Harry Goraya, owner of Rosherville Post Office, in Gravesend, Kent, says his spirits miniatures are selling well thanks to people adding them to slush drinks.

”Our spirits cabinet is turning over a surprising volume. We have achieved this by making sure our prices aren’t way above what you can find online. It’s so common now for shoppers to come in and compare prices to what they can get online. We ensure our spirits are only up to £5 more than what you can find online and we’ve found that’s an acceptible amount to pay for the convenience of buying it immediately.

”We’ve also found that our miniatures are selling as an addition to the slushes. We usually turn the slush machine off in the winter but we were still selling 10 or 15 of these a day so we decided to keep it on this year. On Friday and Saturday nights, when people come in and get a slush, we’ve started suggesting that they help warm themselves up with a tipple from our miniatures range and 90 per cent of the time, people do it! They buy the miniature and add it to their slush.

”We are diversifying quite a lot. We have a 24-hour Tesco and Asda nearby as well as an Aldi and Lidl. There’s no point me trying to compete directly. 

”I’m looking to new avenues for our chocolate range. I’ve been looking online and at European suppliers to try to get in some ranges that you don’t see in the mults. The problem is that the mults will buy all the stock from suppliers at a low price and then they’ll sell it at a lower price than we can even buy it! Some retailers have resorted to buying from Tesco and sticking 50p onto the price and selling in their own stores. I don’t think that’s a great way to do business so it’s important to find some different products.”

Successful NPD:

Aqua Vape:

“Our vaping category is going really well. We sell products that come in at the low to medium price point but we are thinking of bringing in some higher end products, around the £50-£60 mark. One of the brands of e-cigs that I sell is Aqua Vape. These liquids are sold at £3.99 or three for a tenner which is great value for money.”

Aqua Vape is an independent company which means it can listen to retailers and react more quickly to their needs. It offers vaping kits with an RRP’s of £15 to £60 as well as all the indivudual components. The brand offers several ranges of e-liquids including Sub-OHM, Ossem, Sub Zero, Sik Juice and Wild West and just a few of the flavours they offer are: baby jellies, choc mint, eton mess, lemon tart, raspberry crea and vanilla mint milkshake. 

What’s hot: Spirits are going very strong and we’re doing well with our miniatures

What’s not: News and mags are dying but that’s mostly due to suppliers not caring about getting us the right stock