How Murray’s Cheese Built a 7-Day Events Revenue Engine With Eventbrite

When people think of Murray’s Cheese, they think of an institution.

Founded in 1962 as a small corner shop on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, Murray’s has grown into a nationally recognized specialty food brand. Today, the business spans two flagship NYC locations, thousands of Mini Murray’s counters inside Kroger stores across the U.S., a wholesale division, catering, and a thriving e-commerce operation.

But one of its most powerful growth engines isn’t just cheese sales — it’s events.

“We have public classes that we host five to seven days a week,” says Michaela Weitzer, Associate Director of Sales, Events & Education at Murray’s. “We use Eventbrite ticketing for all of our public classes.”

That education program, which includes wine pairings, guided tastings, and mozzarella-making workshops, has become a cornerstone of Murray’s brand experience. And Eventbrite has been the platform behind its growth.

Marketplace reach that drives discovery

Murray’s didn’t just need a ticketing tool. They needed a platform that drove discoverability.

“I think Eventbrite is so well-known that it really allows for people to go on there and search for an activity to do, whether or not they know they’re looking for Murray’s,” Michaela explains.

In New York City, that matters.

Tourists, date-night planners, and locals browsing for something unique often start on Eventbrite, and the platform’s unrivalled search functionality plays a major role.

“There may be tourists who are coming to New York who don’t necessarily know what they want to do, but they’re looking for an event. They go on Eventbrite, they type in ‘guided tasting,’ and it brings them to Murray’s.

“Or they type in ‘wine or cheese’ and all of our classes pop up,” Michaela says.

Beyond search, Murray’s also benefits from Eventbrite’s marketing channels.

“Being featured in the newsletters from the Eventbrite marketing team” has been impactful, she notes. Each month, Murray’s submits upcoming classes for potential inclusion.

“We always track traffic on those days, and we see a huge spike coming from Eventbrite.”

For a business focused on both acquisition and retention, that marketplace visibility is invaluable.

Email tools that fuel retention and revenue

While discovery drives new customers, Eventbrite’s integrated email tools fuel retention and growth.

“We use Eventbrite’s integrated email marketing tools a lot. That’s the best way for us to reach our subscribers and followers and let them know what’s new and upcoming,” Michaela says. “This is the best retention strategy for us.”

The built-in email system allows Murray’s team to easily track contacts and communicate directly with existing customers.

“Eventbrite makes it seamless to pull contacts,” Michaela says. “The email tool allows us to really focus on our retention efforts and reach those people that we already know love us and come to our classes.

Seasonal campaigns are particularly powerful. Valentine’s Day, for example, is Murray’s biggest week of the year for classes.

“That’s where we see the most revenue,” Michaela says.

With seven Valentine’s classes running this year alone, the email tool ensures the right audience hears about them quickly and efficiently.

A seamless, branded checkout experience

When Murray’s redesigned its website, they needed a ticketing partner that supported embedded checkout.

“We were able to embed checkout and really make it look Murray’s-branded,” she explains. “We can keep Eventbrite as our backend operating system but have a front-facing Murray’s branded experience.”

That integration allows customers to shop classes directly on the Murray’s Cheese website while leveraging Eventbrite’s infrastructure behind the scenes.

“The Eventbrite-powered shopper experience and journey has made a huge impact on our business,” Michaela says. “That was a game-changer.”

Backend organization and data that keep operations running smoothly

For a program operating hundreds of events per year, organization is key

“The organization on the back end is so valuable,” Michaela says. “We deal with lots of customers a day.”

Some of those customers call to transfer tickets.

“We don’t allow refunds. So being able to save sales and seamlessly transfer them to a new class … we wouldn’t be able to function without it.”

Eventbrite’s reporting, in particular, has become a strategic asset.

“We can pull sales data seamlessly in our Eventbrite account. We can track traffic and conversions as well as assess trends,” Michaela says.

Murray’s can now see whether customers are coming directly from their website or discovering them via Eventbrite search — data that informs both marketing strategy and planning.

Expanding from occasional classes to a 7-day operation

When Michaela looks back at the past 11 years with Eventbrite, the link between Eventbrite’s ease of use and the growth of Murray’s events is clear.

“Using Eventbrite has allowed us to grow our education program exponentially,” she says. “We went from hosting classes two to three days a week to hosting five to seven days a week.”

Today, Murray’s lists hundreds of upcoming classes at any given time, often posted four months in advance, and that volume requires operational simplicity.

“Eventbrite’s ease of use is really incredible for us,” Michaela explains.

For a business running events nearly every day of the week, that efficiency matters. Eventbrite acts as the centralized backend — organizing ticketing, reporting, and customer management — while allowing Murray’s team to focus on scaling and delivering premium in-person experiences.

And as competitors enter the market, Murray’s visibility on Eventbrite reinforces its leadership position.

“We audit all the time and look at what other people are doing,” Michaela says. “There are a lot of other people who are doing cheese and wine classes. But we’re probably one of the few who are hosting five days a week.”

That consistency is visible to customers browsing Eventbrite.

“They’re able to see the frequency in which we host,” she says. “We do this every day of the week. This is what we do.”

The ROI of a decade-long partnership

Murray’s has been using Eventbrite since 2015 and has sold 74,000 tickets in that time.

From marketplace discovery and newsletter features to embedded checkout, reporting, email retention tools, and seamless transfers, Eventbrite is the backbone of Murray’s events business.

For organizers looking to turn experiences into a scalable revenue stream, Murray’s Cheese proves what’s possible when an iconic brand meets a platform built for growth.