Hey, everybody. It’s Bob Negen, and this episode of Real Retail TV is a replay about Zingerman’s Delicatessen in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Zingerman’s is perhaps my favorite retail store because I love good food, and I love good retail. And Zingerman’s encapsulates both beautifully.

There’s another reason I’m happy to share this with you is because the cofounder of Zingerman’s, Ari Weinzweig, is coming back to be the keynote speaker at this year’s virtual retail success summit. Ari has been this is his third time being a keynote speaker, and I love Ari. I love the way he thinks. I love the way he does business. He’s a favorite with all of the attendees at the summit.

And right now, you can save five hundred dollars if you register now for the Virtual Retail Success Summit.

Not only can you save five hundred dollars, but you get a double your money back guarantee.

What do I mean? I mean, if you register now for only four hundred and ninety seven dollars and you come to the retail success summit, at the end of day one, if you’re not thrilled with the experience, if you aren’t confident that you’re going to ten times your investment, call us up, and we will refund your registration plus five hundred dollars.

Better than money back. Right now, times are tricky. Right now is the time for you to get your head right, to get your skill set right, to get moving forward, and the virtual retail success summit is a wonderful way for you to do that. So register now. But right now, enjoy this episode of Real Retail TV.

So this past weekend, Susan and I went to Ann Arbor, Michigan to celebrate our oldest son’s Joe’s birthday.

He goes to the University of Michigan, and after having brunch with Joe, we had a little time to kill. So we went to our favorite store, Zingerman’s delicatessen.

It is an amazing store, and I love Zingerman’s for two reasons. I love Zingerman’s because I love good food and I love Zingerman’s because I love a good retailer.

And so while we were walking around, every time we go to Zingerman, Susan and I just look at each other and go dollars per square foot.

You know, it’s just one of those stores that has magic, has soul, and they do things so very, very well. It’s not just the creativity.

It’s the fundamentals that they execute at such a high level. So I could go on and on and on about Zingerman’s and what I love about them. But I’m just going to share a couple of key things that I saw that I think would be helpful to everybody in our community of independent retailers.

So first of all, everything that they have, every single product that they sell has a talkie, and a talkie is a little sign that gives a description about that item.

And it makes it so easy to shop, and they have great copywriters.

So when they talk about six year red wine or beer, vinegar or Ram Lambrusco red wine vinegar, they talk about what it tastes like, what it would pair pair with, what makes it delicious, what makes it special. But it makes it easy to shop. And it also, because they have good copy, makes your mouth water.

So while you’re walking through this small space, reading this sign, picking up things and putting it in your cart, they’re also doing something very interesting.

They’re establishing credibility because they’re describing every single product.

You know that they know what they’re talking about. I call it curation.

You know, it’s not a bunch of food thrown up on the shelves. It’s clearly a thought through merchandise mix. And when there is a thought through merchandise mix, all of a sudden you realize that they know what they’re talking about and you trust them. Something else that’s really great that I love about Zingerman’s is that they have their own look and style.

Here’s a picture of the signage that hangs above their cheese counter. And, you know, it’s very distinct. It’s very Zingerman’s. If you see a Zingerman’s catalog, you immediately know that it’s a Zingerman’s catalog.

So all of these things make your mouth water, make you want to buy and allow you to spend more. So here is an example of spending more. This is a I know I’m saying this wrong. Hamon Iberico, Iberian ham, del Bellato, acorn finished awesomeness for eighteen dollars an ounce.

And by the way, I have bought eighteen dollars an ounce and it was absolutely delicious. You see, so there’s this whole idea of you’re educating your customers with signage. You’re doing it with style. And because people come to trust the fact that you’ve curated your mix correctly, intelligently, lovingly that people are willing to spend.

And so while I was looking at Zingerman’s and putting together this episode of Real Retail TV for you, I was on the web. I was looking at their websites and I saw this on the page that was called up when I Googled Zingerman’s. One of the questions that people asked is why is Zingerman’s so expensive?

And here is the answer.

Zingerman’s is expensive because in bold, it’s uncompromising about only using the highest ingredients in its products. They also bake their own bread and size their sandwiches larger than most. But as stated in their mission statement, they also like to generate a healthy level of profit.

They’re expensive and they’re proud of it. You’re spending money and you’re happy about it. So right now, we’re in the middle of the marketing mentor program, and I was using Zingerman’s as an example of curation. What I was just sharing with you, they have people scouring the planet for the absolute finest food, their curation skills. What they’re bringing you is the highest quality quality. It’s awesomeness. It’s deliciousness.

And I said that when Susan and I were there, we left having spent seventy dollars We walked in and we needed absolutely nothing. They spent, they sold and we spent seventy dollars And I joked that that is probably the least amount of money I have ever spent walking into Zingerman’s. And somebody posted on chat going into Zingerman’s and only leaving with seventy dollars can be considered a win.

I also shared with them, that, one day when I become more affluent, when we become more affluent than we are, we’re affluent now, but we’re not crazy rich.

When we go to our cottage in Canada, I am going to go to Zingerman’s before we leave to our cottage in Canada, and I am going to spend hundreds. No, I’m going to spend thousands of dollars on delicious foodstuffs.

So when we are sitting on the dock, I am engaging in and indulging in only the finest, finest foods. It’s just sort of one of my little fantasies. I mean, we could afford to do it now, but we choose not to. And you know, you got to get yourself into the right mindset to walk into that place and say, I’m gonna go nuts buying food for the next two weeks. But, you know, it’s just one of those things. It just the store and the way that they do it and their signage and all of those things just inspires you to spend more.

They also the next thing I want to share with you besides this idea of curation and signage and education and pricing is they do bundles and subscriptions better than anybody I have ever seen. This sign is on their meat counter and it says, are irresistible monthly subscription boxes.

And there’s a QR code that will bring you to their website.

But what I wanted to share with you from their mail order at Zingerman’s dot com, by the way, I would encourage you to go there and look is they have so many subscriptions available.

If you look at the categories and I’m looking down at my computer here in the bed and bread and pastry categories, they have four subscriptions.

In the gift categories, they have twenty four different subscriptions.

In the meat and fish sub, categories, they have four subscriptions.

In the sweets category, They have two subscriptions and it goes on and on and on, and they have price ranges too. So you don’t just have to buy it by the month or the quarter of the year. I’m looking at the bacon all year club here for three hundred and ninety five dollars. I have given people bacon of the month, and they have absolutely loved it.

So what I’m encouraging you to think about from this little part is how many subscriptions do you offer now and how many subscriptions can you offer?

And I would encourage you all. Your homework for today is to go to Zingerman, Zingerman’s dot com, and look at what they’re doing. Look at the way that they’ve laid out their website. Look at all of the bundles that they sell and look at all of the subscriptions that they offer.

There are real deal lessons for you for you here, ladies and gentlemen. Bundles and subscriptions are one of the ways for you to bundles will help you increase your average sale. Subscriptions will help you increase your income because three ways to grow your business, get new customers, build the average sale and get more transactions per customer. Well, any time someone purchases a subscription, they are automatically increasing the number of transactions per customer. So look at it and then I’m encouraging you to buy something.

Watch what comes in the box. Look at the presentation.

But most importantly, look at the catalog.

Look at it from a retailer’s point of view. Look at the bundles. Look at the subscriptions. Look at the tone.

Look at the copy. Look at the design because they truly, truly are masters and there is a lot to learn from them. Now, speaking of being masters, I wanna talk about one more thing real quickly here. Zingerman’s is famous for their culture.

Ari Weinsweig, one of the cofounders of Zingerman’s. They are now, by the way, a family of businesses, has been the keynote speaker at the retail success summit, I think three times. He has written several books. In fact, four of his books are in, the the set that I usually use when I shoot these real retail TVs.

Ari is a brilliant business thinker and a great writer. So I would encourage you to go to Zingerman’s and sign up for their, email newsletter. It’s a combination of Ari’s thoughts on business and, of course, his thoughts on food and his thoughts on food. Inevitably make you want to buy food. But one of the things that makes Zingerman’s so great is they have created an amazing culture. And this was a sign that was outside Zingerman’s.

It says we’re hiring.

There’s a QR code, but there’s also a lot of information that makes their appeal to, prospects, prospective employees really, really powerful. It’s not an orange and black help one wanted sign it. Here is the copy on that sign. There’s a quote, first of all, from Ari. The people who make up the Zingerman, community of businesses are the foundation upon which the ultimate success of our organization rests.

That’s on the top. Then it says we’re hiring. Then there are three little pieces of copy that show the benefits of working for Zingerman’s, training for advancements, plenty of great food, competitive pay and benefits.

And then on the very bottom, there is a quote from one of their employees. His name is Jason, and I’m going to pull my computer closer to me. I hope you don’t mind. It said I needed something for the holidays, so I thought I’ll work for a little while. But the longer I worked, the more I learned, the more I fell in love with the culture of Zingerman’s.

Jason’s who works at Zingerman’s mail order.

So I’ve given you just a little taste of lessons from one, visit to Zingerman’s.

I am going to, you know, give you my highest recommendation for all things Zingerman’s.

I am going to encourage you to sign up for Ari’s tip to learn about the food. I’m going to encourage you to go to their website and to buy something so that you can become a customer and get the great food, experience the great food, but also so that you get their catalog so that you can see what they do. You know, one of the things that successful people do is they model and Zingerman’s family of businesses and Zingerman’s as a retail establishment is absolutely a business that you should model.

All right, everybody. If you are ever in Ann Arbor, go to Zingerman’s. You will be happy you did. I’m Bob Negen. I love you guys. We’ll see you next week.