This is 3Bits & Change, an email about building a service and retail business. This one was written to the silence of my airpods and the dog chewing on a toy.
Good day from a snow filled Minnesota. I’m still dreaming of Big Sky.
After a mild and “dry” winter we have inches of snow on the ground in MN. It’s strange to re-learn what life with snow is like. It has me reflecting on the year.
It’s day 87 since the last 3 Bits. I last wrote from Costa Rica on the last day of 2023. Since then, I kept thinking… “oh, I should write a 3 Bits” between tasks. I then moved on to those tasks and skipped this letter. And, during that time, the story continued.
//no.1 - Merchandise and -ising
Keeping a shop stocked is an orchestra of tasks and constraints. Making it all appealing to increase conversion is a separate effort. These tasks need to be curated and conducted daily.
There were fewer products in the shop post holiday than before holiday. That was the plan. However, I was surprised to find how few products suppliers were ready to ship - for months. Today the balance is better. But, given the nature of handmade supply, we continue to wait on various knives and cutting boards. We received notice of shipping this morning from an order placed in October. Items that were ordered in June of last year arrived in February - and we sold them out in a few weeks. And so it goes.
I’ve been waiting to press harder into our retail partner sharpening business line until “locking off” our physical shop’s processes and merchandising. The addition and training of staff on various parts of the business is promising. There are likely a few more weeks of lighting adjustments and documentation before I’m in a confident spot with merchandising the cabinet wall and the shop to shift some attention.
Further, it’ll be great to have folks start walk-shopping the store again when the weather changes in the coming weeks. Neighbor retailers say Spring and Summer months can run 4-5 times what they see for revenues in January. We’ve seen 4 times revenue over the old shop so far. Yet, we’ll need to see the lifts the neighbors are projecting to make the equation on this new place make sense. We’ll know so much more in the coming 8-12 weeks.
Finally, the sharpening wall is in fabrication. So excited.
//no.2 - Performance
On the store, we’re regularly seeing hundreds of straight blade knives a month. ~10% more of those are serrated blades. Another ~10% more are scissors.
The skills classes are selling 2-3x better in this location vs the previous. Our sharpening pick up conversations have shifted more educational and folks are buying loads more strops and hones here than the other place. And we switched to soda water and shrubs for our class drinks and that’s driving and increase in shrub sales too. Lots of wins all around. We’re learning.
Online sharpening is roughly what it was last year. We’ve seen a dip in Jan and Feb each of the three years we’ve offered the online service. It’s picking back up in March and roughly following our proxy signals.
Regarding PR, we had a chance to be highlighted on a local morning show (Minnesota Live) for a nice segment focused on the many things shoppers can do at 50th & France.
We chatted about finding knives that are good fits for you - like golf clubs and ski boots - and saw a jump in shop visitors that lasted a few weeks.
“Hey, I saw you on TV” is still a powerful force in provoking change.
The woman above drove up from Mankato the day of the segment for her knife service. She got to the store 10 minutes after I got there from the studio. “I was a culinary teacher back in the day and I’ve not had a good place for knife service for more than a decade. So when I saw you on TV I dropped everything and headed over.”
We saw 5-8 other folks that drove for more than an hour to see us in the week following the TV spot. Hey, TV works for this business.
//no.3 - Partners
I had a chance to swing back to Japan for the third time in 10 months. It’s been fascinating to continue to learn a new culture, the Japanese culture, and to expand my kitchen knife knowledge.
We had a chance to ski in the mtns to the west of Nagano. We shopped Kappabashi again and meet up with partners. It was fantastic.
We also have secured a new partnership with a key exporter of craftsman knives. Fantastic. Here’s to investing in international travel and relationships!
Sum
The store is maturing and the merchandising is coming up to par with my expectations of a fantastic kitchen knife shopping experience. We continue to learn the performance of this location (more ads coming soon) and we’ve started buying from new suppliers in Japan. Wahoo.
Change
Here are a few changes over the last months. Notes in the captions.
On Your Way
Hope you’re running well out there! Here’s to Spring!
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