my job

By Laura French • jobslink@startribune.com

Michael Burt goes a little nuts this time of year — literally. His family's seasonal store, We Are Nuts, opens the second week in October and closes at the end of the first full week in January.

"We start getting serious about ramping up Sept. 1st with regards to finalizing ordering, bringing in inventory, starting to roast and starting to hire seasonal employees," Burt said. "It always seems like Sept. 1st comes earlier every year, and just because of the growth of the business, it comes with bigger tasks and to-dos every season."

We Are Nuts does small batch roasting, Burt said. "We do 50 to 200 pounds at a time. The process is based on temperature, humidity, quality of the nuts themselves — how dense, how wet if they aren't fully cured. It's a real finesse, experience thing."

Because the nut business is closed nine months of the year, forecasting is "a real challenge," Burt said. "We order nuts specific to where they're grown — cashews are typically from India or Brazil. Almonds are from California. Macadamias are from Hawaii. You can't just order everything Sept. 1. We need to play the game beginning Feb. 1, when we close the store, and be watching the markets and timing. Much as you'd like to put it down to a science, it's a guessing game every year."

The seasonal business complements the family's year-round grocery closeout business. The We Are Nuts store offers a changing array of deeply discounted food and household products that draw bargain-hunters as well as holiday shoppers. And, Burt said, "We have the benefit of being able to wholesale leftover product. How many nuts can I bring home to my wife?" Still, with an expensive commodity like nuts, a miscalculation that results in deeply discounted leftovers can have an impact on the year's profits.

Staffing is also a challenge. "We have to go out and look for people every year. If you don't take a proactive approach, you're subject to the quality of what comes knocking at your door. It always seems to just magically work out — a combination of someone knowing someone and finding someone. We hire a lot of people out of rehab, college students in a transition period. By our very nature we run very lean. Everybody works twice as hard."

What's the most enjoyable part of the seasonal business?

The most fun thing is the customers. We're all deal junkies. We get to work on deals at big volume. Then we get to turn around and bring that to our customers. You feed off the energy of your customers.

What's the biggest challenge?

You're trying to run a yearlong business in a compressed cycle. You do all the things you do for a full business, but in a compressed timetable — marketing, HR, accounting.

What are your holidays like?

Every year, we ask ourselves, "What are we going to do about Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years?" We work until noon Christmas Eve, so we can get to church at 4 p.m. We always contemplate — we shouldn't be open Christmas Eve. But we do it for our customers. Someone says, "I've got to have those cashews for my Christmas party." I love Christmas season. Nov. 1, the Christmas music turns on. We're humming in that backroom, packing nuts, everyone working as fast as they can. We love that our seasonal business is around such a happy time of the year. □