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Seasonal merchandise helps grocery businesses

In many cases seasonal merchandise for grocery stores focuses on candy or other food, and grocery stores which sell greeting cards also address seasonal demand. The National Grocers Association conference at the San Diego Convention Center invited Regent Products Corporation sales manager Ken Soens to give a presentation on adding Halloween costumes, decorations and other accessories to grocery store merchandise.

A year-round planning of holidays, including those associated with barbecues rather than decorations, other than the display of American flags for Memorial Day and Independence Day, was the focus of “Increase Your Sales With Seasonal and Holiday Merchandise” in which Soens told his audience how they can increase purchases of seasonal and holiday items throughout the year.

Seasonal merchandise also provides a 30 to 50 percent profit margin for the retailer and can represent as much as 30 percent of annual sales.

“Seasonal merchandise plays a huge role throughout the year in grocery sales,” Soens said. “There’s plenty of opportunities throughout the year.”

Americans spend $465 billion on Christmas items including presents as well as decorations and food, $18.2 billion for Easter, and $9 billion for Halloween. Candy provides $2.6 billion of annual Halloween sales with annual spending of $3.2 billion on costumes, $2.2 billion on decorations and $400 million on greeting cards.

Customers visit a grocery store an average of 1.6 times each week.

“You have that convenience of having a destination,” Soens said.

Because most new year’s eve and new year’s day sales occur in December, the first holiday of the calendar year in terms of sales and marketing is Valentine’s Day. Celebrations – and sales opportunities – also occur for St. Patrick’s Day, Easter and Memorial Day.

Promotions for Memorial Day include barbecue instruments.

“Memorial Day kicks off the barbecue season,” Soens said.

Some high school and college graduations precede Memorial Day while others follow that holiday, and graduation balloons and other decorations complement cards as sales items.

Independence Day and Labor Day also allow for barbecue-related promotions, as does the rest of summer.

Halloween includes costumes and decorations as well as candy.

“Halloween is growing by leaps and bounds,” Soens said.

Thanksgiving includes decorations as well as food, and that is also the case with Christmas and new year’s.

Because decorations and cooking accessories are often one-time expenses, baby boomers on average spend less on seasonal merchandise since they are more likely to have those items already. Generation X customers spend an average of $703 annually on seasonal merchandise, millennials spend an average of $609 and baby boomers have an annual average expenditure of $576.

Because customers are in a grocery store for food and beverage purchases, seasonal merchandise allows for a one-stop trip.

“What you have is the convenience of the shopper being in the store,” Soens said.

Soens said that convenience is the primary benefit of online merchandise. “t’s not price with Amazon. It’s convenience,” he said.

Quantity pricing such as two for $3 or four for $5 can aid sales of lower-price accessories.

Discount department stores have expanded into groceries. “They’re now in your arena,” Soens said.

That could be to the advantage of a grocery store who reciprocates.

“They’re playing on your turf, so why not fight fire with fire,” Soens said. “If they’re selling food, you should be selling seasonal and general merchandise.”

Seasonal merchandise can also apply to Jewish holidays or to the Chinese or Vietnamese New Year, but not every store can make a profit on those seasonal sales. “It’s going to vary by store and by location,” Soens said.

Soens explained that ethnic seasonal products may utilize shelf space more feasible for other items.

“Space is the biggest concern in grocery stores,” he said.

Joe Naiman can be reached by email at [email protected].

Author Bio

Joe Naiman, Writer

Joe Naiman has been writing for the Village News since 2001

 

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