. The retailer’s first Halloween experience was completely unplanned, though. In 2009, when a wholesale customer pulled out of an order for 1,000 pumpkins, the teamneeded to think quick on their feet. “Not wanting to waste themwe offered free tickets to the local community to come and pick their own,” says events manager Stacey Greaves. “It turned out to be a huge success, and we realised the potential for a family-friendly event that went beyond just picking pumpkins.” This year Secretts added themed walkways and trails, fancy dress competitions, activities for children, and hadmore than 200,000 pumpkins (in 12 varieties) to pick. One of the oldest handmade wooden carousels was also on site, while visitors dining at the farm shop tucked into pumpkin cake, soup or curry. “It’s been a significant boost to our business,” Stacey says of Halloween. Although the autumn trading period might seem like a distant memory as we gear up for the December rush, now’s the time to start planning for 2025, say experts, especially if Halloween is an occasion you’ve downplayed in the past. There are myriad ways, they say, to up the ante next year, from investing in autumnal theming and bringing cosy touches to your on-site cafe menu, to growing PYO pumpkin patches, and even investing in adult ‘scare’ events. Farm shops especially are capitalising on the British appetite for ghoulishly-themed days out. The success of these attractions speaks for itself according to those who run them. Geoff Baron of Canalside Farm Shop in Staffordshire says they added pumpkins to their offering nearly 10 years ago. To date, October is now the business’s second-best month overall annually. “We started doing it ultimately because our year seemed to end when the kids went back to school in September, and we kicked along into Christmas, then things picked up again in spring the following year,” Geoff says. “We had space, and saw how other people had been able to extend their sales year into deep in autumn just by having this extra experience, so we gave it a go.” “Our customers enjoy the festive atmosphere, purchasing pumpkins and seasonal produce, and indulging in our delightful treats. It’s also a great support for our farm shop, which sees increased visitation during the week, along with all of the other independent businesses situated on-site. The farm shop serves as an extension of PumpkinWeek, with big displays of pumpkins outside, and plenty of Halloween-themed treats inside.” Secretts, says Stacey, has seen the same families return every year for more than a decade, enjoying the activities with their now-teenagers or grown-up children in tow. “It’s really rewarding to see the same faces. We love to see how important Pumpkin Week has become to people. It makes all the months of planning and hard work that comes before thoroughly worth it!” Her advice for getting it right? • Look to evolve, but never forget your core values. For us, it’s offering a great day out at an affordable price, with lots of activities to keep everyone entertained. • Think carefully about food, andmake sure the offering is wide enough to cater for all tastes and dietary needs. • Consider sets and backdrops. Everyone is looking for that great Instagrammoment. Our huge pumpkin fields and fun Halloween- themed sets are a big part of our success. I have recently been reading that the traditional pantomime, which is somewhat unique to the UK, is not only surviving the cost- of-living crisis but in many places actually flourishing with bookings encouragingly up in recent times. Are there lessons for us speciality food retailers to learn from this unusual phenomenon? We all know how important December is to our annual profits. After 52 years it is still the yearly highlight for us at Partridges in terms of sales. Our customer count has rebounded well following Covid and our sales are still reasonably robust compared to pre-pandemic. Similarly in 2023, according to Stage magazine, pantomimes were apparently flourishing and they are still actually considered to be the lifeblood of the industry in many places. Good pantomimes and good speciality food shops do have some things in common. For example, the Christmas narrative, elaborate scenery, a good cast of characters, some element of slapstick, may I add, and also audience participation unrivalled in other productions throughout the year. But they also have another common element – the sheer physical hard work necessary, day in day out to keep the show on the road. As with the panto audience, customer gratification is the key goal. One of the most serious complaints we receive from loyal customers is that they cannot find what they are looking for. In truth we must lose a fair amount of custom by frustrating sales in this way. The problem is that JOHN SHEPHERD PARTRIDGES “Panto season” Christmas deliveries start arriving in September and need to be accommodated appropriately. Preferably not Christmas puddings by the front door. This causes a lot of confusion to regular customers and I who embark on David Attenborough- style excursions to look for cranberry jelly etcetera. Rarely people shop the whole shop but target different areas such as deli, wines, American section or condiments. However, our goal is to make it as easy as possible for people to get what they want for their stock up trips (large orders), fill in trips (medium sized orders) and top up trips (single items in short supply), so signage and sensible shelf stacking are vital. The art of shelf stacking is often overlooked but there is an art to it; eyelevel sells so much more than higher and lower on a shelf, and product placement of related purchases is very beneficial. So much for the importance of the nuts and bolts, in the end for us it is about providing not just convenience but also distraction at Christmas. Distractions can include Halloween displays in the early days of the season followed by Thanksgiving suggestions in the middle, and a sprinkling of tastings and activities throughout. The Christmas lights switch on ceremony in mid-November will provide the slapstick element, where we have wine samplings and food tastings, fine food market stalls and this year the public distilling our own gin – Kings Road Gin – al fresco and in public (hopefully). Screens can entertain and help us with many things, but you still can’t beat human interaction in theatres and speciality food shops alike. If anyone says, “no it isn’t the case” we would reply “Oh yes it is.” And let’s hope for many encores to come. With best wishes for Christmas and a peaceful 2025. Have you beenmaking the most of Halloween? Apparently Brits spent a whopping £1 billion on Halloween last year, positioning it as a critical retailing period, thought to rival even Christmas in terms of adding value to sales. Screens can entertainandhelpus withmany things, but you still can't beat human interaction in theatres and speciality shops alike