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Post Info TOPIC: Hi I am a new seafood manager in the North Kansas CIty Area looking for ways to increase sales!
jordanprince


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Hi I am a new seafood manager in the North Kansas CIty Area looking for ways to increase sales!
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The Seafood dept at my store is failry small, and brings in a little more than 2000 a week, im currently looking for new ways/ ideas that i could use to help bring my sales up, Any suugestions would br greatly appreciated, Thanks!



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ben olinger


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RE: Hi I am a new seafood manager in the North Kansas CIty Area looking for ways to increase sales!
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research the different ethnic groups in your sale area.asians like live fish etc and you could put sale signs in their language,squid and octopus are big with the korens etc..ask what specialty products they would like,dont forget Friday specials for catholics..and lent.Dont forget seasonal products like wild salmon.The key with fish is having the right wholesale suppliers.I owned a processing barge in the 80s for salmon called hammer inc ,,tough with a persiable product in Alaska.I moved into smoked products

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jordanprince


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RE: Hi I am a new seafood manager in the North Kansas CIty Area looking for ways to increase sales!
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thanks for the info, its actually pretty tough in this area because 90% are caucasian, very few minorities and there is a good population that doesnt eat fish at all, which also makes it tough, i did find out in the summer that  fish like marlin, tuna, swordifsh etc all sell well during summer time, its just the winter where we struggle, specifically after new years, i know on new years eve i sold a bit over 2000 worth of shrimp crablegs and lobster tails with a display at the front of the store, but i've been struggling to keep the case looking nice and full without too much lost product, i also dont have the advantage of setting the seafood case every day either, so its tough to get the other employees to limit how much of each type of fish gets put in the case. My boss says im too valuable at nights because i know how to cut and everything else in the department as well. but i will start asking the regular seafood buyers what they would buy if i were to bring it in!

Thanks for the advice!



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irishdude


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RE: Hi I am a new seafood manager in the North Kansas CIty Area looking for ways to increase sales!
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Where i worked on the seafood counter they panko breadcrumbed tilapia fillets and trout fillets and tail ends of whole salmon that were usually left after people bought the thicker ends. tilapia sold very well.

They also did filled portobello mushrooms with a seafood crab and shrimp dip which they bought in tubs and made seafood salads with salmon and raw tuna and shrimps. Shrimp celery hearts and mayo was one. Raw tuna and japanese seaweed was another, nothing too complicated.

An idea though is shrimp kebabs (shrimp, lemon and a bit of red pepper) sell it with little cups of mango dip. It looks colorful.

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JimmyMac


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RE: Hi I am a new seafood manager in the North Kansas CIty Area looking for ways to increase sales!
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Do Fish Friday promotions and let the local church groups know, especially the Catholic parishes that do services in Latin, Greek, or Aramaic. They are an ethnic minority group.

I know they are there just pick the phone and call them. Phoning potential customers is part of sales. Throw in some battered and fried peppers, sweet potato fries and calamari.


This is a good website...
www.fisheaters.com/geography.html

But these two will get you started...
kclatinmass.com/
www.byzantinekc.org/

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Mainemeatman


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RE: Hi I am a new seafood manager in the North Kansas CIty Area looking for ways to increase sales!
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jimmymac is right,,,
i use to do a "fresh fish frifay" promo- this worked well,, also lent is coming up,, from ash wednesday to easter (i think)

many catholics dont eat meat on fridays - they eat seafood

also, try a "truckload seafood sale" call your seafood supplier , ask for some excellent deals, to promote,,

also, depending where you are and your clientelle, push the cheaper fish,,,,like chowder fish, for 2.49lb offer a fish chowder recipe near the display

tie in the breaded clam strips, breaded shrimp, haddock portions, and fish sticks, with your fresh seafood display- ten times more visibility than being in the freezer, and parents will buy them for kids(usually get a ten day shelf life)

also, you can take some larger bags of frozen shrimp-break them down to smaller amounts in foam trays or plastic safety seal containers-place in your fresh section- you can also do this with the imitation sea legs,,,thaw the frozen pkgs, break up and sell in the fresh display- just place a pre. frozen dayglo sticker on package..

try some scallops and shrimp kabobs- sell the kabob by the each(total retail) not price per lb,,, just average the retail and be consistent with whats on the skewer


do a fish cooking demo....on a busy time of the week, say a saturday, mid day,, announce over the p.a. system a seafood cooking demo is about to happen-,cook some salmon up, or tilapia, gives you a great opportunity to educate your customers, and answer questions



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jordanprince


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RE: Hi I am a new seafood manager in the North Kansas CIty Area looking for ways to increase sales!
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thanks for all the advice, this place has been awesome so far!

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Gene


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RE: Hi I am a new seafood manager in the North Kansas CIty Area looking for ways to increase sales!
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Jordanprince lent is coming have fresh salmon, cod, assorted white fish, 1lb packages, and cooked shrimp, watch your shrink, we are also in a small market, and tray our daily sales in 1-1 1/4 lb packages. we keep imitation crab cooked shrimp 51-60 count and 31-40 count available for quick sale. Your frozen breaded fish will be a daily sale, minimize backstock, remember truck to shelf, (order what you need, and back-stock only good seller, re-stock and face, and PLEASE keep department clean , (NO FISH SMELL) customers hate a fishy department. Go into your competitions store right now and see what they offer.....

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JimmyMac


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RE: Hi I am a new seafood manager in the North Kansas CIty Area looking for ways to increase sales!
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many Catholics also do not eat meat on Wednesdays.

And several times per year no meat from Wednesday. Friday and Saturday.

Thursday night lamb.

Monday nights are also traditional meat eating nights. This was commanded in the Didache which states, "Do not abstain from meat on Mondays like the heretics do instead abstain on Fridays."

This is a good promotion Wednesday to Saturday. 4 days total.

Sunday is for hams.


I am just saying. We used to have this stuff in the Northeast but then JFK paid for Mr. Obama's dad to go to Harvard (and the rest is history)

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ChefLazar5


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RE: Hi I am a new seafood manager in the North Kansas CIty Area looking for ways to increase sales!
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Hello,
LIke the other butchers said, know your customers and their needs. Put up your picture with a phone/email number so they can contact you. Be available and easy to get in contact (maybe run a contest where they put in recipes??, get their email) Put out email alerts, use social media and market all your waste such as fish bones.
Watch your compatition and see what they run for sales and press those suppliers (always have three). To get sales up,sell items that can stay on the counter such as shrimp peelers or spices.

Kansas is a beef state but they have to rotate their diet. Valentines day is coming up and I use to do a surf and turf (frozen lobstah tails) very succeussful and throw that bottle of wine in.

keep in touch
Alan Lazar

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Alan Lazar
Bunzl Processor Division


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RE: Hi I am a new seafood manager in the North Kansas CIty Area looking for ways to increase sales!
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Which store are you working in? I'm located in the North Kansas City area, so wouldn't mind doing some of my grocery shopping over my lunch hour.

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camorrisiii


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RE: Hi I am a new seafood manager in the North Kansas CIty Area looking for ways to increase sales!
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Jordanprince, do you have a steamer? If not and if it's an affordable option for your employer try it. A steamer gives more service appeal and it's another way to push your product. Give an option of original Old Bay seasoning, Cajun seasoning, maybe even a lemon pepper seasoning or whatever you'd like to try, be creative. When I used to be a seafood clerk I would have to steam all kinds of shellfish, and occasionally I would even steam tilapia or salmon fillets if requested. I would also suggest making the colors pop out, like not putting 2 red colored fillets right beside each other, but putting red fillets beside of pink or white fillets. Take for example, putting sockeye salmon fillets beside tilapia fillets instead of putting sockeye salmon fillets beside of steelhead trout fillets. It shows more of the variety in your case. I would push the product that lowest cost but more profitable, and cut back on more expensive slow sellers. I've learned not to order a certain kind of fish because it was requested until the consumer sees what the price per lb will be, I've been stuck with expensive product because of sticker shock, and I would also make sure that I would have enough request for certain kinds of fish before I'd order it. Try new things with the products that you already carry instead of having to order more product for more variety, so if you have salmon fillets, and can't sell all that you have at one time, try making salmon pinwheels and salmon kabobs when it comes in, I'd make 6 of each at a time to start off with. Keep a log of when your fish came in and how old it is, if you haven't already. Reduce it two days before it goes out of date at a 20% markdown, and with one day, give it a find me a home price. NEVER ever sell fish that is questionable, If you have a happy customer he/she would tell one friend, piss off a customer and he/she would tell ten friends. I wish you the best of luck, and remember keep a smile on your face.

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Bunzl Processor Division


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RE: Hi I am a new seafood manager in the North Kansas CIty Area looking for ways to increase sales!
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I agree with the suggestion of a steamer! The grocery store I shop at frequently offers to steam my seafood for me while I wait and it's such a nice, convenient service.

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jordanprince


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RE: Hi I am a new seafood manager in the North Kansas CIty Area looking for ways to increase sales!
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Thanks agajn for all the advice, we do have a steamer, just need to work on getting more use out of it though, i think ill make a sign sometime soon. Bunzl i work at price chopper in platte city, ill be there on weds.

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Buttcher Ben


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RE: Hi I am a new seafood manager in the North Kansas CIty Area looking for ways to increase sales!
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what we did was put in local fish, Sunfish, Crappies, walleye, Northern pike, Catfish plus the usual fair. It did very well the clients were use to cooking them so they weren't intimated and got more comfortable with the sea food dept. Lot's of simple recipes. Hope's this help's. 



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nostang88


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RE: Hi I am a new seafood manager in the North Kansas CIty Area looking for ways to increase sales!
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1st. find out what your gross is on all your items

2nd. have your boss have his side and you have your side see what sells the most. Whole fish are cheap to bring in, so have them on display around the items you want to sell. use them as bait for the customers.

3. train your employees on selling and give info about the products. Key words"fresh","brought in today" "weekend specials".

4. Chalk board. write down your specials. have in-store specials not associted with Ad items.

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Burgermeister


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RE: Hi I am a new seafood manager in the North Kansas CIty Area looking for ways to increase sales!
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jordanprince wrote:

The Seafood dept at my store is failry small, and brings in a little more than 2000 a week, im currently looking for new ways/ ideas that i could use to help bring my sales up, Any suugestions would br greatly appreciated, Thanks!

 

What do you get if sales increase? A bonus? A raise? personal satisfaction? Pride? 

If you're already doing everything right, then maybe there's other areas in the store that can improve. When those areas improve, every department will benefit. Is the store dirty? Is the parking lot dirty? Is there a rude employee anywhere? Are there enough checkers? There weren't enough checkers today at a Safeway I was shopping at. At least two couples and a single around me complained "Why don't they call someone" they asked. Well, because there was no one. Stupid stores cut labor. 

In the past (not currently), I worked in a store with a beautiful meat case, but the egg case had broken eggs visible down a vent area, and lots of dust. The beverage case had dirt, sunflower seed shells and other junk visible. Filthy everywhere. The produce, although high quality was displayed on filthy matting. All the aisles were filthy with dust under all the displays. You could see it when the lower shelf was partly empty. Why would anyone want to buy meat from a store like that?



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Burgermeister


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RE: Hi I am a new seafood manager in the North Kansas CIty Area looking for ways to increase sales!
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One of the problems with some seafood depts is the stupid company doesn't provide enough people to run them. During the seafood person's lunch hour, there's no one to there to help customers. There may be meat cutters in a separate room where they can't see fish customers. There may be a bell, but they may not hear it or customers may not see it. The one cutter may be on the other side of the store working the "wall deli". This problem continues when the seafood person goes home and into the next morning when the store is open, but he or she isn't scheduled to be there yet.
There's no doubt, sales would improve if something was done about this problem.


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Hi I am a new seafood manager in the North Kansas CIty Area looking for ways to increase sales!
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Burgermeister wrote:
One of the problems with some seafood depts is the stupid company doesn't provide enough people to run them. During the seafood person's lunch hour, there's no one to there to help customers. There may be meat cutters in a separate room where they can't see fish customers. There may be a bell, but they may not hear it or customers may not see it. The one cutter may be on the other side of the store working the "wall deli". This problem continues when the seafood person goes home and into the next morning when the store is open, but he or she isn't scheduled to be there yet.
There's no doubt, sales would improve if something was done about this problem.

 At Giant I was expected to handle both the Meat Dept and Seafood Dept. every Sunday from noon to 8 P.M. by myself.  That was not a little store either.  It had 30 Isles of merchandise and probably did at least 200,000 a week.   I sure don't miss that stupid place.  I am going to start a new topic on this right now.  



-- Edited by fdarn on Wednesday 5th of February 2014 11:58:23 AM

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Mainemeatman


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RE: Hi I am a new seafood manager in the North Kansas CIty Area looking for ways to increase sales!
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get on the p.a. system and just start being a saleman,,i use to get on many times a day and say my uncle owns a dragger and caught these fresh haddock yesterday,,,
if they were any fresher they'd be flippin!! come buy them now...


2 minutes later.. id get on and say- come on over to the seafood dept. my brother just dug these clams,, the first clam is free -


this worked extremely well, id tell them how to cook them

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jordanprince


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RE: Hi I am a new seafood manager in the North Kansas CIty Area looking for ways to increase sales!
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Burgermeister wrote:
jordanprince wrote:

The Seafood dept at my store is failry small, and brings in a little more than 2000 a week, im currently looking for new ways/ ideas that i could use to help bring my sales up, Any suugestions would br greatly appreciated, Thanks!

 

What do you get if sales increase? A bonus? A raise? personal satisfaction? Pride? 

If you're already doing everything right, then maybe there's other areas in the store that can improve. When those areas improve, every department will benefit. Is the store dirty? Is the parking lot dirty? Is there a rude employee anywhere? Are there enough checkers? There weren't enough checkers today at a Safeway I was shopping at. At least two couples and a single around me complained "Why don't they call someone" they asked. Well, because there was no one. Stupid stores cut labor. 

In the past (not currently), I worked in a store with a beautiful meat case, but the egg case had broken eggs visible down a vent area, and lots of dust. The beverage case had dirt, sunflower seed shells and other junk visible. Filthy everywhere. The produce, although high quality was displayed on filthy matting. All the aisles were filthy with dust under all the displays. You could see it when the lower shelf was partly empty. Why would anyone want to buy meat from a store like that?

 I'm always pushing to better myself in whatever it is that im doing, so i think its more personal satisfaction than anything else. Also i work in a brand new store (within 3 yrs old) and the store is kept extremely clean/ dusted/swept, etc the store owner loves his store clean =) As for the post after the one i qouted i have noticed that the seafood does kinda get put on the back burner a lot. I only get to set the seafood case a few days out of the week because my boss says he needs my help too much at nights, then im left with a meat cutter setting the case the majority of the time, which he does an alright job its just he doesnt take his time, if there wasnt much salmon in the case at the end of the night,  he isnt going to cut anymore etc. So i run into that a lot......



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