bake - April 2012 - 28

“If we see a category is not selling well or it’s costing us too much, that helps our pricing and decision on what to sell.”
Sarah Lavender-Brashear, One Hot Cookie

comes into play. Category management provides the information you need to set pricing for items according to popularity and other outside factors. “If we see a category is not selling well, or we see that it’s costing us an extreme amount of money to make compared to others, then that helps us in the pricing and decision of what we’re going to sell and why. Is it in high demand or is it something that somebody just wants on a special occasion kind of thing?” Lavendercategorizes menus that work best for its business.
Above: Knowing the time of year that speciﬁc items sell well or poorly allows for adjustment in menuing. This maximizes proﬁts throughout the year by rotating offerings accordingly.

Brashear says. “Being able to categorize products in that way really helps us in managing our business.” Helping customers ﬁnd the right product for their needs all but guarantees repeat business. One Hot Cookie uses category management to ensure excellent customer service. “Somebody can call me and say, ‘I need to do a basket and I want to spend about $35, but I don’t want your regular chocolate chip. I want more of your upscale kind of cookies and by the way, what else have you got? Have you got any brownies?’ So we’re able to know what our categories are, and by talking to that customer, sell things out of several different categories to make up that one gift item,” Lavender-Brashear says. Best business practice There are recipes near and dear to Salvato’s heart, but sometimes the production of certain products just doesn’t make sense. “If there’s a more popular item within that category, we’ll edit the menu accordingly,” Salvato says. “Otherwise, everything would just be all over the place.” For The Brooklyn Treat Shoppe, this represents the biggest advantage to managing products categorically.

“When we go to do promotions, they’re generally holiday things and we’re usually creating a category solely for that holiday,” says ToniAnn Salvato, owner and chef. Impulse buys from product type categories will come once the customer has placed an order in the holiday category. The holiday categories fall under the broader seasonal category at Brooklyn Treat Shoppe. “The seasonal menu for winter will have cakes and cookies and cheesecakes on it that we won’t necessarily carry throughout the year,” Salvato says. Rather than keeping a product on the shelves knowing it will eventually do well, you’re rotating products, thus selling more all year. “Our strawberry-banana cheesecake doesn’t sell so great in the winter, but it will pick up in the summer.” Use your categories Managing your products according to category, subcategory, seasonal category, etc., creates the best opportunity to produce and shelve items that optimize turnaround. If a product is hot, it deserves more space on the shelf and more attention overall. Pricing also

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bake - April 2012

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