SHOP TALK

IF I’D KNOWN THEN WHAT I KNOW NOW...

ROLLO MILLERSHIP, owner, Nourished Communities, London

I was 14 when I first worked at a farmers’ market. and later went on to start two of them – Hoxton and London Fields - before moving into digital marketing.

When Covid-19 struck, Perry Court Farm in Kent got in touch. As all the markets had shut down they needed help selling their produce. Overnight, I set up a website and was soon spending a day a week delivering 150 veg boxes.

Fortuitously, I met Mary Wiggin, who runs a company called Coexistence. She has a showroom on Upper Street, Islington, and invited me to trade in it. I gave her food in return. Getting onto the high street is so expensive, there is no way I would have been able to otherwise.

We’re now halfway through our third year and have grown exponentially. Our box scheme has gone from offering 5-10 products in the beginning to 900 today. We recently opened a second store on Blackstock Road, Finsbury Park, where we have beehives in the garden and grow mushrooms in the basement using coffee grounds from local cafés. Then, last month, we opened a store in Kings Cross. And we are soon opening another store in Walthamstow.

We have always wanted to support local and independent producers and add transparency into the supply chain. We try not to use wholesalers as that takes margin away from producers. And next month we are starting an incubator – taking on five start-up brands to help them with their marketing and distribution.

One of the biggest challenges in the early days was being a sole founder, doing everything myself. Now we employ eight staff, the challenge is communication and making sure everyone is enthusiastic about their work. We are implementing a structure that will give employees a share in the business and we make sure staff get to taste all the products.

Another major challenge is stock and inventory across the stores. Fresh products are what attract people to our stores for but that comes with wastage. The key is communicating - making sure we are tracking wastage and that this intel is used to inform procurement. We have a basic but effective tech stack we use for this.

What I do well is to prioritise activities that are important for generating revenue rather than getting sidetracked with ‘fluffier’ things. For example, I think it is more important to focus on reducing our fees for card transactions and on winning back customers who have dropped off than trying to get new customers.

CONFESSIONS OF A DELI OWNER

ANONYMOUS TALES FROM BEHIND THE COUNTER

INFLATION IS HITTING everything. Cheese, which I would call the heart of my shop, is no exception. I guess everyone reading this knows that cheese is already expensive in lots of people’s minds. Or rather I should say good cheese is expensive. I know because I keep an eye on it. There’s quite a lot of in ation on supermarket shelves. You’re not seeing £4/kg deals on cheddar at the moment. £10/kg seems to be about standard.

A small number of my cheeses I can get direct but most come from wholesalers, so I’m not even buying it wholesale at that price. I used to have a oor for my pricing of £18/ kg, and would get extra margin from cheaper cheeses. That’s not possible now. Everything has to be sold at over £20/kg to get my standard margin.

At the top end I used to tap out at around £30, with exceptions for sheep or goat cheeses and good Parmesan. More than that would put o customers, I felt it gave me a bad name. That is now £40. When I go abroad – Europe and especially the US – prices are higher. There is a di erent baseline. Cheese is legitimately a bit more. It’s like we are anchored by the

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What gets me, and this is my rant, is the way customers see value when compared to other things – even in my own shop

supermarket de nition of a what is a “fair price” for cheese. But that’s only achievable at huge scales of production, not small batch artisan fayre.

But what gets me, and this is my rant, is the way customers see value when compared to other things – even in my own shop. Now I’ve got a greetings card rack. It makes me good money. It takes up very little space. It’s a proper “spontaneous purchase” moment for my

1 90s cocktail revival According to one of America’s most notable drinks magazines, Punch, we can expect to see a wave of ‘90s nostalgia in some of the world’s most notable cocktail bars. Prepare to see Cosmopolitans making a comeback, likely made from a slew of artisan ingredients, alongside Long Island Ice Teas and the now infamous White Russian. The latter allows drinks managers to experiment with all those alternative milks we never had in the ’90s. “We’re in the post-ironic era,” Brooklyn bartender Jack Schramm told Punch as he explained how serious bars will be utilising ingredients previously thought of as too lowbrow – like Malibu or Midori – to create balanced cocktails. Could the air of snobbery finally drift out the window of the high-end cocktail bar? Time will inevitably tell.

2 Restaurant culture – a setting for drama Chef culture is ever-more revered and is currently the thread holding many big budget films and binge-worthy series together. Late last year Netflix released Boiling Point, starring Stephen Graham, which centred around the high stakes and pressures of running a professional kitchen. In October, hit US show The Bear will be released in the UK on Disney+, a series customers. We are not a card shop, they rarely come in explicitly for that. But as a basket ller, cards nail it.

The bit I don’t get is that customers are happy to spend £2.99/£3.99 on a card, but baulk at paying similar amounts for cheese. Cards are colourful manifestations of one person thinking about another, but fundamentally they are disposed of pretty quickly. They are a ash in the pan. But cheese, cheese is a way of life. Cheese is aspirational, cheese is food, cheese is for sharing.

Maybe it’s because cards are 100% gi , and that justi es the expense in the customer’s mind. It’s not for them, it’s for someone else. Cheese for the most part is a treat. Perhaps that makes it self-indulgent, a guilty purchase. Some customers complain that their families hoover up the cheese, not paying enough attention. They maybe aren’t prepared to pay that bit more for something that’s not going to be respected.

But I whinge too much. We do well, and the customers come and buy cheese in good numbers. It’s only a few who claim that I’m somehow exploiting them with my prices.

that’s garnered a cult-like following for it’s on-point depiction of the unseen underbelly of restaurant culture. In November, The Menu will be released. It’s a feature film, starring Ralph Fiennes and Nicholas Hoult that puts a dark twist on the setting of a high-end restaurant and experiential dining. As the zeitgeist continues to glorify chefs and chef culture, it’s no wonder that the big screen is taking note.

3 Birria We called the Mexican taco trend in this column a long way out – when some of London’s best-loved taco joints were in their infancy. As the appreciation for good cornflour tortillas and fillings like al pastor have solidified, a new wave of Mexican adoration is falling on the city, this time it’s Birria. Birria has undergone something of a renaissance in Los Angeles, with this iconic staple of Central Mexico being the order of choice for the city’s hungry hipsters. The birria is a stew made from goat or beef and either comes with a stack of corn flour tortillas, or is pre stuffed into them. The folded tacos are then ceremoniously dunked into the stew. London’s highly regarded taqueria Sonora opened Mexa in September, serving up birria in all its saturated glory.

GUIDE TO THE BEST OF MILLER’S

ARTHUR MILLER

Playwright and husband of Marilyn Munroe who said “We should have a child. Imagine a baby with your brains and my looks”; and he retorted “But what if it got your brains and my looks?”. Our attractive Miller’s is anyone’s wise choice. KEITH MILLER

Australia’s greatest all-rounder and known as Nugget because he had the golden touch for hitting sixes into the stands. We treat our packs of Miller’s like gold as we gently place six into each case. HENRY MILLER

The American novelist of the ‘20s whose books were banned on account of sexual content and explicit language. There is no sexual content inside our box, but the label is explicit; and so, Americans now devour our Miller’s obscenely.

ROGER MILLER

Famous for his ‘60s hit England Swings Like A Pendulum Do (bobbies on bicycles two by two). Well, they cost more than a bob or two but you can set your watch by our Miller’s. SIENA MILLER

Her appearance in the film Layer Cake led the New York Times to describe her as “a gift to be unwrapped very quickly”. Just like our Miller’s. GLENN MILLER

Jazz bandleader and trombonist, he was the bestselling recording artist during WW2. A top track was In The Mood. Whatever mood you are in, our Miller’s will strike the right note.

MAX MILLER

The greatest stand-up of his generation, known for his catchphrase “They don’t make ‘em anymore, duck”! But they do. Our Miller’s are baked by hand in Derbyshire where people still affectionately call each other Ducks.