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In this episode of Startup CPG Podcast, Daniel Scharff is joined by Glenn Cunningham, Director of Center Store for Village Supermarkets, which owns tastemaker New York stores Fairway Market, Gourmet Garage, and local area ShopRites, and is part of the
Wakefern Co-op. Glenn sheds light on the cooperative model of Wakefern, providing valuable insights into grocery shopping trends and strategies for sourcing and supporting emerging brands.
Glenn discusses distributor preferences and the criteria for getting brands onto shelves at major stores. He shares effective strategies for driving in-store trials and boosting sales, highlights successful brand launches, and offers tips on demo strategies and building a strong social media presence.
Listen in as they share about:
- Glenn’s start in the Grocery Business
- Village Supermarkets and Wakefern Overview
- Store Banners, Sourcing and Finding New Brands
- Trends and Consumer Behavior
- Distributors and Partnerships
- On-Shelf Strategies
- Fancy Food Show Experience
- Local and Emerging Brands
Episode Links:
Center Store for Village Supermarkets Website
Fairway Market Website
Gourmet Garage Website
Don't forget to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify if you enjoyed this episode. For potential sponsorship opportunities or to join the Startup CPG community, visit http://www.startupcpg.com.
Show Links:
Transcripts of each episode are available on the Transistor platform that hosts our podcast here (click on the episode and toggle to “Transcript” at the top)
- Join the Startup CPG Slack community (20K+ members and growing!)
- Follow @startupcpg
- Visit host Daniel's Linkedin
- Questions or comments about the episode? Email Daniel at podcast@startupcpg.com
Episode music by Super Fantastics
Creators & Guests
What is The Startup CPG Podcast?
A podcast from Startup CPG - highlighting stories from founders working towards a better food system and industry insights from experts to give you a better chance at success.
Glenn Cunningham
We're able to sit on, you know, different committees for different divisions, work with the buyers, work with divisions, and I get to show them what I'm doing in fairway. I get to show them what are the new trendy items that I could bring in there, you know, show that we could potentially be on the shop rate shelf in a couple years. What are the new trends? You know, I'm searching for new trends. You know, I'm walking shows. I'm trying to bring that, you know, to the buyer's desk, too. You know, there's a handful of stuff that I could point out to show them what's doing well, you know, share the information. So it kind of helps us grow.
00:39
Daniel Scharff
New York, New York. This is a big one, folks. We've got Glenn Cunningham on the podcast today. He is the center store director for Village Supermarkets. That's part of the Wakefern co op, and they own some of the most epic New York area banners, fairway market, gourmet garage, and a bunch of the shop rights. Glenn loves taking a chance on emerging brands, and in this episode, we cover it all. We've got an overview of each of his banners, how he sources and distributes brands, how to support your product when it's on shelf, his view of the biggest opportunities in the store right now, and so much more. You're gonna love this one. Enjoy. Welcome, friends. Today we have the legendary Glenn Cunningham.
01:24
Daniel Scharff
If you're trying to get on shelves in the tastemaker stores of New York City, Glenn is the guy you need to know. Glenn is the director of center store for Village supermarkets, covering fairway, Gourmet Garage, the New York area shop rights, the Village supermarkets banner, of course, and all of that's actually owned by Wakefern. Glenn has been at Village supermarkets for 25 years, so he really knows his stuff. He's also known as one of the biggest supporters for emerging brands. He's constantly looking for standout brands that he can be the first to launch in the New York area. Glenn, my friend, welcome to the podcast. I'm so excited to have you here. Can you start just by telling us all, how did you get your start in the grocery business?
02:05
Glenn Cunningham
Sure. Thanks, Daniel. Thanks for having me. Really glad to be on here. Yeah, I think it all, you know, all started years of in the grocery store. Just being fascinated how a grocery store runs early days shopping with my parents upcoming. But it first started when I was 15 years old as a first job in high school as a bagger, you know, for Shoprite. From there, you know, I kind of continued my career through a lot of operation roles and continued that through a little school. I took a career change and decided to stay in, you know, food retail, really just covering operations into store management roles, department manager roles, really learning the fix and the ins and outs of the store.
02:39
Glenn Cunningham
And then currently in my current role, you know, as a center store director, just in charge of merchandising for village probably for about six years right now.
02:47
Daniel Scharff
That's amazing. You were making me remember my first job. I think when I was 14, I went and got a job at a local convenience store. It was a pharmacy. They sold lotto tickets. And so, yeah, I guess my first job in retail as well, but I did not make a career out of it. That's super interesting, though, because I often and think about, like, you know, if I had kids and what kind of jobs I would want them to have where they'd be learning to work at an early age and the value of that and hopefully enjoying it, but also picking up skills that they would really use later on, no matter what it is, you know, you're not going to get, like, your first VC job when you're 14, but you can get skills, like, no matter what you're doing.
03:23
Daniel Scharff
Do you feel like it was pretty useful to you, like you were learning stuff even when you were 15 as a bagger?
03:29
Glenn Cunningham
Yeah, I think I gained a lot of my work ethic, really driving my work skills and then continue on through school and then, you know, made the decision to, you know, stick with village and as the family, you know, obviously took care of me, saw my career and was really invested in me developing myself through the years working with them. You know, it's a third generation family, and I worked with first generation, second generation onto third, and they really invested in me, took me on early on, young store manager, you know, running a store at 24, continuing on my career, you know, really helped me develop myself personally to grow into myself and to really grow into my current role and, you know, looking to continue to move on, hopefully right out my career here.
04:08
Daniel Scharff
That's a really nice way to think about it. And a lot of people have the frame of like, well, what do you want to do with your life? Like, this is exactly it. But actually, for me, I'm way more interested in working with people who I like, who I think are really supportive where things are going well. So it seems like you were in a perfect situation like that.
04:23
Glenn Cunningham
Yeah, no, couldn't land any better. Developed myself. My career, you know, helped me and always just been interested in food, right? It's the food supermarket, how it goes. I love food. I love tasting, I love new products, love emerging products. That's really what drives me, excites me. I love all the fixed into that business.
04:40
Daniel Scharff
Yeah, me too. So speaking of village supermarkets, can you give us the 101 on what exactly that is first? Because whenever I tell people about, you gotta meet Glenn. But I have to list like four things that you cover, and they're like, and that.
04:54
Glenn Cunningham
Whoa.
04:55
Daniel Scharff
And that other one, like, that's crazy.
04:57
Glenn Cunningham
Yeah, yeah.
04:58
Daniel Scharff
Like, take me back with the history of your career. And then how. Because it seems like some of those banners got added on. What's the story?
05:04
Glenn Cunningham
Yeah, yeah. So I can give the whole village history. So, yeah. Village supermarkets is with part of Wakefurn. It's a membership. Wakefront's a co optain. There's 50 different members. You know, some members own two shop rates, one shop rate, some own 30, 40. Altogether, we own 37 doors between, you know, 30 shop rates, three gourmet garages, and four fairways. My company, village supermarkets, purchased gourmet garages back in 2018 and purchased fairway markets in 2020. So added that those banners on to our company really expanded us and really got a footprint right in the New York City, Manhattan area. Prior to that, we opened up our first shop right I in the Bronx, which really got our foot into New York. And then after that we got into Manhattan.
05:45
Daniel Scharff
Do you think that the buying spree is done? Is there other stuff in the sites for village supermarkets? Who's next?
05:52
Glenn Cunningham
Yeah, you never know. You never know. Continue to grow. You know, third generation wants the company to drive, right. And we want to keep continuing it. You know, their vision, you know, their outlook is really strong. Wanted us to be here and also helping the co op. Right. It goes back to the co op. Everything we're opening up on their banners, you know, rolls through the co op. They're a part of the co op. You know, we're about 12% of wakefront of the co op, so it really helps everybody. They have a great vision for a future.
06:16
Daniel Scharff
When you guys do your next one, you'll have to let us scoop it here on the pod. So can you tell me a little bit more about what makes a co op different than other models?
06:25
Glenn Cunningham
Yeah, it's the membership, it's different members, a lot of different opinions. They basically run the co op. We're able to sit on different committees for different divisions, work with the buyers, work with divisions, and I get to show them what I'm doing. In fairway, I get to show them what are the new trendy items that I could bring in there, show that we could potentially be on the shop rate shelf in a couple years. What are the new trends? You know, I'm searching for new trends. You know, I'm walking shows. I'm trying to bring that to the buyer's desk, too. We're walking FSA show, and, you know, there's a couple other members, owners that, you know, do want to walk through and buyers that are there from wake Fern, what do you see and what do you bring into your store?
06:58
Glenn Cunningham
And, you know, there's a handful of stuff that I could point out to show them what's doing well, you know, share the information, so it kind of helps us grow.
07:05
Daniel Scharff
So Wakefern as a whole is a co op, and that means. So it's co op, which I just only kind of understand that in the sense of like a co op store that is owned by, like, the people who work there. And I think the people who shop there, even all that. So does that mean wake fern as a whole is owned by all of the people who own the individual stores? Or is it all, okay, not the shoppers, just the people who own the stores? Gosh, that sounds like you're probably in a lot of meetings, could be tied.
07:34
Glenn Cunningham
Down for a lot of means, but, yeah, no, it's every member, every family member that owns, you know, groups of stores have an opinion, you know, for wakefront.
07:41
Daniel Scharff
Yeah. And then, so what's that like then, when one of the members wants to go out and buy a gourmet garage stores, I assume you can just kind of do that on your own prerogative, but it is going to then be part of the overall wake fern cooperative. I wonder. I mean, there must be.
07:55
Glenn Cunningham
Yeah, yeah, that's a dynamic hiring me, but, yeah, there's definitely working between our ownership and the co op, you know, if we're looking to expand our footprint. Yeah, there is other banners, too. They operate.
08:07
Daniel Scharff
Okay, so that makes sense because when I had pitched you a long time ago on a brand, were really lucky to be able to work with you. And then from there, we then started building relationships with some of those other stores as well, like Shoprite, and they were very interested to hear that it was in your banners, and that definitely smoothed the path for us. So that makes sense probably internally. You may even have a chance to tell some of the other banners about what you're bringing on that you're excited about. And then probably also centrally, there are some systems that you guys all share?
08:38
Glenn Cunningham
Yeah, no, our systems are all lined up together. We share data, we share someone we do compete with. But on my level, I have counterparts and the other members that we do share stuff that we find. Have you seen this item? Are you looking for the twitch you see on this trend? You know, Glenn, have you seen this item? But we share stuff daily for texting or at a meeting or at a committee meeting, but we definitely share our thoughts and what we see out there together. And we kind of, that's how we grow and it's how we become better.
09:03
Daniel Scharff
Okay, this is awesome. I just have to say this is the first time I've ever actually understood how this whole thing works. And it's very interesting to me and probably all of the brands who have tried to figure it out on their own also. So thank you already. I think it's been an a plus podcast already. We saw that one. So. Okay, now, digging into these individual banners, some of these are the most epic stores, especially in New York, out there, like, you know, fairway market, just legendary. I remember watching that tv show with Jesse Eisenberg. I forget what it's called, but the female lead in that was wearing a fairway shirt for a lot of the show as well. Like, hey, I know them. So, you know, it's unquestionably part of pop culture in New York, part of the cultural psyche.
09:45
Daniel Scharff
Can you just tell us a little bit more about the different banners, though? So, like, for each one of them, where are they typically located? What does the store feel like? How are the shoppers and products different? All that stuff?
09:57
Glenn Cunningham
Yeah, yeah, no, definitely. So gourmet garage currently has three stores, one in West Village, one in Tribeca, and then the other in 66th street outside of Lincoln center. So really a gourmet convenience store. And I'm just gonna put a plug in here. We just currently just redid the West Village to a new layout, and everybody should check it out. But we did add in more food service. My counterpart over there added more food service, grab and go items, really updated the whole mainland floor. Really an awesome drink wall that we did, and great grab and go items that are convenient and really kind of brought some items from upstate, from downstairs, upstairs, and added a lot more cold food for convenience customers there.
10:35
Daniel Scharff
But I love that one. And actually, I was just in there filming a check out all of our startup CPG brands at Gourmet Garage, and I was really blown away how many of the awesome brands from our community are in there? So I echo it looks great. Great layout. Nice job.
10:48
Glenn Cunningham
Thank you. Thanks. So definitely check it out. But, yeah, gourmet garage, smaller footprint, 5000 plus items. Really driven is specialty. I would say 80% of the layout, you know, is specialty or, you know, naturally organic and 20% conventional. But really driving that into that store is a convenience gourmet store. We have everything. You have everything you want at a gourmet convenience level. But brands we have, you know, we're bringing in everything we can as far as trending. New brands, emerging brands. What's new? You know, for that customer shopping, that store, fairways, our specialty store, it was a legacy store in New York City. Really specialty driven. Bringing in new items early known for their olive oil, their cheese. Really, those special items, we still have them. We still get them from the same producers.
11:30
Glenn Cunningham
We get out there and we want to make sure that we have the customer. There's customers that shop there for years. No legacy customers that shop. So Upper west side, Upper east side, both great stores. We're stopping Kipps Bay and Chelsea, both great neighborhoods. So I think we're in every borough or part of Manhattan, you know, covering our stores, but really specialty driven. We do bring in a lot of conventional. When we came over and we took over fairway, we did bring in some conventional items into fairway. We heard the customers that wanted some more conventional items on top of the specialty, so we gave them a mix. You could find convenience, conventional item. If it's a detergent item or a paper towel there that you would find at a shop. Right.
12:06
Daniel Scharff
All right, amazing. So gourmet garage and fairway. So obviously covering kind of different geographies. A lot of specialty items in both. Tell me when I walked. Cause I walked into that Chelsea store for fairway and then I obviously walked through the gourmet garage, one in the west Village. My sense was maybe in gourmet garage. Then I saw even more brands that I recognized from the emerging world. Did I just, like, have longer to look that day and I just found more, or do you feel like actually you do have more space to test out some of the smaller brands in that location or that banner? Or am I just way off?
12:41
Glenn Cunningham
No, no, you're probably right on. Definitely. We highlight more, you know, brands like that in a gourmet garage. You know, for Chelsea, it's probably a smaller layout, smaller format of a store. Probably have less space than normal to actually bring in a lot of those items, but you probably spot on doing your observation there.
12:57
Daniel Scharff
Okay, cool. Yeah, that's probably right. Cause I haven't gotten to the other fairway locations yet, but that's gonna be number one on my list when I moved to new York in two weeks. So let's go there. We'll have a meet up and check out the deli section. Definitely. That's one of my favorite things to do when I'm grocery shop. Tourist thing is just see how killer of a sandwich people can make and then coming back to Shoprite. And then there's also. And then actually, I haven't been in a village supermarket banner itself. Can you go through those two?
13:28
Glenn Cunningham
Yeah, yeah. So there is no village banner. So it's just, that's the company. Village supermarkets is the company that operates the three banners. But Shoprite, we have 30 shop rates. Conventional shop rate store average, you know, 60,000 plus thousand items based on demographic area. Might have items that doing well in New York City that would wind up doing well, you know, in some shoprite stores that are trending to a younger demographics or somebody that might be leaving New York City and moving to the suburbs, that might be a customer trend too. Still looking for those items, you know, you could see somebody might shop a fairway bag in a shop, right. You know, that they just recently moved out of the city. So we captured a lot of that. We want to make sure that we have that.
14:07
Glenn Cunningham
And that trend that might be happening in New York could be six months to a year behind, you know, happening in a shop right in New Jersey side.
14:14
Daniel Scharff
Oh, that's so interesting. Do you have any examples of that, of a trend that you saw kind of pop and then you saw it really take like six months or a year or even longer to pop? Just kind of even so close right outside the city in Jersey.
14:27
Glenn Cunningham
Yeah, you know, it could be a probiotic, it could be a beverage set. I think, you know, we really dug into beverages the last couple of years and were ahead of it. New York City and then we wind up putting beverage sets into shop rates, bringing in those items that were trending on the fairway side, they're indexing high and they wind up working out and the sets, you know, grew and took off on the shop right side.
14:48
Daniel Scharff
Man, what is just going on with beverage in general now? I feel like for me it's the most interesting space to watch. Maybe I'm partly biased because I was most recently CEO for beverage company, but I'm just seeing so much innovation for me as a consumer, I'm way more interested in that set as well. I think especially almost like beverage as a snack type consumption where like I'm home all day doing stuff, I always kind of want some different beverage and hopefully a healthy one. A lot of hydration is what I'm focused on these days as well. And I feel like it's all enabled by me working from home. So I have, I can use the restroom as much as I need to if I'm out on the town. I would not be drinking as many liquids as I am here.
15:27
Daniel Scharff
But like the powders, like, what do you see just going overall in beverage?
15:31
Glenn Cunningham
Yeah, no beverages definitely exploded, you know, is it a prebiotic, probiotic, you know, stomach, you know, health? Is it better, you know, for you? Soda. A lot of the brands that we worked on early on, I remember working with swoon years before it is today. One of my guys, you know, really working with United, you know, soda of America, just some cool stuff that really took off in the city, captured it, and then, you know, brought to the shop right side. But on the beverage set, I think it continues to grow. I'm sure at a point that, you know, we're going to have to look at our sets, either determine what needs to go, what's going to come in, who's going to stay, and who's going to go I think is going to be the question in the future for that category.
16:07
Daniel Scharff
So for your shoppers, I'm sure you have some data on this, but like what percentage of them are rolling in for a quick sandwich and drink or just kind of like a one item that they're missing and a soda maybe versus they're coming in for a basket shop.
16:21
Glenn Cunningham
It depends on the area. It could be. What's your lunch crowd? Every store is different. It's based on location, close to working office. Are people back in office not working from home? You know, it's really on what kind of lunch crowd you're really driving. Evening crowd. Yeah, they'll come in, they'll pick maybe something up for that night for dinner, but then they'll have a basket that they're going to need for the rest of the week. It all depends on the area, obviously in the city, you know, we get a little bit later crowd, a later start in business and probably right after lunch you'll kick in. But we do have a strong, you know, dinner crowd, at least in Manhattan.
16:52
Daniel Scharff
And what did you see post pandemic for me? Like, okay, here in LA, I can think of a couple grocery stores that are near office parks which have been desolate. Those office parks, like if people, I don't know, some corporate policies maybe have to come in two days a week now, like, if at all, they're gone. Those grocery stores, unfortunately, are really hurting because they don't have the. They were entirely reliant on that lunch crowd. I imagine that wouldn't affect you guys as much because as New York City and even, you know, you have that dinner crowd too. Like, they work there. They. A lot of people live in New York, obviously also. And they're going to be pretty densely packed around where your stores are.
17:28
Daniel Scharff
Did you see big changes at any of your stores or kind of coming now out of the pandemic? Are you seen anything shift?
17:34
Glenn Cunningham
Yeah, yeah, no, definitely a lot of stuff changed. I think we all waited for New York City to come back, and it's back. It definitely came back. So in the change, you're saying that.
17:43
Daniel Scharff
You're saying because I'm moving there, you're moving.
17:49
Glenn Cunningham
It's definitely back. I think we all waited for it to come back. And I think the foot traffic has definitely changed, competitive landscape changed. But just in the West Village, I think it was probably just shortly after Covid, the store was opened up and that didn't open up with all the bells and whistles of a hot bar or a salad bar today. Now you can get that. So a lot of stuff had to change. We had to change our go to market strategy. My counterpart on the food service side knew what he had to do. Anyway, I changed, and I think we're getting ourselves ready and set up for the future. But I think it's coming back and we're excited for it.
18:21
Daniel Scharff
I love to see it. I love a good hotbar, honestly. So I'm excited that I'll be living so close to your west village one because I'll definitely be there all the time. I can't wait. Okay, great. So, Glen, like I mentioned before, I think you're one of the most prolific buyers in terms of going out and finding new brands and giving them a chance. And that chance means so much because, I mean, it's so cool to be in one of your epic stores. And, you know, if you're a brand and an ambitious startup, as you're growing, the momentum is so important. So it's not just your opportunity, which is awesome, and the volume that comes from it and the great chance to trial and build awareness with some of the most important consumers in the nation.
19:02
Daniel Scharff
But also just, I think the credibility that getting into one of your stores can give a brand that's really trying to grow locally or on the east coast. Or even nationally. So can you just talk to me a little bit more about how do people typically find you or how do you find brands and what are your methods for sourcing? And you typically do stuff a lot of the time year round, right? Not just kind of set reviews? So how are people getting lucky enough to get into your stores?
19:25
Glenn Cunningham
Yeah, no, it's being, I guess, readily available. That's always brands. I think it all starts with networking, right? You got a network, you make your connection, I think, feet to the ground. It's walking the shows, looking at the brands, looking at them, having conversations with the brands, making the connections. I think once you start to establish yourself of bringing stuff in, the connections start to fold, you start to meet people. But I think LinkedIn, you know, is one that's, like, phenomenal. And I think I'll get stuff in my inbox all the time. My email is out there. They'll contact you with email. Walking the shows. Fancy food show didn't make Expos west this year because we had some pre engagement, you know, for store opening. But anything else, you know, unify shows, plant based shows, we're there. My team's there, too.
20:09
Glenn Cunningham
If I don't have Fidel with me, I might have, you know, Mark and a few other guys on my team there. And we're all scouting and making sure the brands are out there and trying to work with them and pick what we think we need, you know, for our stores and giving anybody the chance. We're looking for that emerging brand. We're looking for that new item. We want to be first to market. I want to see into my stores before I walk into a competitor that has it.
20:28
Daniel Scharff
And just two quick questions on that before I forget. Firstly, what are the UNFI DC's that you like to work with, or are there any other distributors you're okay with also, just for any brands thinking if they might be a good fit, we.
20:39
Glenn Cunningham
Work with Unify, you know, Hudson Valley and Hal, those are my two DC's, you know, on distribution. I have a great partnership with Czech Foods and Jeremy Eisenberg, great relationship with them. He has a great team using their team, too. They're out there walking in the shows, too, running into them, telling them what I see, you know, giving the recap. And I might feel something's better for them on a specialty. Also, Rainforest is another distraction, and I work with Jimmy Sebaugh and it could be something that's a new trendy item in New York City, one of the top high end, I think, merchant brand distributors he is that they have and working with them and showing them items that I find that shows too. Those are a couple of my top distributors that I use.
21:16
Daniel Scharff
Okay. And then second question is, when people reach out to you, are you typically thinking about trying them in all of the banners? Because, I mean, gosh, you got a lot to do in general and just like separating it out even more, multiplying it by the different banners is pretty tough. Or do you always just have an initial idea of like, oh, okay, this beverage or this snack that would best for gourmet garage or fairway?
21:37
Glenn Cunningham
Yeah, we do have our own guardrails and it's, you know, if we think it's something new, hyper local, new, talking to the brand and they might not be ready for shop. Right. Yet, you know, maybe they're just ready for a couple doors in gourmet garage and fairway. If it's something that's bigger scale that's already hit and trend the market and I need to go quick and move fast and I think they can handle it, then, you know, we'll move on. But there is some guardrails that want to make sure the brands are ready. Fairway, gourmet garage, we can get in. We could probably work with them, probably fumble on a few things. But once we get to shop, right, it's a different ballgame.
22:08
Daniel Scharff
Yeah. Okay, that makes sense. What are some of those indicators, you think, that would make somebody ready for a shop? Right. Do they need to be in, I don't know, 5000 doors? They need to be in a bunch of the northeast retailers already that you look at for kind of validation or it's a velocity number or they have to prove it out first. In Gourmet garage and fairway.
22:25
Glenn Cunningham
I'm going to let them prove it out. Yeah. In Gourmet garage and fairway. You know, if they can handle that, right, they can graduate there. But again, velocity, it's in already a few other retailers. You know, it's not to shop. Bring it to a shop right there. But I think we got to look at what kind of velocity they're getting in the market, how they're going to perform in fairway and gourmet garage. They're performing well there, then they could open up to shop. Right. But I think if it's in other retailers and I think they can handle the volume, then we'll work at the shopper level, too.
22:52
Daniel Scharff
All right. Amazing. I wonder, do you have any kind of fresh memories of brands that have launched with you in the last couple of years and really just crushed it. Like maybe you brought them in, gave them a chance in fairway or gourmet garage and just saw them really come in and do exactly what you were hoping. Hoping that they could do.
23:07
Glenn Cunningham
Yeah, I mean, we have many brands. I think we have a lot of success stories. We do a fairway pitch once a year. We started that two years ago. I think we had dancing elephant. No, it was two years ago. They did phenomenal. They're great with their product. Launched in fairway, gourmet garage, and then further on currently today into shop. Right. So that was good. You know, swoons. Snoods. Sorry? Snoods. Our pasta chip. She did a phenomenal job. Great pitch event. No, same thing. You know, full rollout between all banners. And I think she grew and I think she opened up other doors or other retailers too, outside of our company from that. So a lot of good brands, you know, a lot of call outs, too.
23:43
Glenn Cunningham
I mean, there's brands in the city that really helped me connect with other brands and, you know, I think had great success stories. Haley Schwartz from actual veg burgers, you know, she is a great friend. Connected me, dragged me to many events, pop up grocer preview event, you know, to other events within the city. And I got to meet, you know, a lot of people. A lot of great connection. You know, this is a people business. And she's grateful for her, you know, really connecting me with a lot of people, a lot of brands in the city, which kind of just gave me access to a lot of different things. A lot of connections.
24:12
Daniel Scharff
Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, we love her. We love snoods so much. Lauren, they were in our section at fancy Foods and, oh, my gosh, it's so good. I always tell people, for me, that product is one of the ones out there that I feel like. I mean, it's very high quality, like so many products, but I just think that the category is so ripe for that. And, like, the market opportunity is so enormous because, you know, I used to work for Mars and, like, I'm kind of familiar with the mass snacking space. And that, for me, seems like one that could absolutely appeal to the mass snackers and give them something that just is so differentiated and interesting and good. So I'm very excited to follow.
24:51
Glenn Cunningham
Yeah, definitely a disruption in the category. Very unique packaging. Great is great. She did a great job on it. So really excited about that brand.
25:00
Daniel Scharff
And it's beautiful, too. Just the snack itself, it's so interesting. Looking cool. Say somebody like that is reaching out to you on LinkedIn for the first time. I mean, unfortunately, you can't send such a long message and your trade sheet, like, right off the bat without being too eager. So what to you is just like a nice little succinct message that they could send you that would be personal and compelling without being too much information that you're going to be like, I'm not reading that. Like, what is this?
25:25
Glenn Cunningham
Yeah, I mean, you get a bunch of them all the time, right? I'll go through them and kind of flip back my email. Right. So we could just kind of start the dialogue off the email, go back and forth a message in there. But I think something really, to grab my eye, catchy. Hey, this is something, you know, I think that's a local. Could be a local item, it could be a national item. But I think if it's something that I'm interested in or my team saw it or there's some marketing behind it, or it's something that's trending on social media, you know, we're really trying to get ahead of the trends. And there is great success, I think, with just dry calling, and I think I get maybe, like, ten calls, you know, a day just from different.
25:58
Glenn Cunningham
Not sure what the brand is, but here, you can email me, send me your deck, I'll review it, and I'll get back to you. That's the best option to do it. My team, too, you know, they'll get stuff and we'll share, you know, a lot of the stuff, and we'll look at our categories to see what items are missing and where's the natural fit. We do have a lengthy list. You know, we're still going through the list from the fancy food show, and we're trying to, you know, prioritize that, you know, work our way down from there. But contacting me, I'm always available. I'll get back to you some way somehow. And if it's not me, it'll be.
26:26
Daniel Scharff
You know, somebody on my team that is awesome. And on behalf of our whole community, thank you for that, because it is just definitely the, I won't say the exception, but it's not always that you actually get to hear back from somebody, and it's very validating when they can at least just respond to you and then, you know, and maybe they give you some feedback. I don't know, which can be really helpful as well.
26:46
Glenn Cunningham
Yeah, no, the feedback's great. I want to give the feedback if it's yay or nay or a package needs to get redone or you're too early. But definitely we're there to give the feedback, you know, to help them grow and hopefully grow and be more successful.
26:59
Daniel Scharff
That's so good. So, okay, now let's say there's alignment. You pick a brand that you want to be on shelves. They're very excited about it. Hooray. Now they're on shelf. How do you actually on shelf in New York City at one of these really cool banners? Drive trial. How are you going to get these awesome New Yorkers? You want to become fans of your product, to notice you on shelf and keep buying you.
27:22
Glenn Cunningham
Yeah. Some brands do a great job and I think I always try to take the best brand and use them as a lead experience brand came in, did a phenomenal job with a demo. The social media was on point. Their social media person worked with my social media person. They aligned. They did some great posts. I think getting out there, engaging with the store team too, engaging with our grocery managers or store management team, really showing them that you're in there, you're letting them taste the product, they're aware of it. They're selling your product. I opened up the door, I'm not selling your product. They are at the store. Let them taste the product, know what's going on, what's in their store, give them the chance, let them sell your product, get their feedback. And then the demo is getting the customer's feedback.
28:03
Glenn Cunningham
It's very important that you listen to the customer get the feedback. They saying they don't like the label. It's missing something on the label, ingredients. They'll give the honest feedback. The Upper west side, east side, the customers will tell you it's a sustainable packaging. They'll tell you right away what you need to do. So I think you're taking that back and really helping develop yourself and your product in the future is really invaluable feedback.
28:23
Daniel Scharff
That's awesome. And it just reminded me of an initiative that we're going to be doing, which is called let us do your demo. It's a fun thing, I think, mainly because I miss demoing so much. Have a few brands that are in stores, let the startup CPG team compete and do your demos for you and see how many units that we can sell. So if anybody is in one of Glenn's stores listening that wants to get in on that, shoot me a message and let us do your demo. It'll be so fun. I really do love doing the demos. It's a great opportunity to you as your team get the feedback firsthand.
28:53
Daniel Scharff
It also will completely hone your pitch once you've done a couple hours of demos and just, you've fine tuned it, figured you can look in people's eyes as you're saying it and see what just completely goes over their head when they start to lose attention. Kind of like you are right now. No, just kidding. And. And it's just fun. And, I mean, I think, I would guess most founders in this space are competitive because it's very hard to do this. And if you don't have something just burning inside of you, wanting to sell every last can that's on the shelf, like, the whole thing is going to be very difficult. So, yeah, that's a great example. And I guess one other question is, how much do you care about following that a brand might have already?
29:31
Daniel Scharff
Cause, yeah, like, it's great to do some content like that. Are you, do you look at their instagrams? If a brand's talking to you and see how many followers they have, do you care about that stuff?
29:38
Glenn Cunningham
I think that comes naturally, I think, as they promote on, I think. But if they have some social media content they could share, they can be creative, really show the passion, you know, of the brand. And I think that's what's moving a lot now. We can go on social media now, find what's new, what's trending, you know, if it's TikTok or Instagram. I think just getting out there, really showing me that we're working hard, we're doing the demos. We have a social media platform. We're getting behind the product. Working with my social media team, with a walkthrough or tidbit calling us out, you know, I think that all helped, helps them, helps us really grow the product. But I think at the end of the day, it's really your passion.
30:14
Glenn Cunningham
Some of them have passion that'll drive it right to the customer's basket through the register. And I think they have to have that hunger that grinds. It's tough. Not everybody has it, but you need to have it to get behind your brand and make sure you want to sell it. You want to get out there.
30:26
Daniel Scharff
I totally agree. And I love it. You know it when you see it, if it's somebody. And, you know, the other funny thing is, when I used to demo in stores or at events, a lot of consumers would look at me and be like, you must be the CEO or something. And just because I was so passionate about it, I know it when I was just in erewhon this week, and there were three people demoing. And so I always go and check out. Cause I'm also interested in who does a good job doing demos, so I can give brands heads up about that. And if they're. And I know some of the brands who are demoing, and so I'll give them a little bit of feedback on how their demo person is doing.
31:00
Daniel Scharff
And I went by and there were two people doing an okay job, and they were nothing bad. Like, they were actively grabbing people, walking by and doing the full pitch, and they had the script pretty well down, and they were pleasant and enthusiastic about the product. And then the third guy was a killer. Oh, my gosh. He came in, it was me and my friend Jeff, and he just roped us right in. He was demoing a hummus brand, and before we knew what was what, we had, you know, a five dollar thing of hummus in our hands. He was like, there are only a few left, so I'm gonna let you take this one right here each go. And, like, almost, like, walked us to the counter, you know, like, wrapped us up and tucked us in, like, all right, you're buying this.
31:39
Daniel Scharff
And so I just stopped, and I was like, man, I've got to ask you, like, what do you work for the brand? What is this like? Cause I would want to tell people. He's like, oh, like, well, I mean, I'm not usually doing the demos. I'm the manager for the demo company. And, oh, my God. Was he setting a good example?
31:53
Glenn Cunningham
That's what you want.
31:54
Daniel Scharff
Yeah. So he definitely had that founder energy. Obviously, he has the same kind of level of passion. So it's cool to see and it matters, you know, you as a, with the passion. When you do a demo, you can sell, I would say, two to three times as much as, like, a contractor typically that you hire. Cause they just, you know, they're not gonna have the same passion, but they are very helpful and useful as you're trying to scale. Obviously, you can't be everywhere. So, Glenn, I recently had a fantastic time with you in New York during fancy food. So we at start of CBG, we had a lot going on there, and it was really cool to get to engage with you in a bunch of stuff. We had a lot of meetings going on in our section.
32:30
Daniel Scharff
We had a 20 booth section, including snoods, and just, I think, some of the most righteous brands out there. It was so cool. And then you and I got to do a panel together, which was our first, not our last, and I just wondered, what was your experience like overall, the show this year? How did it feel? Was it different than past years? Anything really cool that you saw?
32:52
Glenn Cunningham
Yeah, I think I'm still picking up from that one. Daniel, definitely a great show. You know, I think it was phenomenal, you know, past years. I think the layout was definitely better this year. I felt like I got a lot more confidence, spent a lot of time downstairs, and I think that was the main focus, really, being downstairs with the emerging brands. Your section was great. I thought it was phenomenal how you guys carted me around to each section, each table, and I might have knew probably half the. Half the brands already or we had them established, but it was great interacting and listening to them. I think that one one was definitely stopped me, stopped them from what they were doing, focused on each other, had a great interaction and a normal. I was one of my guys just walking around.
33:32
Glenn Cunningham
We wouldn't have gotten that. And I think we would just walk past, taste it, a short conversation, but we actually had a great one one with everybody, so that was phenomenal. And then you guys decided to slide me into, you know, speed date and, you know, meet up, and I think I did ten meetings, you know, with four minutes, you know, each meeting. That was intense. That was good. That kind of put me over the edge for today, but it was great. I got a lot to see, a lot of backpack, you know, we call backpack. You know, entrepreneurs really kind of sell their product, and I made a lot of connections.
33:58
Glenn Cunningham
I have several meetings set up in the future with a lot of vendors I met at the show, but I think I met a lot of companies and startups that are looking for support, looking to get started, just looking for some advice how to get started. So I think that was great. Our panel was great. That was fun. You know, definitely the highlight of the whole show. I think getting up there really was great experience. I can't thank you enough for that opportunity, but I think we had a really good pitch event. Did a great job getting everybody up there to pitch.
34:25
Daniel Scharff
Can you tell anyone who wasn't there a little bit about what that was like from your perspective, what we.
34:29
Glenn Cunningham
Yeah, that was phenomenal. You know, 15 minutes left on the clock and decided to bring every brand that was, you know, in the room in line and, you know, gave him a minute to go up there and pitch, and we had everything on the table. I think me and Mitch looked at each other like, what was going on? But it was great. It was phenomenal. I think we really had a fun time, a great time. I felt good, you know, walking off the stage, really connecting with brands. The brands were lined up right. I think I just handed out about all my business cards, you know, coming off the stage, but it was great to make a connection. A lot of great brands.
34:59
Glenn Cunningham
A couple today that I think talked early on setting up meetings, and I think that's been probably the last week and a half, is just setting up meetings with everybody so we can make sure we get some facetime with everybody. But it's been, it was a phenomenal experience. Great show. I think everything in your sections, you know, were great. And I think just the downstairs. This year, even with the local call outs that the show did, SFA, you know, they kind of called out the local, you know, states where everything was from. Our home ground, New York, Jersey, it was great to really zone in on a local part of that, but it was really a great show. A lot of takeaways, you know, me and my team, obviously, I said before, we're breaking everything down.
35:32
Daniel Scharff
That's awesome. Well, you did such a good job, and I think just everyone was so stoked to get to meet you because they don't always. It is hard to navigate the web of LinkedIn and even know. Yeah. Like, who manages those chains? How do I get to talk to that person? And I think it was one of the things that I'm proudest of us getting to do with the show is just help people hear a little bit about you and, you know, how to work with you. And that was really awesome. So thank you a lot for that. And also, just that last point you mentioned about local brands. How much do you care if a brand is local for? I mean, it sounds like you do have a preference and you're pretty interested to support local and emerging brands.
36:08
Daniel Scharff
Like, is that where you're going to start? The show usually is in that section, or if someone mentions that in their LinkedIn message to you, it's going to get your attention.
36:15
Glenn Cunningham
We're here, we're metropolitan area of New York. We want to be local to New York, New Jersey. You know, that's our backyard. Yeah, it's definitely our local area. This local merchant brand, we want to be there for them. We want to help them. We're in the neighborhood. If it's a brand coming up, it should be on our shelves. You know, I think that's what we're there to help. Preference now. I mean, it could be something great from the west coast, you know, something I see you know, as emerging trend. But New York, I want to say is, you know, up and coming and a lot of stuff's going on with the brands.
36:43
Glenn Cunningham
A lot of stuff, you know, I think in the future, talking to brands, talking to stuff that's going to come out, I think we have a lot of new emerging local brands going to hit our shelves in the future.
36:52
Daniel Scharff
Amazing. All right, maybe just last question for you. Are there any overall trends you're pretty interested in right now or you're seeing from the shoppers or from products? Like maybe even some holes, big opportunities you think there are in the store? Like, hey, if you're that kind of a brand, maybe reach out, like there might be something open for you.
37:10
Glenn Cunningham
Yeah. I think protein is still kicking on. I think protein from even, like protein. Cottage cheese. Is it a cottage cheese ice cream? Cottage cheese bar to go? It's been on fire. Non alcoholic. We're seeing a slip and decline in beer and wine sales and a little uptick on non alcoholic or mocktails, I think that continues to go. I think people are just watching what they put into their body. It's a thing. It's either you want to call it the blue zone or the biohack. And I think that's a lot of people are focusing on what they're doing to their bodies today so they can make sure that they're many years on and healthy and still function. So I think a lot of stuff's changing. You know, there's some concern in the future of what ozemplic's going to be now.
37:50
Glenn Cunningham
What is that going to do to the food industry? How many people are going to be on that 15 years? What's going to happen to the consumption of food? So a lot of stuff, you know, those are a few trends that I think that are going to be continuing, and we'll see what happens next year.
38:02
Daniel Scharff
All right. Amazing. Glen, I can't wait to run it back with you on another panel next year, Fancy Foods, and also get to do a bunch of fun events with you now that I'll be in New York City full time with you and your awesome team, I had a really good time getting to know the rest of them as well at the show. So, Glen, again, just a big heartfelt thank you from our community to you, because it's buyers like you that can give brands, I think, their very first distribution and really get them started. And momentum begets momentum. And it is just such an important place to gain a foothold in New York City at your awesome banners. So just thank you from everyone to you.
38:40
Daniel Scharff
And also just to village supermarkets for really making the investment to support emerging brands and bring those kind of products to your shoppers, which includes a lot of the brands as shoppers developers as well. So just, yeah, thank you overall. And yeah, I can't wait for all the continued stuff that we'll get to do together. And then lastly, it sounds like for if people want to stay tuned and follow up with you, best way is maybe give you a follow on LinkedIn.
39:02
Glenn Cunningham
That's it. Yeah, follow me on LinkedIn. I'll be out there. Shoot me a message and we'll get back to you. Daniel, thank you for everything you do. Your team is great. Too great for hosting me at the event and everything you do for the brands. It's amazing. And I think you guys are doing great, you know, with that.
39:16
Daniel Scharff
Thank you, man. We are having a blast doing it, for sure. And it goes much better when people like you get involved. So that's the key. All right, great. All right everybody, thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed the podcast today, it would really help us out if you can leave a five star review on Apple podcasts or Spotify. I am Daniel Scharff. I'm the host and founder of startup CPG. Please feel free to reach out or add me on LinkedIn. If you're a potential sponsor that would like to appear on the podcast, please email partnershipstartupcpg.com and reminder to all of you out there, we would love to have you join the community. You can sign up at our website, startupcpg.com to learn about our webinars, events and Slack channel.
40:00
Daniel Scharff
If you enjoyed today's music, you can check out my band it's the super fantastics on Spotify Music. On behalf of the entire startup CPG team, thank you so much for listening and your support. See you next time.