Gourmet Business September 2017

Get Your Holiday Orders In Early

The change of seasons from summer to fall seems so rapid in New England.  The warmest days now end with cool nights that remind us of the gradual cool down still to come.  It’s a time to enjoy the bounty of the harvest.  The locally farmed tomatoes have ripened, and we only have a few weeks to enjoy them.  September is a special month indeed.

Now it’s time to look forward because the fourth quarter will begin before we know it.  Do you know what you are buying for your store for the holiday gift-giving season?  If not, you better get to it.  I find that suppliers are keeping their inventories sharp lately.  Meaning they have ordered the amount of products necessary to service their larger customers who have made their buying decisions long ago, and have provided forecasts of their needs.  They will certainly stock more than that, but not much more.  If you place your order now, the company is also aware of your intentions.  Even if you delay the shipping of the order until later in the season, at least the company is able to plan to have inventory available for your store too.  Suppliers tell me stories about receiving orders in November all the time, and being unable to ship them.  They say if they only knew sooner, they could have made an effort to have the product available. Don’t let that be your story!

If you are still on the fence as to the right merchandise to have on hand, you can try asking the supplier for a suggestion.  They might even give you an idea of what’s been selling this year so far to help put you on the right track.  You may also want to consider taking a ride down to your local bookstore that displays a number of different magazines.  Make note of what your seeing on the cover of the cooking related titles.  What recipes are you seeing inside?  These cues will give you hints as to what is in demand currently, and hopefully put you on the trail of the hot holiday product.

For those of you who haven’t noticed already, we did publish our holiday gift guide in our August issue.  You can easily refer back to it, and see if anything catches your eye.

Let the forth quarter begin!

David Spencer 

Publisher, Gourmet Business 

dspencer@gourmetbusiness.com