What Grocery Store Owners Need to Know About Selling Gourmet Popcorn
When you walk into almost any grocery store, the bakery, deli, produce, and other fresh departments will greet you. Now, gourmet popcorn shops are being added to stores’ offerings. These “sweet shop setups” work well for grocery stores because they give customers a sensory experience that keeps them interested.
How does gourmet popcorn help grocery stores?
Gourmet popcorn is a good choice for stores because it is both popular and profitable. It is a snack that can be used in many ways to make shopping fun.
• In the competitive world of grocery stores, getting people to come into the store is very important. How do you set yourself apart from your competitors and offer something more valuable than the ease of online ordering? Get customers in the store. A gourmet popcorn shop inside a store is a fun novelty that customers will like. From the action, sound, and smell of freshly popped popcorn to trying out new signature flavors, it gives shoppers an exciting experience.
• Gourmet popcorn is a good business because it has low costs and a higher-than-average chance of making money. Profit margins can be as high as 70–80%, which gives you a lot of freedom when setting prices. Some stores give away popcorn because people think it’s worth more than what it costs to make. It can also be used as a thank-you gift to help customers who had to wait a long time or bought something out of stock feel better.
• The sales opportunities are plentiful. There are many ways to market and sell gourmet popcorn, such as gift baskets, a “flavor of the week,” or displays near the registers. Make a package for a movie night or sampler trays for events. Popcorn has become a popular choice for weddings. Price Chopper, a grocery store chain, even has a wedding cake flavor.
• Have fun with holiday treats or making colored popcorn in the colors of your hometown team. Get your customers involved by giving them samples to taste or asking them to help name your new flavor. You can even offer treats like fudge, cotton candy, roasted nuts, or candy apples in addition to gourmet popcorn. The key is to give customers something they can’t get anywhere else.
Have a plan for how much popcorn will cost
Pricing is based on how people think, and you can use this to your advantage. The “decoy effect” is an excellent example of this. If you only sell large and small popcorn bags, you might want to add a medium-sized bag. Studies have shown that when customers only have two options, they usually choose the one that costs less. But when the price of the medium size is just below that of a large extent, it makes a large size look better because it is a better deal.
Samples will help you sell
A customer can be won over with just one taste. You might not be able to give out free samples as you could before COVID-19. But with clever packaging, you can make small sealed packages just the right size for a taste test. This is a great thing to do if you want to introduce a new flavor or get rid of some extra stock. Keep them near the counter or the register, so they are easy to get to.
Customers love package deals that make money
Have you ever watched a customer think about what kind of popcorn to get? Give them a way to try different flavors in one easy-to-buy package. Sampler packages let you sell more than one flavor at the same time. Most of the time, the sampler bags are smaller. It keeps your costs down and gives customers a reason to come back and buy a bigger size of their favorite things. Make a sampler pack with fruity or hot and spicy flavors. Or you can give customers the option to make their own. You can also share these as gifts.
Every day, have a party!
There’s always something to be happy about. Get your popcorn shop involved in celebrations, whether traditional holidays, food days, sporting events, or something you came up with on your own.
You should have ideas for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Halloween, and Christmas! Try out new recipes, set up a unique display in the store, or have a sale. No matter what you do, make sure people know that your popcorn shop is the place to go for tasty treats and fun. One suggestion is to put a calendar on your website so that people can see what events you have coming up.
