Ah, the good old days, when you could operate a neighborhood cheese shop that was just a cheese shop, a business that paid the bills from cheese counter sales alone. You opened at 10 a.m. and closed at 6 p.m. and went home for dinner.
If many such enterprises ever existed, they are increasingly rare now. Today’s savvy merchants are creating hybrid spaces that pair cheese counters with classroom space, a cafe, or a takeout sandwich window or wine bar. Some have embraced this mission creep out of necessity; others planned a multi-channel business from the get-go. Either way, many say their business could not survive only on retail shoppers buying cheese to take home. As mongers develop experience with these new revenue streams—with classes, catering, cheese boards, and the like—they are learning lessons that could benefit others.
“A cheese shop has to be constantly dreaming up new revenue sources to make it,” says Tina Mooney of The Fox and the Crow in Fort Collins, Colorado. From its debut in 2014, Mooney’s small shop included tables and a limited sandwich menu, an add-on that proved essential. “Food floated the cheese shop for a very long time,” says the monger, “until we had a base of customers that recognized we were serious about the cheese.”
The shop now offers an expanded bistro menu of hot and cold sandwiches, soups, salads, and cheese boards, all of which help control cheese waste. Cheese boards are the final resting place for wheels that need to move, says Mooney, although that strategy means constant repricing. On the plus side, “we get a lot of different cheeses into our customers’ mouths,” she adds.
Amy Ruis had a similar idea when she opened Aperitivo in Grand Rapids, Michigan, eight years ago. From the start, this ambitious business encompassed both a cut-to-order cheese and charcuterie counter and a wine bar. The menu has grown—from a single grilled sandwich that used the cheeses most in need of a home—to cheese boards, a salad, and several sandwich options. In addition to minimizing cheese loss, the wine bar experience gives people ideas that lead to sales.
“People will say, ‘I’m having friends over on Friday night and didn’t know what I was going to do. Now I know these taste amazing together,’” says Ruis. More often than not, these customers leave the bar with their Friday night necessities, purchased from Aperitivo’s collection of cheese accouterments. A selection of hard goods like cutting boards, cheese knives, and cocktail napkins helps customers get all their entertaining needs met.
Ruis and other mongers have found a receptive audience for in-store classes, with ongoing benefits. Russell Felts, who opened Beautiful Rind in Chicago shortly before the pandemic, built out the space to include a separate classroom. Felts says that classes appeal to people who might be intimidated in front of a cheese counter. “In a class, you’re in that place where it’s okay not to know,” says Felts, who teaches most of the sessions himself and livestreams them via Vimeo. In addition to the class revenue, the store often sees a bump in sales when the evening class lets out. “Some nights, our busiest hour of the day is 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.,“ he says.
Mooney says her classes don’t generate much profit upfront but deliver returns over time. Students often become loyal customers who return frequently to purchase cheese. Even classes on how to assemble cheese boards don’t cannibalize store sales. “They love learning how to make a platter,” says Mooney, “but still they’re going to buy the platter from me.”
Ruis says she initially viewed classes as “more of a PR thing” and priced them below her cost. “We used them as a loss leader to get people into the place to experience it,” she says. Now that the community knows the shop, she has raised class prices with no repercussions. An annual tasting featuring grower Champagnes regularly sells out at $120. “We do two in a week,” says Ruis, “and we could charge whatever.”
Many shops generate good income from catering—mostly sandwiches and cheese boards picked up in store—and report corporate sales surging as people return to office work. Felts offers his classroom space to nonprofit groups and book clubs, a strategy that generates beverage and cheese sales and helps develop new customers.
Cheese merchants who add foodservice may see better staff retention, says Felts. That objective was a key motivation for him in developing a menu that ventures beyond cheese boards. At Beautiful Rind, the mongers essentially function as servers as well, so they make tips that boost their pay. Felts says he has experienced almost no turnover because staffers are so happy with the money they make.
Yet running a cafe, selling wine, and teaching classes aren’t for everyone, and a cheese shop with these add-ons may not be a good fit for every location. Would-be cheese merchants need to be sure they have the staff to execute their vision, advises Felts, or be prepared to do it themselves. They also need to read the needs and desires of the community. “Don’t let your ego get in the way,” he says. “Don’t disregard what your customers are really looking for.”
Cheese merchants who are happiest behind the counter may decide that a simpler retail model is better. The Wasik family, who have operated Wasik’s Cheese Shop in Wellesley, Massachusetts, for four decades, have tried most of these peripheral offerings over the years and abandoned most of them.
“We used to make monstrous sandwiches,” recalls Brian Wasik, who runs the business with his mother and brother. “Then people started complaining that they wanted it without mayo or with mustard and my father said one day, ‘That’s it. We’re not a sandwich shop. We’re a cheese shop.’”
The store doesn’t pursue cheese board business either, despite some demand, because creating them is too time intensive. “You think we’d do a killing with them,” says Wasik, “but they’re a hindrance because of the labor. The more you’re off the counter, the less you’re with customers.”
Related: Craft Chocolate Offers Opportunity for Specialty Retailers; Cheese Focus: Demystifying Marinated Cheese.