GOAT CHEESE SALES RUN WILD AT JUNGLE

MINA WILLIAMS

FAIRFIELD, Ohio (FNS) -- National Goat Cheese Month was August, according to the American Cheese Society, but retailers say moving this specialty cheese takes a 12-month commitment.

The cheese has become more popular, moving from strictly a specialty item to gain mainstream appeal, but the secrets to sales still are exceptional merchandising and variety in the subcategory.

One retailer who has jumped on the trend is Jungle Jim here, which offers goat cheese in its Cheese Shop and backs up the presentation with good old-fashioned grocery merchandising to spur sales and repeat business.

"We sell an unbelievable amount of goat cheese," said Phil Adams, deli manager. The retailer merchandises the specialty cheese on a 4-foot section on five decks in the Cheese Shop alongside other imported and domestic selections.

Jungle Jim's Cheese Shop produces a higher percentage of sales than the company's service deli case, according to Adams. "The Cheese Shop is the strongest of the five subdepartments in the deli," he said. The service case includes prepackaged lunch meat, kitchen products and miscellaneous items such as selections from the olive bar. "In fact it's not unheard of for our Cheese Shop to outsell the deli, bakery and seafood departments."

This success does not just happen, Adams said. Jungle Jim aggressively promotes the category and focuses on it as a destination-driver for the store.

Sampling plays a leading role in the success of the Cheese Shop, and goat cheese in particular, he said. Jungle Jim gives customers a taste for the offerings, and in some instances even gives away merchandise.

"We do everything we can to promote to the nth degree," said Adams. "We want our customers to get hooked on items. We don't like waiting for customers to try the product, then wait to see if they like the product when we stock cheeses, so occasionally we simply give away items to promote trial."

Selected items are simply market "paid" and set out for customers. Recently SnoFrisk, a cheese made of 80% goat's milk and 20% cow's milk, was put into the free-trial promotional scheme. "We wanted to get sales off the ground for this product," said Adams. "In the long run this system has worked out well. This cheese is now in the top 50 of all of our items in the Cheese Shop."

This is quite a distinction -- the Cheese Shop carries more than 1,500 items, including imported and domestic cheeses, along with imported salami, ham and prosciutto. The department's No. 1 selling item is a cheese ball made of goat cheese with sun-dried tomatoes. "It's a real signature item for us," he said.

The department relies on a prepackaged item program to reduce labor. There are plans to expand the Cheese Shop to triple the amount of space the specialty department now occupies.