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In this episode of the Startup CPG podcast, Daniel Scharff sits down with Tyler Killgore, Central Buyer and Category Manager at GreenAcres Market. Tyler shares his expansive journey within the grocery industry, from his rapid progression and previous experience in direct store delivery ventures to his current pivotal role. He provides deep insights into his responsibilities at GreenAcres, focusing on product sourcing, selection strategies, mentorship, and the integration of local sourcing initiatives.
Tyler delves into the intricacies of managing product categories, stressing the importance of maintaining a consistent SKU mix and utilizing newsletters effectively for promotional campaigns. He also explores the challenges associated with transitioning between distribution partners and offers invaluable advice on successfully launching new products in a competitive market environment. Tyler further highlights current consumer trends, particularly the growing popularity of microwavable and frozen entrees, underscoring shifts in consumer preferences and market dynamics.
Tune in now!
Listen in as shares about:
- Tyler's Mentorship and Experience
- GreenAcres Market
- Direct Store Delivery (DSD)
- Customer Base and Sourcing Philosophy
- Finding and Evaluating Brands
- Product Launches and Management
- Transition to KeHE Distribution
- Inventory Management
- Promotions and Marketing
- Current Trends and Opportunities
- Events and Networking
Email: tylerk@greenacres.com
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Episode music by Super Fantastics
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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.
Tyler Killgore
Being an independent, we do make sure that we always have deals as you walk in the store. That's a big thing for us. Our customers really just love the fact that we've been in the community for 30 years. We're around the community. We donate our time and our money into the communities. And these could be your neighbors that are in the back offices, not necessarily someone off in Austin or Denver or something and like that. So they really appreciate how we give back to the community and that's probably one of our big hallmarks.
00:40
Daniel Scharff
Green Acres is the place to be. The buyer did a great interview with me, CPG ers. I think we really nailed it in this interview. Tyler Kilgore is a really hard working guy. He's the central buyer and category manager for all of the green Acres. He covers everything in the store except supplements. Now I've never been in a green acres, but honestly it sounds like such a beautiful store. I hope I get a chance to visit someday. They pull from Kehe Dallas which is a really popular DC, so it's a great option for a lot of brands in our community and I always love to hear when a buyer like Tyler is open to hear pitches from brands year round. And he even drops his email address at the end of the episode.
01:22
Daniel Scharff
Thank you so much to Tyler for being a supporter of emerging brands and listen in to find out what trade shows you can catch him at and what he thinks are the biggest opportunities in the store. Enjoy. Hello everyone and welcome today's episode with Tyler Kilgore, who is an emerging talent in the grocery industry. Tyler is the central buyer and category manager spearheading operations for Green Acres Market, which is a five store natural and organic supplement chain in Kansas and Oklahoma. And it's one of the real tastemakers of the natural channel. After graduating from Washburn University in 2018 with a degree in political science, Tyler returned to his hometown, navigating several roles before co founding a direct store delivery, or DSD venture, where he learned a ton before moving to the retail side.
02:10
Daniel Scharff
First, he was in a customer service role with an online sporting goods company and then moved into procurement. Then in August 2022, he embarked on a new chapter at Green Acres Market under the mentorship of Lynette Frisbee. A fast learner, he absorbed a lot of knowledge and expertise and quickly ascended to the position of central buyer and category manager in May of 2023. And a fun fact in his free time, he enjoys powerlifting, restoring his great grandfather's 1972 Chevy C ten golf, and as I just learned he has a cat also that might participate with us a little bit on the podcast. Tyler, thanks for joining us.
02:47
Tyler Killgore
Oh, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
02:49
Daniel Scharff
All right, so, well, I think we could just jump right into it, but I also, I was really flattered and excited to hear that you had actually listened to some of our episodes before. And I just was wondering, were there any that you particularly enjoyed or that you remember listening to?
03:03
Tyler Killgore
So in particular, I love any of them. With a buyer, like, whether it be a category manager or anything like that, most of what I had experienced previously was either kind of self taught through intuition or what I directly from Lynette and what she had taught me. And so without having a large team behind me, it's sometimes kind of difficult and you can kind of get into an echo chamber with yourself. And that's what I like to hear is just other voices in the industry and making sure sometimes just kind of a self check to make sure you're not going crazy.
03:37
Daniel Scharff
I wonder, what are some of those things that you feel like you're especially interested to learn from other buyers? Is it like how they source brands or how they make decisions or the kind of suggestions that they have for how brands can do well with them?
03:49
Tyler Killgore
So it's everything, right? So it was interesting. I developed into this role relatively quickly. It was about eight to ten months. It depends where you really put the marker on, but it was about eight to ten months. And during that time, you know, it's great to have input from one person, but you're absorbing so much information. You're absorbing how these trade shows were and, well, I was absorbing how grocery work, which is completely different than sporting goods. Sporting goods don't expire. Sporting goods. No, don't have the same.
04:19
Daniel Scharff
My tennis racket sure doesn't. I had that thing forever.
04:22
Tyler Killgore
So it's completely different how distribution channels are different because you do have fresh that has to be transported and you have to make sure that it's done in reefers. And everything else is just completely different than dry sporting goods, where you could throw onto a pelican and have them deliver it to you if you really wanted to.
04:41
Daniel Scharff
Awesome.
04:42
Tyler Killgore
Cool.
04:42
Daniel Scharff
Well, that's really great to hear. And just before I forget to ask, powerlifting, what's your favorite exercise in powerlifting? Like, you know, if you really don't have the energy to do a full workout like the one that's your go to, you know, you can get the energy up to do.
04:56
Tyler Killgore
So. I prefer squats. I'm the only tall guy you'll ever hear say that it's because I have very short legs, so it's very easy to come the hallway for me in comparison to everything else.
05:06
Daniel Scharff
But that's awesome.
05:07
Tyler Killgore
But, yeah, it's, Unfortunately, I have a little bit of a power belly right now. The diet has not been great since Expo west, but, you know, that's my fault.
05:16
Daniel Scharff
I know you're busy over there, and if anybody, you or anyone wants a great show to watch that will motivate you while working out, I like to watch. It's called physical 100 on Netflix, which is basically, like, the top 100 korean physiques from, like, rowing and Crossfit, and they compete and all these games to be the winner, and it's so good. And mainly because they're so respectful of each other. I love it. Anyways, not CPG related, but probably they take a lot of CPG products.
05:42
Tyler Killgore
So, yeah, I think the crossover is pretty high. The crossover between my garbage fast food pizza that I had last night is not.
05:50
Daniel Scharff
All right, so, you know, I'm really interested in this topic of mentorship, and I don't think it's one that we've explored too much on this podcast. So what is it like to work with Lynette? I've never met her personally, but I know her name for sure, you know, having definitely sent her emails when I was a brand and, you know, just trying to get on her radar and stuff. But what is that process like of her helping you get up to speed in brand new category? Let's say, just learning all the tips and tricks?
06:15
Tyler Killgore
Well, it was great. She. And this isn't necessarily always a dynamic that you get, but she was looking to retire. She was actually. I'm not gonna say her age on here, so she come, but so she was ready to retiree, and so it allowed there to not be as much competition. It was very much. I am going to teach you what I know. You can come to me with your ideas, and I will tell you that you if it's just categorically bad or where you can work on it and stuff. Additionally, one of the cool things, whenever I was doing sporting goods, I was tossed in feet first in the middle of a pandemic where no one could get anything shipped. Right. And that was the same in this industry as well. But I wasn't necessarily. There wasn't that teaching moment.
06:59
Tyler Killgore
It was just kind of figure it out. So it was really nice to have an ability to have a teaching moment. It really, since she was doing the day to day. In the beginning, I was able to get more into the data side of it. Then I would have been able to if I was just to take over day to day operations right away.
07:15
Daniel Scharff
Got it. And what is the data source that you typically use? Is it just like an internal system, or do you use external stuff? Nielsen spins, that kind of stuff.
07:25
Tyler Killgore
So spins is the number one external, and then additionally we use. We have our internal POS system, which we'll talk about later, but added an inventory system to that because spins only really can show you what's going through your register. So that kind of added some of the backend for us, especially in matters of expiring product or anything like that.
07:47
Daniel Scharff
Yes. Which actually is a topic that I definitely want to dig in further. But maybe for the benefit of all of our listeners, we could also just start with a little bit of an intro, I think, just maybe learn a little bit more about you and then also green acres. So, you know, one thing in your background was that caught my attention was the DSD venture that you started. And as a former beverage CEO, what I know about DSD is that it's very complicated and hard work. So I wonder if maybe you could just tell me a little bit more about that, because I'm sure it has given you a really interesting perspective.
08:17
Tyler Killgore
Yeah. So we, me and a good friend from high school jumped feet first and do it in 2019. We were able to garner a contract with a brand that was looking to be up and coming and reintroduce themselves to the market. They've been in the market for a while, but they were looking to reintroduce themselves to the market. They're semi local. They were Kansas City based. We were based in Wichita, Kansas. So about 3 hours geographical drive, but relatively close, relatively local, and they were looking to get back into the game with it. So were just like, you know what? We still can do our day jobs. We go in at eight or 09:00 depending.
08:52
Tyler Killgore
And so it's like, well, we can be at a store at 530 in the morning, chuck in product at work at eight, and then, you know, be gone by five, six, and then, you know, be back after it, and, you know, do nightly, do the nighttime stocking. And that went great for a while, but then we started adding more and more points of distribution, and we just couldn't keep up. It was still 2021, so we're still struggling in the labor market to find people that could help, that were reliable enough to assist with it. And it was just territory was too large for two people to handle all on their own, especially trying to work it around work hours.
09:26
Daniel Scharff
And the reliability is because they would just be late or not show up or just because you couldn't keep people in the role and, you know, you couldn't. Like, it's hard to find new people then just a lot of turnover.
09:36
Tyler Killgore
So it's just two of us that were handling accounting, you know, purchasing, selling, you know, stocking, everything. So were looking for people that wanted to help us with the stocking portion of it because that's the most labor intensive portion of it that needs to be done, depending on the store time window. So were like, okay, well, let's find people that could help us with it. We couldn't find a platform that was inexpensive enough for us to take that could, you know, gps track. What were having is all sorts of time fraud. Any time fraud that you could find. We were selling per item, so every item had a pay scale. And we found that was the most efficient because were so spread out and be like, oh, yeah, you know, I.
10:18
Tyler Killgore
Yeah, they took eight cases of the product, and the product ended up in the garbage or wherever. Yeah. It got itself removed from the warehouse, but never got itself on a shelf. And then reports of like, hey, we haven't seen your guy for two weeks. Well, we've been paying them for two weeks. Yeah. And so it was a challenge of trying to. If were able to stay within, specifically our market, I think it would have been a little bit easier. But were trying to take over about a 90 square mile circle, and it just is too big of a bite, especially right after college. I think I had been graduated for eight months.
10:51
Daniel Scharff
Yeah, well, that's very ambitious. I applaud you guys for doing that. I recorded a podcast episode with Ginger Labs also, who's built that kind of a self distribution system up in New York. It's pretty interesting to hear, because I've heard from a lot of brands, the challenges that you have with some of those kinds of roles, with, like, field sales, delivery roles. I've heard, honestly, from some people, horror stories, like, you can hire someone like that as a w two, and then one day you find out they have three other w two jobs, and they're just, like, not doing the things you hope that they would do. It's so hard to track.
11:21
Daniel Scharff
So at least with Ginger Labs, it seemed like when they were doing the self distribution, really, he was relying on it being, it's a, like a close network of people, like friends of theirs, who were in on it. So that's tough, but good for you. And is there anything that you feel like you really learned from that experience that helps you do your job better now?
11:38
Tyler Killgore
So learned a bunch about selling indirectly to retailers. Right. I was. Took a while to get on this side of the desk, but it was a lot of direct retailer scraping for those points. Were able to expand the distribution network 400%, which, again, we grew too fast for ourselves. Struggling from success, I suppose. At the end of the day, it was a lot of direct one to one. And it's also knowing a lot of what the brands go through with supplies and issues and stuff like that. And then learned all about distribution. Yeah, were working out of a tiny warehouse, but still a warehouse nonetheless. So it's a lot of the same issues that we see now. It's just on a lot smaller scale.
12:16
Daniel Scharff
Got it. Okay, cool. So let's chat now about green acres. I myself have never gotten to go to a green acres, unfortunately. So for me and anyone else who hasn't, how would you describe it? You know, what's the chain like, and what would it be like if one of us walked in for the first time?
12:31
Tyler Killgore
So Barb, our founder, Barb Hoffman, was big on interior design, and that's what she wanted to do. You can tell it whenever you walk in the. The stores are colorful. Everything is merchandised beautifully. That's a big key for us, is the merchandising of the product. Whenever we do a secondary display, we don't just, you know, throw cases on a shelf and it's like, okay, secondary display. There's seasonal bits, other just accoutrements that you add to the display. That kind of gives a whole different life. I remember whenever, since I have grown up here for the majority of my life, I remember going in once whenever I was younger, I was like, oh, this is a place, you know, for fancy people to shop that what eight year olds or nine year olds think is completely different than reality sometimes.
13:15
Tyler Killgore
But just visually, the presentation is very beautiful. Barb was actually inspired by mothers out there in California whenever she was designing the stores.
13:23
Daniel Scharff
That's so funny. I was just thinking that actually, when you were talking about, like, the store being designed beautifully, I was out there at the mother's near Long beach or something, and the store manager explained that to me, and he's like, look, do you see the color blocks? Whoa. I couldn't believe it. Like, just organizing even all the products that are orange together and then red, I was like, wow. This actually is fantastic. It's really visually appealing.
13:45
Tyler Killgore
Yeah, exactly. That's one of our big things. It's just making sure, you know, everyone eats with their eyes first. So same concept on a store level. Whenever you walk in, the first thing that you'll see is the produce section, always fresh, organic, and full, which has its own challenges sometimes, but so it's all beautiful. And then our flagship store has a deli, a fresh deli. That is the next thing. So you smell fresh food coming out of the stores and everything else to kind of complement the shopping experience.
14:11
Daniel Scharff
That's awesome. And I know it can be a big draw. So what about the consumers? There are probably a couple other options out there as well. What do you think makes your consumers different from some of the other chains or grocery options out there?
14:25
Tyler Killgore
So whenever natural grocers came into the market, into our market, they set up specifically 1 mile closer to the high way than our existing locations were, which props to them. But our customers care about the local selection that we have. Additionally, you know, we can't beat everyone on pricing all the time. You know, being an independent, we do make sure that we always have deals. As you walk in the store, that's a big thing for us. Our customers really just love the fact that we've been in the community for 30 years. We're around the community. We donate our time and our money into the communities. And these could be your neighbors that are in the backs offices, not necessarily someone off in Austin or Denver or something like that. So they really appreciate how we give back to the community.
15:09
Tyler Killgore
And that's probably one of our big hallmarks.
15:12
Daniel Scharff
That's awesome. So sourcing, especially some great local stuff. And then do you have a philosophy around sourcing that extends beyond that? Like, I know natural brochures, for example, has a very exhaustive list of things that they do not want in their stores. Maybe the most strict of anyone out there. Is there a typical, like, kind of strategy that you have for what you're interested to have in the stores?
15:33
Tyler Killgore
So I have a whole list. I have a PDF of unacceptable ingredients that I printed out, and it's only five pages long, so it's probably not as long as theirs is. But it's taped up to my desk right where I can see. I look over my laptop and I can see those unacceptable ingredients. We want to make sure that we're giving the freshest options available and also the cleanest options available. Obviously, there's some items specifically in the local categories that we kind of bend a little bit to because we want to be able to support the communities. And some items just cannot be scaled, just small scale. Without preservatives, it just can't happen. So sometimes there's a little variation there, but in all our main products, we try to keep big figures. No preservatives.
16:13
Daniel Scharff
Awesome. Okay, great. That what you see most commonly having to say no to of stuff that gets submitted to you is artificial flavors and preservatives.
16:20
Tyler Killgore
Preservatives seem to be kind of sneaking in, at least from what I've seen, is the larger brands are kind of seeing what they can get away with. If I put this preservative in, what will be the reaction to it? So preservatives are definitely number one. Don't see much on flavors, sometimes seeing more colors presented to me.
16:36
Daniel Scharff
Interesting. Okay, cool. So, Tyler, how do you typically find brands? Or how are brands finding you? Is it direct submission? Are they finding you on LinkedIn? Is it at trade shows? Is it them walking into the store and figuring out how to find you? How does that typically work for you?
16:53
Tyler Killgore
So local and smaller brands will call one of our locations and the store managers give them my email or my desk phone. Usually email is the easiest right to translate over the phone because it's the easiest to remember. So they'll call a store and, you know, we'll take a look at it. Sometimes it's a no, sometimes it's a guess. It just kind of depends. Trade shows are a big one. Whenever I came in, the first show I went to was Expo east, which was a little bit overwhelming to be the first show to be dropped in at. So I didn't know a whole heck of a lot at that time. So I was kind of looking and seeing where people were gathering. I was like, yes, I need to go there where I need to start looking. Obviously they have something.
17:32
Tyler Killgore
And, you know, sometimes it's just a spectacle of a display. Sometimes it's giving out full sample items. You know, if you're giving out full size candy bars, people stop. But then other times, you know, it is a unique emerging brand. And those are the times that you're just like, yes, I found one. Then with all of my broker partners, I also have monthly meetings set up. So with everyone's always moving around trying to find the best broker. Fitzhe well, sometimes broker a to show something because it wasn't on their radar, but Broker B, it's a new item. So then it shows like, oh, this fits perfectly. We wish we would have found this two years ago. But here we are now and we can have it.
18:08
Daniel Scharff
How many different broker partners do you meet with on a monthly basis?
18:12
Tyler Killgore
Monthly? I think I have twelve. Please don't call that an exact number. I think I have twelve standing on the first week of the month.
18:20
Daniel Scharff
Okay, great. And so those are people you just typically have worked a lot with. They've got a lot of stuff going on in your store, or probably there are other brokers also that would love to get on that list with you as well. I'm guessing that there's some, like, probably you're open to hear pitches from them for brands that you think are interesting, and then maybe once they have a few things that they're working on you with, maybe they get upgraded to the monthly call.
18:40
Tyler Killgore
Not every broker needs a monthly touch point. You know, if you only have like six or seven brands that we're able to work with, I think monthly is too often, but then you'll have big ones like, you know, DPI, PMI or Acosta, where it's like you need to have monthly meetings. Even then, it sometimes feels like that's not enough to make sure you have all the right items. So it's not necessarily a vetting process. I think I'm the only one brave enough. I have a meeting link in my email signature that you can just go and set something up and it doesn't even ask me, do you want to have a meeting?
19:10
Daniel Scharff
Dangerous to throw that out here. All right.
19:14
Tyler Killgore
I think I'm the only one with that, but, so it's really easy. I try to make it as easy as possible to connect. I am fairly active on LinkedIn sometimes. It just kinda, it depends up the week on how much I'm on there. But then that's also a.
19:26
Daniel Scharff
And so with some of those bigger brokers, you probably have to run through a lot of products with them sometimes. What's that like? You know, I've worked with brokers before and I kind of knew like, hey, they're going to go in there. They only get the one chance to meet with Tyler this month, and they have hundreds of brands that they work with. So they might be trying to review 30, 40 products with him in an hour slot. Is that, does that happen that way? What is it like?
19:46
Tyler Killgore
So look at as many products as we can get through. Usually it's pretty good. The focus is on new items with existing partners and then new brands. And so I was like, hey, no, these are what you need to come to me with whenever you, if you're going to pitch it to me. I need to know SRP. I need no minimum order quantity if it's a direct. I need a pricing list if it's a direct. And like, let's not even start the conversation until you have those three things lined up because I can't make a decision and then, you know, it will get lost in the shuffle.
20:12
Daniel Scharff
Are you looking at things for like, seasonal buys or just kind of just try once or are you typically mainly focused on stuff that's going to be perm, like, you know, permanent items or for a reset?
20:22
Tyler Killgore
So seasonal items kind of flow into that new items category. It's seasonal. We actually get from our, the Keiki show, which I'll be leaving for tomorrow at this time. That's where we focus our seasonal. Direct seasonal is great, but so hard to time drops. And that's been a big challenge since I'm the only one over all the grocery refrigerated and frozen timing drops is super important. So everyone makes sure that they have the right price on everything. So seasonal, that's where we normally focus. The store managers do have a little bit of freedom in that they can bring in some seasonal items on their own, especially with their local or direct order items they have a little bit more freedom on.
21:02
Daniel Scharff
So is there anything in the store that you don't cover?
21:05
Tyler Killgore
Supplements.
21:06
Daniel Scharff
Okay, yeah, that's a big one.
21:09
Tyler Killgore
That's a big one. I don't want the supplement business.
21:11
Daniel Scharff
Really. I figured as a power lifter you might be interested in that stuff.
21:15
Tyler Killgore
It's a completely different world. Sports supplementation is very easy in comparison to longevity supplementation. And Matt, our supplement buyer, is also a part owner of the company and he's only been doing it for 32 years, so he's got a pretty good, solid handle on it. I'll let him have it as long as he can.
21:33
Daniel Scharff
Yeah, that's great. So how many new items would you say you're launching in a month? I'm just like, it sounds like you're just reviewing and launching and working with just tons of stuff.
21:43
Tyler Killgore
So the good news is since I am the one that manages all of the categories, it's very easy to not have to have a set reset schedule. You know, be like, hey, I'm looking at this right now. Well, it doesn't matter because it's not going to butt up against someone else's section. Since the other section is also mine, I kind of keep it rolling. It's like, hey, I'm looking, you know, for this stuff. But I'm open for anything. Throw me any idea? But this is what I'm specifically looking for right now. And just doing it rolling. You know, spins gives an executive of rapport every month. Where you could see it's like oh, that is trending down really bad. Let's see what we can do to kind of lift that category.
22:19
Daniel Scharff
Interesting. And okay, so you say I'm open for anything sometimes. How are you going to make a decision? You get a brand you're excited about. Like obviously you only have a certain amount of space in the set. So if there's something you like are you then going to kind of go look at your set and see what's lagging, what you might want to take off or some facings you want to remove? How do you think about that?
22:39
Tyler Killgore
So I have the store send me pictures because we have a four hour yeah. Between our stores. So our Bradley fair store is 4 hours approximately from Laudan. I drive like a grandpa. So it took four and a half hours to get there. But just down there last week actually. So it's like send me pictures of these sets. Let's see if we could figure out like obviously why something's sets down. We have outs with Keiki sometimes or the brand, you know, just won't have the production capability to fulfill all orders. And sometimes that's like oh well if that tag fell off the shelf and it's number one or number two item like that's pretty obvious. That's something that needs to be filled to keep the category moving. Other times like okay, let's look at it.
23:22
Tyler Killgore
We just have stale items or the wrong items or something that hasn't been, I don't want to say relevant selling well in the region for three or four years. So we don't necessarily need that in the set anymore. And so I am very sophisticated. I take their picture, I put it in Microsoft paint and then I put x's through the stuff. They need a discount. Like have something at two to three weeks to fill that spot.
23:44
Daniel Scharff
That's amazing. And so would it be a requirement from you then that anything the broker is showing you is already stocked in the KEDC?
23:53
Tyler Killgore
That's probably number one priority for us. Unfi are just, we can't beat truck minimums. So we swapped from them about 18, I feel like 18 months ago. So we, which was actually why it was brought on was to help with the transition from unify over to kg because that's a lot for one person to take on. And so were doing that transition and it just made more sense. Like, we would love to work with Unfi on some stuff but we just can't get the minimum truck order high enough in some of the stores. We have one store that's 4000 square foot with a back room that I could reach my arms across. I can't necessarily, you know, fulfill my main distributor obligations. And then also, you know, $2,000 order from Unfi.
24:36
Tyler Killgore
I don't think that's the number I don't have right up the top of my head. But, you know, we also can't then hit the truck minimums and the price would be too high if we try to pass the old surcharge.
24:46
Daniel Scharff
Right. So do you pull everything from the same Cahi distribution center? Which one is it?
24:50
Tyler Killgore
It's the big one in Dallas. We actually waited to transition over until the Dallas one was open. Which new warehouses? But those are smoothed out now. They're doing really well.
24:59
Daniel Scharff
Oh yeah, that's a great one. You can hit downs of stuff from there. And then just out of curiosity, what is that transition like? I mean, you've got obviously you need to swap out basically all of the products. See if from Unfi, see if Ke has that product or, you know, if it's something different. What you're switching to redo all the pricing and the tags and everything is like. What were the hardest parts of that whole transition?
25:22
Tyler Killgore
The hardest part was only 69% of our SKU mix transfer. I mean, that just honestly, that's the biggest part. Now some of that was Woodstock and field day. And we sold a lot of Woodstock and field day. So we had to be creative to get Katia Katie's house brand to kind of fill that till that void, that field day and Woodstock left. But then there were still a bunch of other skus. And warehouses are always fluid. Things are always coming in and out of them. So the major ones, the major players we had, thankfully, and Keiki does assist with that transition process. They flew out a team. They were kind of suggesting things to go into spots. And then we just kind of went back and refined the selection of that point. And that takes a long time.
26:02
Tyler Killgore
Whenever you're dealing with a whole store of grocery, it can take a while to make sure that every set is refined and the things are getting, being discontinued or the right things for the right reasons. And it took a while to really get into that rhythm. Probably took about six months to finally kind of get into a rhythm or really refining things rather than just making big sweeping change.
26:21
Daniel Scharff
And I guess I'm just curious. I don't think I've ever asked this question. I know you were newer when you started the transition, but anything that you noticed about the difference between working with a Unfi and a Keihi, you know, not to say anything bad about anyone, but just, you know, was there a difference that you noticed around, I mean, was there a difference on pricing that you could get from them? Fulfillment, like they do things differently and anything major for us newbies.
26:45
Tyler Killgore
So I didn't work super closely. I'd only worked during the UNFI distribution for about three months. So I was mostly focused on learning how Keiki worked, so, and finding partners in Keiki that could help me with specific tasks. What I would say the biggest thing is we were split between two UNFI divisions. So were split between east and West Unify. So were finally able to have a consistent SKU mix across all of our stores. It's not super uncommon or wasn't super uncommon for us to hear someone was in our Oklahoma City store and drop drove to our Wichita or our Kansas City store to pick up groceries while they were there. Like, oh, hey, this is, you have one of these stores here too. I want to pick this up, but you guys don't have this item.
27:27
Tyler Killgore
And it was because it was carried at both warehouses. Additionally, we lost a lot of, or we have to deal with a lot of overhead on our part because we do have a promotional program. And so what were doing is were trucking items from one store or another store so that we had at all stores for our promotional period while were running advertisement in our newsletter.
27:49
Daniel Scharff
Yeah, interesting. And, well, I also wanted to ask on this topic of inventory. I saw you had done a LinkedIn post recently that was talking about live inventory and having implemented a system, I'm curious, like, I want to know what you guys spend your time on and what makes your job a lot easier. Can you just give me a little bit more insight into what's that like and how do you manage inventory and operations in addition to all the other stuff that you're doing?
28:10
Tyler Killgore
So if I could go back two years, I'd smack myself in the back of the head and say, don't say to do this. But I said whenever I started, I would do anything for an inventory system in these stores so I could see what is 4 hours away from me without having to rely necessarily on taking away from a store manager or grocery lead to go do it for me. And I wish I could go back and put my foot in my mouth, because it was a lot of overnight counting, and it's a bound snack. It's a couple long days and nights counting, but we always make it back in, you know, either a long weekend or something like that to kind of compensate.
28:46
Tyler Killgore
The inventory has done so much for us just in because we also assigned positions to everything whenever were doing that. So it's helped us so much to just be able to get a vision of the store whenever we just don't have the manpower to plan a gram, you know, five different layouts.
29:02
Daniel Scharff
Makes sense. Okay, cool. And then actually, well, just one more question on sourcing products. Do you have any tips for brands that reach out to you for, like, aside from those basic facts that you said you need before? This is the kind of stuff that gives me a lot of confidence in your brand, whether it's a particular kind of data or just, you know, something about the compelling part of their story or how they approach you, anything like that.
29:24
Tyler Killgore
I think it's the biggest thing for me is it's not realistic to cold call a store, expect to get me on the phone and do a 20 minutes sales pitch that day right on the phone, just not a. I don't think that's realistic. And also I fall into this weird millennial Gen Z divide where I don't. The phone scares me, I suppose.
29:45
Daniel Scharff
Yeah, you're doing great at it.
29:46
Tyler Killgore
Yeah, yeah, text me. Fine. No, it's just. It's so hard to be like, okay, I was not planning on sitting here and doing this, and then a lot of times you just can't do the forward research on it, and so it still ends up with being circled back with me with an email because I need to see all of this. I can't, you know, process. Just this information you're telling me over the phone. I don't have Upc's. I don't have anything like that to kind of make a decision on. So email is always the best. And be ready for any weird question. I think every buyer has a little bit different of a process that they go through, and that's what I've heard. So don't just shoot me minimum order quantity and SRP and be like, oh, why? Why is it not being taken?
30:27
Tyler Killgore
But that's the big one, is just making sure that all your ducks in a row and please, please do not have a script that you work on in a conversation that's probably the quickest way. Whatever. I'm like, X won't work, but what about Y? It's like, oh, but we will do x. Like, well, I guess we're additive. So those are my big pet peeves. Whatever brands call up, kind of out of the blue.
30:49
Daniel Scharff
Amazing. Really helpful. Thank you. Okay, great. So now let's say a brand is lucky enough to get to work with you. What kind of support do you want to see what's possible get into your store. And I want to do really well. Is it mainly about the promotions? Is it trying to work with you on a display or to get into the newsletter somehow? What do you really think works?
31:09
Tyler Killgore
So there's all kinds of different ways to get to the end result. The best one that we've seen is with our ad program. Our ad program goes up to 700 or not. Whoo.
31:24
Daniel Scharff
There we go.
31:25
Tyler Killgore
Yeah. It has about 100,000 website hits every month. That's the big one that really drives, you know, at least initial trial. The Midwest is a little bit slow on adopting things. We have a digital program that we can do, you know, promotions through, and 75% of our customers are a part of that. Sometimes redemption rate isn't the best just because it's still kind of a newer factor. It has lowered the age of our consumer considerably over what it had been. But the print news media is still the best. And whereas, you know, a digital avenue, you know, you could kind of ignore it.
32:00
Tyler Killgore
You know, you could swipe no on that notification, or your phone will be loaded up with so many notifications, it doesn't matter where the physical print media at least gets to the customer and makes them at least look at it. And usually, you know, if I get a newsletter or something in the mail, you know, I'll flick through it. I may not read it, but, you know, I'll flick through it, and then something will catch my eye, and then I'll open it, read it. Especially since, you know, I don't even get junk mail anymore. I don't know if you've seen the same thing, but getting something in the mail is kind of a unique thing right now.
32:29
Daniel Scharff
Yeah, it's true. I personally will do pretty much anything not to get junk mail. I have. I have this app called Paper Karma that I am a lifetime subscriber to, where you can just take a photo of mail that you don't want to get anymore, and then they go and complain to them. So I agree. It's not, it's not often. I mean, some of those methods, you know, is like for startup CPG, for example, we have a lot of. Of different channels, but how we reach people. We have our instagram, we have our LinkedIn, we have our slack. But really for us, the most old school thing is our email newsletter. But that is the thing that most people are going to see far and away more. And so that would, I think, be the equivalent of your, the print newsletter that goes out.
33:03
Daniel Scharff
So, I mean, just kind of like you send it, you know, people open it, they see it. It's not so dismissible the way a lot of other pings can be.
33:10
Tyler Killgore
And unfortunately, I wish I had one here for this conversation, but I'm at my home office. But it's you know, full color photo paper the whole way through. It's glossy. It's definitely unique in that space, even as far as newsletters go with the production value of it and takes a lot of time. I mean, we do spend a lot of time making sure it's nice before it goes out.
33:30
Daniel Scharff
And that would typically also have a promotion attached to it. If they're in that newsletter, you definitely.
33:36
Tyler Killgore
You want a promotion on attached to it or else, yeah, someone may have seen it and may have not interacted with the product, but they saw it on shelf at 499. Well, if you have it in the newsletter for 499, you know, people aren't going to want to still go sperm on to interact, but they'll see at 399. Oh, I didn't realize that item was on sale this month. Let me go and let me get it and try it.
33:56
Daniel Scharff
Yeah. Amazing. Okay. So, yeah, I wonder, just for any brands that you have worked with that you've launched maybe in the last year or so, are there any examples of ones you can point to as like, that was an amazing launch. That was a great decision. They did really well. They came in, it was definitely on trend, they supported the business, and they've had a great result.
34:15
Tyler Killgore
The big one for me that comes to my mind right off hand is icelandic provisions. But that could just be, I'm biased. I personally have made sure that their launches has been successful, but I can't think of anything off of the top of my head that hasn't been successful utilizing, you know, either different promotion routes, free product. I think positive beverage is another one that we did phenomenally with. They did a vendor funded coupon with us for a free item and we ended up running the Cakey warehouse house out of stock three times during that promotion and we only had a 54% fill rate. So in theory we could assault another 4000 cans or whatever and we didn't have it there to sell, so. And that was actually really positive. The sales have continued to be strong, just encouraging that initial interaction.
35:05
Daniel Scharff
That's amazing. And so, I mean, it sounds like everything that you're launching is doing pretty well. Well, do you have check ins with brands when it's, you know, not going so well and try to give them some kind of an opportunity or intervention or heads up.
35:17
Tyler Killgore
So I, I try not to ever be malicious whenever something needs to come off shelf because we usually do work so hard at getting things placed, making sure the right items are placed. I don't like to just yank things off the shelf without giving them a chance to run. But usually that's another good thing about being in contact with the broker so much. It's like, hey, like, this item's not doing very well. Can you go to the brand? Because if you don't go to the brand, I'm going to go talk to the brand and usually that's enough to get them move it. But also I love shows because it offers a great touch point. So we go to both KG shows and then both new hope shows. Well, I guess Expo east isn't around anymore, but we'll be there at new Topia.
35:59
Tyler Killgore
But we go to all the shows to make sure that we're there and we can make those touch points. Cause, you know, I understand we're in the middle of Kansas, so very few brands are going to, you know, fly into our little eight terminal airport. Come say hello to us. And full disclosure, I've never been to our Oklahoma City airport and our lot in store doesn't have an airport, so you have to fly the OKC and drive.
36:24
Daniel Scharff
That's awesome. Well, I'm excited. I'm sure we'll get to meet and hang out at Newtopia then, so you can put it on your calendar. Now. Startup CPG is hosting the party at Newtopia now. The party, yes. It's going to be called Discotopia and we've rented out one of the premier nightclub venues in Denver. It's called church and you guessed it's an old church and so it looks super cool, the stained glass windows. And we're going to be doing a silent disco there. So with the headphones. And then we'll have plenty of brands demoing product there, which I think actually silent disco is brilliant for something that kind of blends networking and fun because then you can still talk to the brands and learn about them, but you can also still have a good time. And I think the videos are going to be epic.
37:11
Tyler Killgore
So, yeah, I went to that goodles party that they had at Expo west, and they were trying to interact. It's like I can't over the music. By the end of the night, I was screaming so much. The next day in our meeting room, I was very me, like, hissing out words, trying to communicate.
37:31
Daniel Scharff
I know what that's like. And as a brand, like, you know, we are here for the brands. We don't want them to lose their voice before the last day of the show. You know, they're going to need that the next day.
37:40
Tyler Killgore
Oh, I feel so bad for the people that were in the basement trying to converse after that, because that was loud. Yeah.
37:49
Daniel Scharff
All right, so. And then I guess maybe just lastly, Tyler, I wonder, are there any opportunities that you're seeing right now in your set? Are there any categories where you're like, man, I wish I could just find a brand like this, you know, whether it's a particular kind of product or the mission of a brand or just some kind of a story or just. Or maybe you just aren't seeing anyone demoing the right way, anything like that comes to mind.
38:12
Tyler Killgore
I think the big ones that we're seeing right now that's really resurging is entrees that don't require, like, either, you know, frozen entrees or microwaveable entrees. Those are really where it seems to be the big move for us right now that we've seen, like, hey, we want more of this. And were very hesitant to bring in the microwave rice pouches before sisters had one, and I thought it tasted great. And personally, I'm a microwave or insta pot only type person if. Me too, so. But we brought those in and we saw great success. And now there's some other brands joining it, and that's really the big section. And obviously, traditional frozen is still really strong for us.
38:52
Daniel Scharff
All right, that's amazing to hear. Super interesting. So, Tyler, those are all the questions, really, that I wanted to ask you during this time. I really thank you for making yourself available and sharing all of these insights with everybody. Is there a good way for people who are interested to kind of follow along with you? Is it adding you on LinkedIn? I know you said you're pretty active there.
39:10
Tyler Killgore
Yeah. So you can add me on LinkedIn. I believe I'm the only Tyler Kilgore on there right now, the last time I checked. So I'm pretty easy to find. And then also always tylerkreenacres.com, you could find me there. I have not ventured into Instagram yet. I don't really have an Instagram face, so I've got a face for radio. So one day we'll get there. But, like, did usually the best way to follow anything professionally. And then, like I said, if. If anyone has a pitch deck that wants to go for itreenakers.com.
39:43
Daniel Scharff
Tyler, that's very nice of you. I also have reluctantly got into Instagram when a younger person on my team years ago was showed me it, I'm like, well, I guess I gotta do it. And I got very addicted to it.
39:54
Tyler Killgore
So we did Instagram, or I did Instagram or with the Instagram whenever I was part of these doing sporting goods. And it's just so hard to get engagement on there. I feel so bad for everyone because everyone else, like, oh, 8% engagement. Yes.
40:09
Daniel Scharff
It's wild as a company, how low the engagement is versus your personal page. Like, with my friends, you know, you can have 20 times as many followers on a company page and get the same engagement. The true same is true on LinkedIn. That makes sense. Okay, Tyler. Well, man, it was just great to meet you and get to talk to you a bit. And I look forward to us hanging out at Newtopia and we'll get our disco on. It'll be great. We'll find you some great new products, probably some entrees.
40:34
Tyler Killgore
All right, sounds great. Thank you so much.
40:36
Daniel Scharff
All right, bye, everyone. 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. If you enjoyed today's music, you can check out my band. It's the super fantastic sticks on Spotify Music. On behalf of the entire startup CPG team, thank you so much for listening and your support.
41:22
Daniel Scharff
See you next time.