In this economy, smart retailers are demanding the best from their wholesale and distribution partners.  Who is your wholesaler or distributor?  How do they rank against the best?   Here's a quick checklist:

With temperatures soaring all over the country, your guests and customers are looking for refreshing treats.  We find that our overall ice cream sales go up by 30% to 50% in the summer months -- meaning smart retailers are loading up.

A quick note that I will be at the Fancy Food Show at the Moscone Center from January 16 - 18.  We will be trawling the floor, visiting some of our current suppliers and looking for new and innovative consumer products our customers may appreciate and enjoy.

Running a retail operation is quite like navigating between Scylla and Charybdis, the very daunting tasked face by the Homeric hero, Ulysses.  How so?

Many people may remember the 1994 Billboard Modern Rock Tracks number one song by REM. The song itself was taken from a strange encounter between Dan Rather and a slightly off-kilter duo who kept pressing him with that inscrutable and now memorialized question.

We are very excited about Brent & Sam's cookies, which we just added to our lineup under our Lance Direct Specialty Store.  While not as well known as some of our other brands, Brent & Sam's cookies, made from scratch, and to order, are the absolute favorites of retailers and their customers.

Painful Mistake #5 - Buying the Wrong Products and Pricing Incorrectly

Retailing is both an art and a science -- and many hotel  managers have a very good sense of aesthetics from their experience designing and operating hotels.  It's the science part that may be elusive.

Painful Mistake #4 - Going to the Club Store

Let's face it -- we all love going to Sam's, Costco, BJ's and the Wal-mart superstore for personal purchases as well as for some hotel supplies from time-to-time.  Products stacked a mile high and new and interesting products make going to the Club Store a real adventure -- a treasure hunt, even.

Painful Mistake #3 - Using your Buying Group for Hotel Retail Purchases

This is a very common, but painful mistake.  Buying Groups, also known as Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs) are a very well considered concept for purchasing many items for hotels -- including furniture, fixtures and equipment, and in some cases, food service items.

Painful Mistake #2 - Pulling the Wrong Profitability Levers

Running a retail business within a hotel is no different from running a retail business outside a hotel.  But it differs in many ways from running a hotel.