Expert Eye with

John Shepherd

Owner and Managing Director of Partridges

  • “What’s so good about summer?”

    25 August 2016 Expert Eye
    For all my working life in speciality food, we have yearned for the balmy, sunshine days of summer when customers seem in a happier frame of mind and have the delightful tendency to spend a little more money in a...

  • “Brexit or Breginning?”

    12 July 2016 Expert Eye
    To be uncertain is to be uncomfortable. So runs half a Chinese proverb. As a retailer I can readily agree with that

  • “The Royal Connection”

    17 May 2016 Expert Eye
    I am writing this article on April 21st – H.M. the Queen’s 90th Birthday – and very many happy returns are in order. This is not, of course, Her Majesty’s official birthday, which falls on June 12th, but the actual day on...

  • “The Bologna Ratio”

    22 April 2016 Expert Eye
    Last year I visited one of my favourite places – Bologna in Northern Italy, often described as Italy’s culinary capital

  • “Is price important to speciality food shops?”

    15 March 2016 Expert Eye
    Known Value Items or KVIs are literally the bread and butter of supermarkets and convenience stores. Not only because bread and butter features on the list of items, but because they are the products that form the price perception of...

  • “Christmas Trading 2015”

    29 January 2016 Expert Eye
    'Tis the season to be analysing the Christmas trading figures... So how was it for Partridges in 2015?

  • “Resolutions of a shopkeeper”

    21 December 2015 Expert Eye
    The time for new year's resolutions is upon us again. Having discussed the subject already with a random selection of suppliers, customers and market traders, it is very good to note that there is a general air of optimism in circulation

  • “Are food shows worth attending?”

    06 November 2015 Expert Eye
    A perennial activity in the life of someone in the speciality food world is visiting food shows in all their shapes and sizes

  • “New ideas”

    20 October 2015 Expert Eye
    The headline of the Evening Standard on Thursday 10th September 2015 proclaimed the words “Store Wars” in bold type

  • “Partridges’ top 5”

    24 August 2015 Expert Eye
    Last month I wrote about the effect of the weather on sales, and so far it seems like this summer is maintaining the recent mini trend of relatively benign weather
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