Lessons from Last Year

Christmas is a huge event in the deli and we certainly learn a lot each year. The year before last we stayed open far too late on Christmas Eve and were still cleaning up well into the night. Last year we were much better at closing the door and getting on with the clean up (whilst periodically opening the door again for last-minute emergency purchasers).

Where we fell down was that a lot of the Christmas stock, which had sold out, had been on shelves near the front of the shop and once it had gone the shelves were bare. Now a shop with bare shelves always looks like a shop that is struggling, a shop that can't afford to re-stock. In our case the opposite was true - the shop had done well, exceeded our expectations. We didn't have much left. And it was Christmas. We couldn't restock. But I couldn't leave a bare shop for two weeks. So I moved things around to fill gaps.

So on my first day back in chilly January, I had to move it all back again. All done now, and I can concentrate on sourcing some wonderful new products for 2009. And there is Valentines coming up, and Easter, the Fourth of June picnics... Better get organised.