Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
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lenges than we anticipated," acknowledges Richard Daly, who opened San Juan Island Cheese with his wife, Sherri, in the resort community of Friday Harbor, Wash., three years ago. The store does 60 percent of its business in July and August, and many retailers on the island close for the winter. Thompson's shop, meanwhile, relies on the educated, well-traveled faculty at the University of Oklahoma. "They are our bread and butter," she says. "If it weren't for them, we wouldn't exist." On the other hand, she admits to making a mistake in initially locating the shop in old downtown Norman. The area was charming but impractical, with alleys too small to accommodate deliv- ery trucks and an outdated infrastructure that produced frequent power outages. Kristin Sande, who operates Valley Cheese & Wine in Henderson, Nev., says ence of others can shed light on the pitfalls. If you're thinking of bringing a specialty cheese shop to an area without one, take a look at these hard-won lessons from veterans: 1. Learn the opportunities and challenges of your town and location. Before setting up your store, be sure to study the demographics, neighborhoods, and sea- sonal fluctuations. "Being on an island had more chal- cheese focus "Our first inspector, at our first inspec- tion, looked at the blue cheeses and said, 'Do you know these are covered with mold?'" recounts Thompson. Another inspector told her that she would have to toss the Gruyère if it didn't sell in a week. "We had to say, 'It's not turkey breast. It doesn't go bad in seven days. It's continuing to age,'" says the merchant. Pioneers, as the saying goes, are the folks with the arrows in their back. But a town without a cheese shop presents an opening for an entrepreneur, and the experi- Summer Fancy Food Show Booth 360 30 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE specialtyfood.com "I started too sophisticated for the market," admits Laura Conrow, proprietor of the four- year-old Wedge in Reno. "People would come in and say, 'Oh, I love cheese,' and then they would look around, and say, 'Thanks, bye.'"