Mozzarella and Tomato Time
July 27, 2006
From the cheese merchant’s perspective, Italy’s insalata caprese—tomatoes, mozzarella and basil—looks like America’s favorite late summer salad. Once the fresh tomato season gets underway, mozzarella sales take off like a Maserati. Making sure your cheese counter takes full advantage of this consumer enthusiasm and maintains enough quality product to satisfy demand is a key to successful late summer and early autumn cheese sales.

Lactose Intolerance: The Facts
June 1, 2006
How many times have you heard, “I can’t eat cheese. I’m lactose intolerant.”

Chances are, if you’re in the cheese business—making it, distributing it, selling it—you’ve heard it enough to make you wonder if you’ll soon be lactose intolerant, too. How can so many Americans be cursed with a digestive system that can’t handle cheese? And what do you, as someone peddling the offending food, need to know about this condition? The facts may surprise you.

Eight Cheeses for Holiday Indulgence and Entertaining
October 1, 2005
For a specialty food retailer with a cheese counter, the end-of-year holidays spell opportunity. Customers are more willing to splurge—both with money and calories—and they’re looking to cheese for easy answers to their entertaining and gift-giving needs. If you provide the solutions, you’ll make the sale.

Stars of Summer: Ten Warm-Weather Cheeses and How to Move Them
June 7, 2005
Although many cheeses are made year-round, they don't all appeal in summer. When the weather turns steamy, who wants a palate-coating triple crème? That’s the moment for moist, fresh ricotta, tangy goat cheese, and other creations that are light on the tongue.

Murray’s Cheese Steps into the Future—and the Past
April 8, 2005
A move of about 25 feet was at once a step into the future and the past for Manhattan emporium Murray's Cheese.

Seductive Triple Crèmes
January 14, 2005
They taste like cheesecake without the sugar, so what’s not to like?

The world’s triple-crème cheeses—we’ll use the French spelling—seduce most tasters with a velvety smoothness and sour-cream finish. No matter how fat-phobic America gets, consumers never lose their passion for these luscious cream-enriched cheeses. Stocking the best and knowing how to sell them can enliven your bottom line.

The Myths about Raw-Milk Cheese
October 27, 2004
Parmigiano-Reggiano, Roquefort and English Cheddar are among the most sought-after selections in any cheese case. But are they also among the most dangerous?

The Truth about Feta
July 13, 2004
With tomatoes and cucumbers ready to harvest and Greek Salad season in full swing, specialty food retailers can expect a spike in demand for feta. Knowing more about this ancient cheese—where it comes from, how it’s made and how to handle it—can make cheese department staffers more comfortable talking about it and more successful selling it.

How to Deal with Deteriorating Cheese
June 11, 2004
Clothes and cars get marked down when the new models arrive, but what can you do with cheese that’s on the downhill slope? At least last season’s dresses don’t self-destruct before your eyes. Cheeses get moldy, funky, slimy, smelly and downright impossible to sell. Some head south really quickly.

New Directions for Domestic Goat Cheese
March 31, 2004
Move over, fresh goat cheese. Make room for goat crottins, goat blues, goat Camemberts and the rest of the gamut of goat cheeses that American producers are now making. Laura Chenel may have started a revolution 25 years ago with her simple, fresh chèvre, but today’s cheesemakers are taking goat’s milk in many other directions.

Nine Steps to Cheese
Promotions that Work
December 23, 2003
Do promotions build your cheese department’s customer base and profits, or do they merely bring in shoppers looking for a deal? The measure of a good promotion isn’t a revenue spike, after all, but sustained sales that prove you’ve made some new fans.

Sizzling Hispanic-Style Cheeses
October 6, 2003
Mirroring the explosion in the U.S. Hispanic population, sales of Hispanic-style cheeses are sizzling. Domestic versions of the cheeses prized in the Latin American kitchen—such as queso fresco, cotija and panela—are earning more and more shelf space in supermarkets. But is there an opportunity here for the specialty retailer?

Clever Cross-Merchandising
June 18, 2003
For cheese merchants, getting customers to leave the shop with more than just cheese can mean the difference between red ink and black. A pint of olives, some premium crackers, a slice of quince paste to go with Manchego—these are the add-on purchases, often impulse buys, that can result from clever cross-merchandising.

The Breadth and Depth of American Cheddars
May 1, 2003
Cheddar cheese is the backbone of any cheese case. And today’s customers expect merchants to offer not just one kind, but several: a mild, sliceable cheddar for sandwiches and children’s lunchboxes; a medium to sharp cheddar for nibbling with crackers and cocktails; and a sophisticated cheddar for the increasingly popular European-style cheese tray.

Strategic Resetting of the Cheese Case
April 18, 2003
If your cheese case isn’t doing the volume you want, consider a strategic resetting. Savvy retailers know that it’s not enough to offer great cheese; you must organize and present it in a way that makes people eager to buy. Periodically emptying and restocking the case with a plan in mind—a task some do daily, others only quarterly—is critical to merchandising success.

Beyond Gym Socks: The Allure of Washed-Rind Cheeses
January 7, 2003
To the uninitiated, washed-rind cheeses reek like dirty gym socks. To others, these pungent cheeses are among the peak experiences of the dairy world, with seductive aromas that mingle mushrooms, barnyard and earth. Those who love them, and their numbers are growing, have a hard time explaining how something that smells borderline rotten can taste so good.