The Startup CPG Podcast


In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Daniel Scharff sits down with Amanda Puck, Vice President of Communications and Brand Development for Roundy's, for the "Mariano's 101" episode listeners have been asking for.


Amanda has been with Mariano's since 2014, working in the grocery retail business after years in restaurants and a lifelong love of grocery shopping that started as a kid clipping coupons with her grandmother. Today she leads communications, brand strategy, and community engagement for Mariano's and Metro Market, both banners of Kroger with deep Midwest roots dating back 150 years to Roundy's founding.


Daniel and Amanda dig into what makes Mariano's feel like a European-style food discovery market, how the team runs its twice-yearly "What's Next at Mariano's" local vendor search, the exact requirements brands need (a GS1 barcode, a distributor, a sampling plan) to get considered, and real examples of local brands, from Ava's Pet Palace to Caruso Provisions, that found success on Mariano's shelves.


Listen in as they discuss:

  • What makes Mariano's and Metro Market feel like a European-style food discovery market
  • Midwest-specific food trends, from cheese and cheese curds to frozen pizza and Chicago classics
  • How Mariano's meets customers wherever they are, from quick app pickup orders to in-store discovery
  • How Mariano's shows up for the community, including partnerships with local nonprofits and chefs
  • The twice-yearly "What's Next at Mariano's" and "What's Next at Metro Market" vendor search program
  • The core requirements every local brand needs before pitching, including a GS1 barcode and a distributor
  • Why grassroots in-store sampling remains one of the most effective ways to drive real sales conversion
  • Real success stories from local vendors, including Ava's Pet Palace, Laos to Your House, and Caruso Provisions
  • The distributors Mariano's works with most often, including KeHE, Norman, and JFI
  • What categories and trends Mariano's is most excited about right now, from protein snacks to pet food



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Creators and Guests

Host
Daniel Scharff
Founder/CEO, Startup CPG

What is The Startup CPG Podcast?

The top CPG podcast in the world, highlighting stories from founders, buyer spotlights, highly practical industry insights - all to give you a better chance at success.

Amanda Puck
When we speak to vendors and also to our community partners, food is the one thing that brings everyone together. To me, it's the true connector amongst people. So everyone connects over stories. When we hear stories from vendors, we really listen to what they're saying, whether they created the granola that they're serving because they're someone in their family had a heart condition, or whether they're chef with a chef background that really wanted to make the best jardiniera from a family recipe. So what are these stories? Because story is really what sells a product. I mean, it could taste great or not, but at the end of the day, it's the story behind it that we love to share and tell. So whether we're working with the community or these vendors, we just want to keep telling the story, keep connecting.

00:52
Daniel Scharff
Welcome to the startup CPG podcast. Today's guest is Amanda Puck. She is the vice president of communications and brand development for Roundy's leading communications, brand strategy and community engagement for Marriott and Metro Market. Today's episode is really the Mariano's 101 that everyone has been hoping for. It's one of the Kroger banners that people are obsessed with. And after today's episode, you're going to understand why. From their focus on local and emerging brands to foodie favorites like their Murray's cheese counter. It's really an amazing store. And you'll definitely want a pen handy for when Amanda drops the email address for new product submissions. All right, thanks so much to Amanda for joining us here today, and I know you're gonna just love getting to know her. Okay, here we go. Welcome, everybody. I am so excited to have Amanda Puck here today.

01:45
Daniel Scharff
I have just always been so interested in Mariano's and Roundies as just one of these really interesting, hugely popular banners from within the Kroger family. And so I'm so glad that we're just going to get to jump into it today and learn so much more about it. So, Amanda, could you just kick us off with the Amanda 101 background? Sure.

02:07
Amanda Puck
So, first of all, thank you for having me and us here with you today. There's nothing we care more about than our local vendors and all the startups and all the excitement that they bring to us. I love my position right now because it culminates and every single thing I've loved about my past experience. Even when I was a kid, I used to love to go grocery shopping with my grandmother and my aunt. I used to love to get the circulars. I used to love to help Them clip coupons. We would go and we would buy, you know, all of the food that we would have in the fridge for. I grew up in an Italian American household, so everything was for a day, and if I touch the salami that was for Wednesday, I couldn't do that. So.

02:48
Amanda Puck
But I've always been infatuated with grocery shopping and the restaurant business and food in general. And after working in restaurants for quite some time, I'm finally in the grocery retail business. And I've been with Mariano since 2014. And we're just having a great time, really being the food authority in the space and finding great brands.

03:07
Daniel Scharff
I love that there were signs at a young age that you would want to get into this business. I also like going grocery shopping as a youth, but mainly because I just wanted to be there when they got to the checkout so I could get candy.

03:18
Amanda Puck
Yeah, there's always that.

03:20
Daniel Scharff
And then I did go work at Mars Chocolate for a number of years, so another through line there makes sense. Love the candy.

03:27
Amanda Puck
Yeah. I mean, I'm definitely the kind of person that loves to go up and down every single aisle. It's funny, because my husband is not that person. So I actually relax sometimes on a day off by going to one of our stores and starting in one end of the store and then ending up at the other. And I love every moment of it.

03:43
Daniel Scharff
Would it be too hard to ask your favorite aisle? Oh, is that too hard of a question for somebody who loves the whole store? No.

03:51
Amanda Puck
I mean, it's an interesting question. The local aisle, of course, is. I like to find all of my favorite items. Absolutely. Love it.

04:00
Daniel Scharff
All right, nice. Okay, cool. So next one. This is another softball. Can you just give everybody the overall intro and just, you know, especially for people outside of the Midwest who haven't had the chance to get into a store yet, can you just give us the whole overview? Like, what is Roundy's, Mariano's, Metro Market? The good stuff?

04:20
Amanda Puck
Sure. I'll try to keep it as simple as possible, but we are all banners of Kroger, so were acquired by Kroger in 2016, I believe, officially, and it's been a great ride. Our roots are in the Midwest. Roundy's started actually 150 years ago, so we've been serving the Midwest for quite some time. We have stores in Wisconsin that I also oversee that are called Pick and Save and Metro Market.

04:46
Daniel Scharff
And.

04:46
Amanda Puck
And then in Illinois, we have Mariano's, which really was born out of a food lover's dream. It really developed into a place where customers can go and find interesting food products. Almost like you're in a market. And if you ever visited those markets, you know, there's produce displays and then there's fresh foods like freshly made pizzas. So it really had that roots in a food discovery fashion.

05:14
Daniel Scharff
I love it. And shout out to these OG entrepreneurs who 150 years ago in 1876, were making stuff happen in this space of ours. So you just kind of have to wish you could quickly see what their assortment was like in those days.

05:30
Amanda Puck
Exactly, yeah.

05:31
Daniel Scharff
And what the fads were like. Did they have fads happening then the same way that we do now? Did they have a protein craze?

05:36
Amanda Puck
I mean. Well, they probably didn't have a protein craze, but they. You know, I was thinking just back to the 80s, because a lot of my friends are into that moment right now, and it's all the soft drinks and skincare products and it's just fun to kind of see how things have evolved. But to your point, you know, there were probably fad diets back in the day in the very beginning, and now we're into the GLP1 trend right now. And what do customers need because of that trend? So we're always looking about how times change, how people came out of COVID how people liked entertaining at home. Now we're rolling into GLP1 and it's smaller portions, higher protein.

06:10
Amanda Puck
So I think what's interesting is that every year or two, there's a huge pivot or a way that we have to evolve to satisfy the customer, which makes it actually really fun and challenging.

06:20
Daniel Scharff
It is so interesting. I immediately just kind of wonder what is different about the Midwest consumer and maybe even how they experience some of these trends or what is the. Like, how does that trend actually appear on shelves in a way? Because I know I. I've seen some of the data about products that over index in the Midwest in general. And you know, in some years it's things like frozen entrees and pet food and I mean, dairy products, obviously.

06:50
Amanda Puck
Cheese and cheese curds, of course.

06:52
Daniel Scharff
Cheese for sure.

06:54
Amanda Puck
Yeah.

06:54
Daniel Scharff
But yeah, I wonder what is the like actual articulation of some of these trends specific to the Midwest as opposed to other parts of the country? Sure.

07:03
Amanda Puck
So I think the Midwest is still always a very meat and potatoes area. People love hearty meals, hearty meal solutions. Even though we're in this Trend Right now, GLP1s there still is favorites. I wasn't really joking. But you know, cheese and cheese curds are huge in both states. We have Murray's cheese in all of our stores here in Illinois and Wisconsin. And for those who don't know about Murray's cheese, it's truly cheese lovers dream to go to New York City, into their shop, and find all these great cheeses from around the world. I've actually got to visit a few of our cheesemakers in other countries and try a lot of our. We have a cave age program right now, but I think people love boards. People love charcuterie. People love snacking. That's still obviously, a big trend.

07:51
Amanda Puck
You know, we do build boards for customers that kind of don't want to do it themselves. So we take the guesswork out. But then I have volunteered in cheese departments for holidays and everything. And my biggest thrill in life was this woman came up to me one day and said, I've never made my own cheese board. Can you help me? And I said, girlfriend, let's go. You know, and I talked her through what my tips would be and really interesting cheeses and things that her friends made, like things to impress her friends who were kind of putting her up to this challenge. And I really love that. And I gave her my number. I asked her to send me a picture. She didn't. But I was really, like, thrilled at that moment because we give those choices to customers. Can you.

08:29
Amanda Puck
You could buy it already made and bring it home. You can make it yourself. You can talk to the cheesemongers. But cheese, I do feel in the Midwest is very strong. And we joke always about cheese curds at work because everyone's kids love em. We have fresh cheese curds delivered to most of our stores in Wisconsin. Thankfully, they're high in protein, so they fit in with the trends today. But I do think cheese, another big category. When you mentioned frozen entrees, I don't have the data right in front of me, but frozen pizza is one of the biggest categories in the Midwest as well. People love different kinds of pizza. I mean, there's Jack's in Wisconsin. Here in Illinois, we have lots of, you know, the local brands in the freezer department. We serve pizza many different ways at Mariano's.

09:10
Amanda Puck
And I think that's the appeal. It's like you could buy it hot for now, you could buy a whole pizza hot for now, or you could take it home and bake it yourself. Or we have it in the freezer, and you could take it home and bake it later. So, you know, those are all items. I think the Midwest is very hearty and loves the Staples. The Chicago classics.

09:27
Daniel Scharff
Yeah, that and like. And lunch meats. I've also seen over index. It's so funny. I was just thinking, the other night I went to. I got invited to a Yankees game. Someone invited me to a suite. It was very cool. I was very excited, feeling really cool to go. And I realized, looking at all the food that they had in the suite, that I've never known how to answer the question, what's your favorite type of cuisine? And now I know. My answer is baseball game. I like the pizza and hot dogs and pretzels and chicken tenders. Like, that's me. I'm not fancy. So, yes, a bit of an aside, but I feel like that's a Midwestern slant on the world as well.

10:03
Amanda Puck
Chicago especially. But the Midwest in general has these specific classic foods, whether it's abroad in Wisconsin, whether it's hot dogs, Chicago style, only in Illinois, whether it's Italian beef. And there's shows like the Bear and other shows that have come to become really popular that really focus on these items. Deep dish pizza, all these gardeners invented here in Chicago. So I think Chicago and the Midwest have their own signature dishes, and that's really what people gravitate towards. I love a Chicago style hot dog, and. And I'm from New York, so I hope no one pulls it against me. But it's a great flavor combination, and I would never pass one up if I'm at a game or at a party and I see one that I love it.

10:42
Daniel Scharff
And I also should be a little embarrassed for having such basic taste buds because I do live in New York, and actually where I'm sitting right now, I can pretty much see the Maurice cheese shop because I live on Bleecker street, which is where their flagship is.

10:54
Amanda Puck
Right.

10:54
Daniel Scharff
Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. And you just inspired me. I just actually wrote down in my notebook here, cheese board. Because I feel like we should definitely do an event where we all get to go make our own cheese boards. I've never made a cheese board.

11:04
Amanda Puck
Sounds like I'd love to set it up for you, hopefully at Murray's and I could also come. They do classes there, actually, all the time.

11:10
Daniel Scharff
Yeah.

11:11
Amanda Puck
And they have an official fanor who oversees the cave aging system. And his name is Josh. And we have a great relationship with them, but their team works really hard to source really amazing cheese makers from around the world. I recently was on a food innovation trip to Italy, and I got to see how our Gorgonzola was made. And I have to say, it was Such an incredible experience. I have so much more appreciation for it now. I love it. It's creamy. It's delicious. But being there and seeing how they make it by hand and how long it takes and the care that they give it just really, it makes it taste even better.

11:45
Daniel Scharff
Amanda, your job is sounding cooler and cooler. Sounds awesome. A very cheese focused job also. But we'll get to the other parts too. So can you tell me a little bit more just about kind of the role that Mariano's plays in the lives of shoppers? Like, you've talked a lot about how just really a food obsessed place being a little bit maybe more almost like European market style. Anything more that you can tell me about, like the kind of people who shop there or how do they view Mariano's versus other stuff that's out in the market? Just anything that can, like, try to give people the idea of what it's like to really walk into the store.

12:24
Amanda Puck
Sure. So we truly try to create an experience for our customers when they come in the store. It's our job to really put our offerings forward to customers. We want to meet customers where they are. So does that mean you're in a rush today? You're going to run in, you're going to grab, you know, a rotisserie chicken for dinner because time is short. Kids have got to go to a game or if you want to tackle a recipe and you want to come in and find all the ingredients. But we really want to be there for our customers in any way that they might need us to be. If you're in a rush, you don't even have time to shop. We have a great app and you can. I love to.

12:58
Amanda Puck
This is my power trick, is that I order all my groceries from one of the stores that I'm visiting and pick it up. Even though I love shopping, I pick it up before I go home because then I have everything that I need for dinner that night or for the weekend. But we really try to be everything to our customers and create this experience for them, but also with a sense of discovery. So today were actually touring some stores and it was really great because were in the meat department and were looking at a lot of our great products from chicken from Indiana, Miller chicken. It's humanely raised chicken. We have Niman Ranch pork. We have a new wagyu line that we just kind of debuted. But I forgot about the blueberry breakfast sausage.

13:37
Amanda Puck
And one of our associates was sampling it behind the case and they all got excited. Oh, yeah. We thought today we'd sample the sausage and, you know, we're all tasting it and it just really was like something that you would want for breakfast tomorrow. So it's a nice reminder for customers in the middle of the day, like, how to plan ahead. So we really try to give customers a taste of everything that we're doing in the store, whether it's our chocolate drizzle popcorn, whether it's some of our new sandwiches that we have on the hot bar. So we always want to have our customers explore and taste and discover things that they might not see in other stores.

14:09
Daniel Scharff
Boy, that sounds good. All of that stuff is stuff that I want, so you continue to make me hungry and hungrier. So. Okay, that all makes sense. Do you feel like, I mean, do people look at it also just as like, this is the place that I'm mainly going for my full grocery shop and like, it, you know, gets pretty busy, like, you know, Mondays for that beginning of the week shop, and then, you know, again on the weekends or people popping in a lot just for kind of one off stuff and, you know, sandwiches, that kind of stuff.

14:35
Amanda Puck
I think it's a combination. There's definitely families that stock up during the weekend and on Sunday, Monday for school when school, obviously school starting now, a few kids are already back in school. Can you believe that? I feel like it's too soon, Daniel.

14:47
Daniel Scharff
Too early.

14:48
Amanda Puck
I know. I was like, your kids are in school. But so there's definitely, you know, the back to school is going to happen. And we do have a lot of customers, which I love around lunchtime. I spend a lot of my time working out of the West Loop store, and I'm pretty much always in stores, especially on the weekends. But that week, that lunchtime crunch, you know, people love to come in and get their sushi. They love to come in. So those customers are coming in and grabbing, you know, a drink, snack, a lunch, a sandwich, and that's how they make that stop. And then they're the ones that come after work for dinner, for tonight and that kind of thing. So I think there's a whole different myriad of the way our customers shop.

15:22
Amanda Puck
And again, it's like meeting them where they are and what do they need. And we just came up with some great new items. Like we have a whole chicken nugget assortment. It's like 20 chicken nuggets for $5. So if you have, you know, kids obviously love all that. We're definitely trying to always have these offerings for customers that keep them coming back all Right.

15:39
Daniel Scharff
And I know Mariana is really is part of the community, and I know that's a lot of the stuff that you think about also. Could you just talk a little bit more about that? Like, how do you really serve the community, engage with the community, activate that community around the store?

15:54
Amanda Puck
Daniel, we show up. That's our motto. We show up. So if there's organization we're supporting, we have great relationships with lots of different nonprofits. And I'll give you just a few examples. So I am a gentleman, is a longtime partner of ours. We've actually met them during the pandemic, literally right in the beginning of 2020. And their organization is run by Jermaine Lawrence Anderson, and he mentors young men in the community and he mentors them in the terms of like teaching them life skills, also helping them develop communication skills, and also volunteering. So we are lucky that we get to work with them in that capacity. And on certain Sundays of the year, we do come something called Sunday dinner. So we come together.

16:37
Amanda Puck
And another thing I do want to mention, we have, we work with a lot of chefs, so we partner with one of our chef partners and then we make a meal. And Sarah Stegner, who's a James Beard Award winning chef from Prairie Grass Cafe and Tigis Retta from Demara are doing joy and dinner. And they're doing, I think like chicken and mashed potatoes or something. I don't even know what the full meal is, but they're cooking it, we're providing the ingredients, and then we're all going out to a senior home in nearby in the area because Senior day is August 21st. So we're going to serve seniors meals. And there might be some bingo, which is actually really fun to play. I haven't played that much, but I don't know if you're a bingo guy, Daniel, you can come up for it.

17:16
Daniel Scharff
I sure am. I love a good bingo time.

17:18
Amanda Puck
Yes, we engage with the community. We show up. We just were part of the Bud Billiken parade. It's the second largest parade in the United States. And we help with their breakfast before the parade starts. And we feed about 300 people with some other local sponsors. So we're always there helping the community. There's so many organizations that love to feed people like we do. Our main focus is fighting food insecurity. We work with all of the local food banks. We're constantly doing events. We have a big raise at the Register plan actually in November with Curtis Granderson, who you might know because he used to play for the Yankees and the Mets. And he's an MLB All Star, but he's actually from Illinois, so he's played for a lot of teams, but he's based here.

17:59
Amanda Puck
So every year we do a big fundraising and raise money for all the kids in his program to help fight food insecurity.

18:05
Daniel Scharff
Oh, that's so cool. Good for you guys. That just sounds like such important work that you're doing, especially these partners of yours. I'm really interested to learn more about the I'm a Gentleman program as well.

18:16
Amanda Puck
They're wonderful. And the chefs that we work with, we probably work with about 50 chefs in Illinois and about 20 in Wisconsin, because we just started the program there. It's called the Tastemaker Chef program. And they are always reaching out to us because they're doing great things. The couple that owns Soul and Smoke there, it's a great barbecue restaurant up they're opening in Evanston, and they have a community fridge where they stock the fridge every week for cut for their, you know, nearby residents who might not be able to have access to food. So they're constantly doing these great initiatives, and we're always there to support them if we can. So it's been. It's very rewarding. And to know that we're working so closely with the food community, it's. It makes it really special.

18:56
Daniel Scharff
That is amazing. Okay, so let me ask you something that I know everybody listening wants to ask, which is can you just talk about how you work with local brands and emerging brands?

19:06
Amanda Puck
Yeah, we talked about that today, actually, at work today, we really feel very strongly about supporting our local communities. And that actually comes with, you know, really working with local entrepreneurs. And nothing, I would say, like, makes our heart sing than meeting all these local vendors and knowing their story. I actually reviewed one of the local end caps today with someone from our organization. I knew every single person's name story, why they did the product. I know you know, all this stuff too. It's, you know, what we nerd out on. But the passion behind these brands and the work they put in to developing them and getting them on shelves is really, truly remarkable. And it's one of our favorite things that we all work on. So about twice a year, do a search called what's next at Mariano's?

19:51
Amanda Puck
Or what's next at Metro Market, which are stores in Wisconsin. And we really see search out the best products. And I get a lot of questions like, do you go in looking for pastries or do you go in looking for this? We really I want to say we don't because something will always be there that will totally surprise us. And few examples are we all love pets at Mariano's, it's dogs. We're very into our, you know, pets. And a 16 year old entrepreneur at the time, Ava, had started a company called Ava's Pet Palace. And we met her and were just floored. And it took a while because she really had a scale to get into our stores. But now she has shippers in the pet aisle. And my husband the other day was like, oh, Enzo, do you want a cheese?

20:35
Amanda Puck
Please, like me. Like my dog knows like the names of the treats by name. So it's really exciting to see her as a kid come up with this idea with her family. And now she's in our stores and really she samples at stores. She gives customers a treat to take home to their dog. So she's really trying to win over customers. And so it's really exciting to see that. And all of the great products that we see. We work with the hatchery and we also work with Naturally Chicago and they bring us a lot of brands that have already proven track records in terms of sales scaling. They're ready to go. But we do the program twice a year. It's almost like speed dating. We roll one in on a cart and then, you know, they present to us.

21:14
Amanda Puck
It's a 15 minute package and then we roll them out and then we roll somebody, another vendor in. But we just picked up a great Bloody Mary mix. There's a local restaurant in Chicago called Eleven City Diner and they came in and pitched and it was delicious. And they recreated the restaurant during the pitch. And he brought his mom. I mean it was a whole like really cool presentation. And he comes in and he samples and he sells three cases at a time when he comes in and samples the product. Because they put that heart into not only what they present to us, but also to what they present to our customers. It's awesome.

21:46
Daniel Scharff
That is so great. What a cool initiative. Yes, we know Ava, we love Ava. Ava was in our section at Expo west and also in booth that we did with Good now at Super Zoo last year, her and her old family. And she's crushing it. It's so exciting to see. That's really awesome. So, okay, so you run this program and basically, hopefully brands have a way to find out about it. Maybe we can help with that also just to try to publicize it even more.

22:12
Amanda Puck
Yeah, we'd love for you to help us get the word out. And you know we do require certain things, so we require that products have a GS1 barcode. So there's certain like little hurdles that the vendors will have to go through. But if they don't have like the core five things, then usually they don't make it to the presentation. But having a barcode is one, having a distributor is one, and going back to the barcode, vendors can buy or apply for barcodes online that were previously owned by someone else. But in this case we need the GS1 barcode, which means that it's actually, it's officially linked to the entrepreneur. We also really require that they have a distributor because product has to get into stores.

22:52
Amanda Puck
And I think just being through a lot of these meetings and having helped hundreds of vendors in our stores, a lot of them feel that they can self distribute. And I'm sure you know a lot about this. But it's really hard for companies to self distribute, especially as they get busier. They really don't have the time to come deliver to 40 or 100 locations through the back door. So we recommend a distributor, we recommend, you know, can they scale, you know, how many units do they think they're going to be selling to us and you know, will they have them on time and that kind of thing. So also the marketing aspect, what are their plans? Not only for doing coupons or different value centric offerings, but then also marketing with my team who will help on social media.

23:32
Amanda Puck
So there's lots of things that we look at. Sampling. I know you and I kind of talked about this in our pre meeting, but sampling, it sounds archaic, but I am a grassroots person. Even though I love and embrace all of the tech and we do all the things grassroot sampling is the easiest way to get conversion. So we love when our vendors come in and sample. It not only creates excitement in the stores, but it really gets the sale.

23:55
Daniel Scharff
I believe that too. And it's my actually my favorite thing to do. Although it's hard to scale that as a founder, like when you're in there in the store, you're like, gosh, I wish I could just do this everywhere. Eventually you have to like hire people to do that to replicate that for you. But there's nothing like doing it yourself. It's so much fun. You learn so much and get to connect with the consumers and learn about the store through the consumer's eye as well. So really one of my favorite things to do. Yeah. Okay. So that is really great to know. I wonder just because you mentioned like how much you love the local aisle and know all the brands on the end caps.

24:27
Daniel Scharff
I wonder if maybe there's another brand that you like brought were able to bring in the last couple years that you also just saw do a really great job supporting the business.

24:36
Amanda Puck
Several hit me so there's a brand called LA to your house and I honestly feel like I know a lot about different cuisine. I did not know a lot about Laotian food and. But this couple came up with this brand Louse to youo House. It started out as a meal delivery company so you could go on their website. You could order it through I think doordash or something and. But they presented to us because they were going to make individual again really smart on the convenience for customers. They were making a convenient me that you could. I eat the whole meal myself but I guess it could be for two people. But they do, you know a great like crunchy fried rice. They do some sausages and rice. They do. I just saw a curry today.

25:12
Amanda Puck
So they have these great dishes that are so flavorful. The best beef jerky I've ever had. I bring a bag of beef jerky home and it doesn't make it through the next day. And it's not because I'm eating it's because my husband ate it. But what they do that's so unique is not only is the product delicious and easy and convenient, they sample. They're always in a store, they're always posting on social media. We're going to be at Ravenswood Mariano's today. We're going to be at Bucktown Mariano's and they really get this conversion because customers don't know that much about that kind of food.

25:40
Amanda Puck
But when they it's explained to them and they get to try it and they just fall in love with it and it's fun to see customers taste it and then put like two packages in their cart before they check out. So that, you know, is a really a great brand. And again it's going back to that grassroots like getting in the store. Another fun story is we had heard about this Jardian era called Caruso's and I had heard about it but I mean there's so there's a lot of Dardaneras. And anyway they came and one of them came in the store to talk to specifically to talk to me. So he used to live in New York. He's from here. There's two brothers.

26:13
Amanda Puck
And he was telling me how he, you know, he was a chef at a Michelin restaurant and then he moved back to Chicago to be with his family. And their jardiniera was like the main condiment that his family made all the time. They have different flavors. I think you're shaking your head like you know it. My favorite is the Chicago caviar. I love the creativity. They put it on our chicken salad. They put it on our rotisserie chicken. They find things in the store to pair it with for customers so that you can make chicken salad, giardian era sandwich. And you may not. You might not ever have thought of that. Or throwing it on a steak or, you know, they give everyone really good ideas how to put it in a pasta.

26:47
Amanda Puck
We try to create videos with these vendors to kind of really tell the story and then also give customers ideas of how to use the product. So these companies are in there sampling all the time. I always see one of them when I'm running through stores.

27:00
Daniel Scharff
That is a cool product. I was just looking at their website and seeing that they do salsa. Like a salsa also. Yeah, yeah. And by the way, I have to admit something embarrassing to you, which is like, I don't really know what giardiniera is, especially before our Chicago grocery run, which I think was my first encounter with it.

27:19
Amanda Puck
And.

27:19
Daniel Scharff
But people, I'm just like, yeah, I don't. Is this. Can you explain it for anyone who is like me and doesn't really intuitively know what it is?

27:26
Amanda Puck
Well, I hope I'm getting it right, but I'm from New York and I never heard of Gardinera. And again, I grew up in an Italian American household, but I do think it's a Chicago condiment topping. That or it's made with carrot, celery, onion, cauliflower, whatever, and then it's marinated in an oil and it's delicious. It could be spicy or mild. Again, I love the innovation of the salsa with Tripping Billy that they do with that collaboration, but it's an excellent condiment. You can put it on Italian beef. You can put it. I love to put it on pizza, so that's my favorite. I like to drizzle. I like to put the gardeniera on, but then also drizzle with the oil. I put it on meatballs. I put it on chicken parmesan sandwiches. So it really is the ultimate condiment of vegetables.

28:08
Amanda Puck
So it was actually healthy for you, too.

28:10
Daniel Scharff
It sounds so good, and I'm glad you just gave me some ideas for other ways I should try it and.

28:15
Amanda Puck
Mix it in mayo and you can use it as a spread on a sandwich.

28:18
Daniel Scharff
Your definition was an Even more enticing version of the one that I got from Google. But yeah, basically, yeah. Colorful mix of chopped or diced vegetables. And then it also mentions pickled and vinegar, oil and seasonings. And the word comes from giardino, the Italian word for garden. Garden.

28:34
Amanda Puck
Yeah.

28:35
Daniel Scharff
There we go. All right, so I am officially the last person probably to know that, but here we go. Now I'm caught up.

28:40
Amanda Puck
Probably not, but it's. We'll get more people to know about it. That will be the exciting part.

28:44
Daniel Scharff
All right. I love it. Okay, so. And then just to revisit that part about. Okay. Brands who are listening to this are so excited to try to apply to get to work with Mariano. So there is that twice a year program that they can try to get in front of your team. And then there's also, I believe, an inbox for brands who are local that could try to get in touch with your team.

29:05
Amanda Puck
Absolutely. We have email set up. It's welovelocaloundies.com I actually oversee that mailbox. So why reach out to me or ask questions? We're also working on an online form because of all the information I mentioned that we do require. We like to have that in advance just so we're all ready to go. But we really love coaching. We had, you know, we did this conversation today. Like we do love coaching and mentoring the vendors when they start. Because I'll just give some examples. We might think that a product is great like a cracker brand. I'm just using them as an example. I'm not going to mention the name, but the bag might not feel full. So as a consumer, you know, you're getting, can you make the bag a little smaller because then the bag will seem more full.

29:45
Amanda Puck
It's not a skimpy portion size, you know, whatever the ounces were. But maybe you need to have a window in the bag so you can actually see what's inside. I think customers like to see everything. Customers don't want to buy a bag of cookies or crackers that is completely opaque because then you really don't know what that goodness looks like inside. So I think that's important. So we do mentor them through also. What's the best way to distribute? Should they, you know, go in the warehouse? Is that a viable option? Or do they use some of the different distributors that we recommend? Our team really works diligently with all of these brands to help them scale and get in for any grocery company.

30:22
Amanda Puck
I think we really love the presence with marketing, with social media, with Sampling with being in stores and a brand recently told one of my colleagues that their brand speaks for themselves, so they don't need to do any of those things. And we're like, well, you do, because customers need to create a lot of excitement for our associates and customers to have the brands and the stores. But that's how you get the velocity. You're not going to get velocity by letting it sit there, because once it sits there, you know, we're not going to sell it, and then it's going to shrink, and then, you know, what do we do then? So I think, you know, really being engaged with the brand is super important. And we love having our customers do that part and all the sampling and all that.

31:00
Daniel Scharff
I like it. That's a very bold thing to say. If you're a brand, you must have a lot of confidence.

31:05
Amanda Puck
Our goal is really to mentor and guide a lot of these local brands. And, you know, we just accepted Mi Tierra, which I don't know if you heard of that brand, but it's a really amazing salsa from Chicago. And he was scaling and, you know, the price was like, a little too much for us. Now it's great. So we have it in the stores. We love working with. We have a few different pasta companies that we work with, actually, the Rancic family, Juliana and Bill. Juliana's mom, her name is Mama Depandi. She came out with a delicious. And actually, if you go to Murray's, you probably can get some tonight if you want to try it. We sell their pastas and their sauces and their olive oils and a whole bunch of other items. And they are.

31:44
Amanda Puck
We just started selling their meatballs, their vodka sauce. It's a delicious product. It's so authentic. The pastas are bronze dye from Italy. The sauce recipes are Juliana's mom, so they're super authentic. We have another chef in Chicago named Tony Priolo, who he's very popular. We actually had dinner there last night. But his sauces are amazing. And again, that bronze dye, a pasta which is so special, it's really a signature. If people don't know about bronze dye, it's the way they extrude the pasta and coating of the pasta is really rough, so it clings better. The sauce clings better to it, so it gives you a lot more flavor. But again, it's mentoring, helping, really guiding them into scaling distributors. And I love actually how mama dipandi, you don't need to do 20 things at once. Do five and then add two.

32:30
Amanda Puck
It's like adding the Innovation, expanding the line that actually keeps the longevity of a brand. So I think, you know, we really have to look ahead. That vendors really should look ahead to how am I going to innovate? Okay, I'm making a jardiniera, but now I'm going to do a jardiniera salsa. What's up their sleeve next? We don't know. But the innovation piece always has to be in play.

32:48
Daniel Scharff
I love it. Okay. And I just want to double click on the distributors part. So you mentioned you want them to have a distributor. Makes total sense. Any distributors that are pretty common for people to use or any of them are. Okay, sure.

33:01
Amanda Puck
I think actually for us, Kahe is on a national level, probably the one that we use the most, and they are great partners. Also, Khe works really well with us, again with the sampling program. You know who's ever kind of signed up within their platform, they do get them out in the stores. Sampling. We also have a local distributor called Norman, who again, is also great. They have a lot of local brands and they also are on board with helping them with their sales plan and then also with sampling. We also work with gfi and they're a great platform. Like Kahi, they're national, so a lot of our vendors actually sign up through them. We just had Chef Tai Dang and his wife Danielle. They have a great Vietnamese coffee. It's an instant Vietnamese coffee. And they're gonna distribute that for us.

33:48
Amanda Puck
I mean, we have so many great brands. You know, I can sit here all day and just go through the list and tell you everything about the brand and. And what they're doing. But those are like the main ones that we use. And I think we're signing on a few more. We also can do it internally, depending on the amount of product that we're getting in.

34:03
Daniel Scharff
I got it. Okay, that's super helpful. That's cool. We get to do tons of fun stuff with the Kahi team, including grocery runs at their big selling shows. And actually the first time that I tried the giardinero was at our grocery run at Norman Distributions Warehouse earlier this year. So that makes. Yeah.

34:20
Amanda Puck
Who do you remember whose it was? Who did you try?

34:23
Daniel Scharff
I don't, but I mean, it has the Chicago flag on it.

34:26
Amanda Puck
I remember Caruso's has the Chicago flag. Okay. I'm curious when you do remember, let me know. I've tried all of them.

34:33
Daniel Scharff
I'll look it up and I will say the name of it before the end of this episode. Okay. And then let me ask you another question. Which is there any kind of product that you are actually especially interested to hear from right now? Because I know you're going to get some interesting inbound into that email inbox after this. And first of all, it's great that you just gave all this info so that Pro Tip brands, when you email it, maybe include some of this info that they're thinking about putting into the form. Like, your distributor also confirmed that you have that GS1 barcode, and I hope you do. I hope nobody bought their barcode off Amazon or something because that happens all the time. I know, I know it does.

35:07
Amanda Puck
They're like, I got the barcode and my.

35:09
Daniel Scharff
That's the one thing you really don't want to mess around with. Okay. But yeah, any other, like products that actually you're like, yeah, you know what would be really cool right now? Like this kind of a local product or these features or this category we're super open for right now. Or any claims or certifications or ingredients that you think actually, like, yeah, it would be really cool if someone out there has this. Definitely hit us up.

35:28
Amanda Puck
Yeah, I think, you know, we don't really look around and say, oh, actually we did have a moment where were looking for conservas for tin fish because we have an amazing tin fish program in our stores. It's a whole destination. It's like a. I can't remember the dimensions. I think it's like 6ft by 3ft. This whole island destination that customers can find tin fish, every variety from Jose Andres to Batiste to Fishwife and Patagonia. So I think we're good now, but we really love, like building that display up. But I think overall, I think we look for something that's innovative. And I think for right now in this moment in time, it's convenience for the customer. Like, is it a meal that a customer can, you know, make in an instant?

36:08
Amanda Puck
I think people who aren't even on GLP1s are interested in the protein fiber combo. So does it fall into that? Any kind of protein snack or any sort of healthy snack? And again, it's back to the dogs because we had this conversation yesterday actually about how many people actually cook for their dogs now. Like, there's. I don't yet, but I do actually make them some salmon every once in a while. But a lot of pet owners like to cook for their dogs and they take their dog's health very seriously. Through what. And their pet cats and other pets, they really take into account what they're eating and, you know, Is it good for them? So I think we never want to ignore the pet moment as well, but I think it's these healthier trends.

36:44
Amanda Puck
Again, this protein base ideas that are really kind of moving the needle right now.

36:50
Daniel Scharff
Makes sense. And by the way, I did just look and it was Caruso Provisions that was at our Chicago grocery run at Norman.

36:56
Amanda Puck
Yeah. And it has a flag on it, so you're right.

36:58
Daniel Scharff
Yeah. And actually, one really cool thing that the Norman team did is they got a hot dog vendor to come outside of the event. So they were set up outside doing Chicago style dogs. So of course, we had some Caruso Provisions out there with the go with the hot dogs, and it's so good. Oh, my gosh. Cool. Okay, so as we wrap up here, there's one thing that I always like to ask, which is like you've worked at Mariano's Roundies for so long, is I wonder if there's just one thing that you would love for brands just to have in mind when they're chatting with your team. Whether it's just something about the company culture or just maybe something we didn't cover about the stores or how you guys feel about your customers, or just, you know, ways of working with your team.

37:43
Daniel Scharff
Just kind of one thing just to leave everybody with to have in mind as they're engaging with your team.

37:48
Amanda Puck
When we speak to vendors and also to our community partners, food is the one thing that brings everyone together. You and I could sit here for hours and talk about food and condiments and flavors and different dishes, but food, to me, it's the true connector amongst people. So everyone connects over stories. So when we hear stories from vendors, we really listen to what they're saying, whether they created the granola that they're serving because they're someone in their family had a heart condition, or whether they're chef with a chef background that really wanted to make the best jardinera from a family recipe. So what are these stories? Because story is really what sells a product. I mean, it could taste great or not, but at the end of the day, it's the story behind it that we love to share and tell.

38:31
Amanda Puck
So whether we're working with the community or these vendors, we just want to keep telling the story, keep connecting.

38:36
Daniel Scharff
I love it. And I think anybody who has listened to this podcast really understands why it is that you do what you do and how much you love it and how important food is to you and how excited you are about it in general. So I really appreciate that. And Amanda, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. I just can say, like, for me, because as somebody who has run a brand and just worked on the brand side for so long, I was always so interested to learn more about Mariano's because even, like, when we had worked across a lot of Kroger chains, there was this always this, like, one blip of, like, wow, how come we're, like, doing so well at Mariano's? Like, what goes on there? Why is it such an awesome store?

39:14
Daniel Scharff
And I feel like I got to learn so much about it today. So thank you so much.

39:18
Amanda Puck
Thank you, Daniel. This was great. I'm so happy I got to connect with you through our friend Adasha. And I'll thank her and it's great. I love your hat. I hope I can buy one on the website. I think it's great. And everyone who watches this has to order a pizza and put Giardiniera on it before they listen.

39:33
Daniel Scharff
Done. Yes. All right, Perfect.

39:35
Amanda Puck
I think that's a fun idea. Yeah. Pizza. Giardiniera era and our podcast here.

39:39
Daniel Scharff
All right, thanks, everyone. Hope you enjoyed. Well, my friends, we've now arrived together at the end of another episode of the Startup CPG podcast, that top globally ranked podcast in cpg. As you may know, we're not just a podcast. We're a community of brands and experts. And you should join. You can sign up @startupcpg.com you'll then get an invite to our online Slack community. You're going to hear about amazing events near you, all of our special opportunities to get you in front of buyers, investors, brands and more. It's a free community. So what are you waiting for? I will see you there or on our next episode. Bye. Bye.