Category Captain: Specialty Cheese: Murray’s Cheese

Murray’s Cheese, one of the nation’s leading specialty cheese retailers, teamed up with a retail partner to create a successful, comprehensive store-within-a-store-destination for the dairy perimeter that’s been so successful it’s since been rolled out to 22 locations.

Having leveraged its expertise in sourcing the world’s best cheese selection at competitive costs while delivering an excellent customer experience, including knowledgeable, passionate cheese experts ready to give customers a taste of their next favorite cheese, the New York retailer has successfully helped its customers navigate the otherwise confusing and often overwhelming world of specialty cheese, which includes hundreds of domestic and imported products for customers.

By offering a comprehensive approach that’s theatrical and food-centric, Murray’s category management and SKU rationalization reduced duplication, allowing the destination to feature the best-tasting cheeses in each subcategory at reduced costs and higher margins for the retailer, as well as lower retails for customers.

By bringing all cheese into one location in bulk to be cut fresh at store level, Murray’s platform enables its retail partner’s employees to offer a taste of any cheese, alleviating customers’ concerns about buying the wrong item.

Before the store-within-a-store program, the supermarket’s specialty cheese shops distinguished between bulk “specialty” and pre-pack “everyday” cheese. Rather than categorizing by country, Murray’s grouped the cheeses by nine styles (cheddar, gouda, blue, etc.) This approach enabled customers to find familiar cheeses and easily discover similar items. Clear signage called out best-selling choices in each family.

In addition, a 10th family of cheese, which changed every four weeks and featured seasonally driven promotional offerings, was added to the mix. An “Under $5” basket further tempted customers with smaller cuts of cheese, driving multiple rings and deeper exploration into the category.

To drive traffic, Murray’s designed a monthly promMurray’s Cheese, one of the nation’s leading specialty cheese retailers, teamed up with a retail partner to create a successful, comprehensive store-within-a-store-destination for the dairy perimeter that’s been so successful it’s since been rolled out to 22 locations.

Having leveraged its expertise in sourcing the world’s best cheese selection at competitive costs while delivering an excellent customer experience, including knowledgeable, passionate cheese experts ready to give customers a taste of their next favorite cheese, the New York retailer has successfully helped its customers navigate the otherwise confusing and often overwhelming world of specialty cheese, which includes hundreds of domestic and imported products for customers.

By offering a comprehensive approach that’s theatrical and food-centric, Murray’s category management and SKU rationalization reduced duplication, allowing the destination to feature the best-tasting cheeses in each subcategory at reduced costs and higher margins for the retailer, as well as lower retails for customers.

By bringing all cheese into one location in bulk to be cut fresh at store level, Murray’s platform enables its retail partner’s employees to offer a taste of any cheese, alleviating customers’ concerns about buying the wrong item.

Before the store-within-a-store program, the supermarket’s specialty cheese shops distinguished between bulk “specialty” and pre-pack “everyday” cheese. Rather than categorizing by country, Murray’s grouped the cheeses by nine styles (cheddar, gouda, blue, etc.) This approach enabled customers to find familiar cheeses and easily discover similar items. Clear signage called out best-selling choices in each family.

In addition, a 10th family of cheese, which changed every four weeks and featured seasonally driven promotional offerings, was added to the mix. An “Under $5” basket further tempted customers with smaller cuts of cheese, driving multiple rings and deeper exploration into the category.

To drive traffic, Murray’s designed a monthly promotional program around selling events like football season and summer grilling, complete with merchandising plans, demo schedules and product anecdotes to motivate employees.

In addition, there’s more than just cheese in Murray’s portfolio, which introduced more than 300 specialty food items. The cross-sell items were merchandised on case tops, using valuable real estate and showing customers which honeys, fruit pastes and nuts pair with which styles of cheese. Plus, Murray’s introduced effective cross-merchandising programs that sell cheese throughout the store while selling more of related categories, most notably wine and breads from the in-store bakery.otional program around selling events like football season and summer grilling, complete with merchandising plans, demo schedules and product anecdotes to motivate employees.

In addition, there’s more than just cheese in Murray’s portfolio, which introduced more than 300 specialty food items. The cross-sell items were merchandised on case tops, using valuable real estate and showing customers which honeys, fruit pastes and nuts pair with which styles of cheese. Plus, Murray’s introduced effective cross-merchandising programs that sell cheese throughout the store while selling more of related categories, most notably wine and breads from the in-store bakery.