The next best thing (after sampling) to encourage impulse buys

With many households now cooking more than they ever have before, the opportunity to boost fresh garlic sales in the year ahead is considerable. Minced garlic is ubiquitous, but exposing shoppers to the sights, sounds and smells of chopping and cooking fresh garlic is a great way to inspire impulse purchases. Sampling has largely been stalled due to the pandemic, but taste isn’t the only sense that can be leveraged to interest shoppers in this particular culinary staple.

Picture this: You’ve got your demo station set up, ready to fix a simple stir fry recipe that features fresh garlic. You’ve got your Plexiglas barrier so people can see the prep work without worrying about getting too close.

Shoppers can see the peeling and chopping – looks easier than they imagined, perhaps. They can hear the sounds of a meal coming together. They can smell the aroma of the dish developing.

You’ve got a stack of recipe cards that list 5-6 ingredients, and you’ve got those stir fry ingredients merchandised together on a refrigerated display nearby – broccoli, mushrooms and bell peppers plus garlic in baskets in front of them, plus a couple items like soy sauce and chicken broth, for example.

The best time to do something like this depends on the traffic patterns in your stores. Traditionally you might have a stream of shoppers during an after-work, on-the-way-home time frame, but how has that adjusted this year as more people are working from home?

Some shopper behaviors have changed, but as we’ve seen, the love of a good meal certainly hasn’t been one of those things.

Continuing to inspire people to cook – and giving them simple meal solutions, with multiple components ready to pick up from one spot – will serve both your shoppers and your sales goals.