Hi Kevin,

We have done as much, and yes, it does work! Now that you have reminded me of this, I might try it again :)

At festivals, when customers ask where they can buy it locally, I tell them to ask the manager of their store for Wild Groves, and it has worked a time or two.

True on the old school....fortunately...and unfortunately :)

Yes, in as few words, that is what needs to be done in a very precise way. Now, that said, we have been doing this, but not precisely. Now that Neville (and everyone else commenting here) has opened my eyes to other tools and possibilities we are going to now try a more tactful method of sales to these grocery stores. We even have a list we've been blanket emailing for a couple years of 400+, that we've collected from Fancy Food Shows, now it's just about executing....know any good salespeople :)

Absolutely, we have a reached a point where we need to hire a salesperson. I've been a one-man show up to this point.

Brokers are tough - FYI. They can take a lot of hand-holding & education, plus take a lot of profit with fees up to 15%. I would say it's probably better to just hire someone you can mold and shape.

Wow, yes! Great point and idea Niel. Give the customer ways to use the product so they can visualize themselves using it before they even buy it. I really like this idea because it has so many possibilities, all about educating the customer, which is a win, win, win for all (customer, store, Wild Groves). I agree, why don't you see this more? For a long time you saw many products with those scannable square badges, but not much any longer....I wonder why?

Bahahaha yeah I remember seeing this! The ironic part is that story got them a ton of exposure and more sales 🤣

I actually think it won't really impinge on your online sales too much, as most people probably won't be nearby those stores it's already sold in.

Also it gives you a boost of credibility that you are sold in a large amount of stores.

You could easily put up a page simple as:

So it probably wouldn't take TOO much effort :)

I agree....while I like this idea, it also seems like a very slow (and expensive 😳) way to grow.

It almost seems like going directly to grocery store chains is better.

Oh wow, this worked well!?!!?

......a good piece of advice is to "keep doing what's working!"

It's kinda cool you only have 400-ish places to go after. That REALLY narrows down the market compared to other industries where there might be hundreds of thousands of possible contacts.

You can really put some elbow grease into getting to know this group of people. Most people have well over 400 friends on their Facebook alone, so this is totally doable!

Get someone to man the horn all day! Someone with an agreeable attitude, and preferably someone that totally digs your olive oil :)

My theory on why you don't see this:

If you just put a giant ass website label on a product, grocery stores wouldn't like it as much.

Three things occur to me:

#1) VC firm CircleUp focuses on the consumer industry and they have a ML platform called "Helio" https://circleup.com/blog/2017/02/23/announcing-the-launch-of-helio/. Helio helps buyers and investors surface new food/consumer items to feature.

#2) Rephunter.com. It's a site which allows you to search for independent sales reps by INDUSTRY. Those reps already have relationships in place...no sense reinventing the wheel.

#3) Costco. Full disclosure: I'm a member and they love bringing new things to light. It's their whole ethos- "the treasure hunt." You will get a huge order, but it probably won't be repeated. The bonus here is that you will get massive exposure to a truly spendy customer base. The average Costco member makes $100K + annually and is very picky and loves gourmet stuff....

Yeah, it's kind of a blessing and a curse if something is so old school.

BLESSING: It's easy to use basic things like a good cold email to get a meeting.

CURSE: It's a super slow, relationship based, and time intensive to get exposure.

This was really interesting for me. I noticed you talked about how the chains can make much more money with the olive oil in the beginning. But in the brochure you talked about it at the end.

What’s the line of thinking formpurr He that stuff in the end?

Are you having to pitch at regional level (all of socal), or can they walk into a store and talk to the manager directly and do it one-off, then use that to show other stores?

As much as I like the idea of grocery store sales being driven by what people are introduced to in restaurants, I have worked in restaurants before, and the two issues you brought up are significant.

Serving a ramekin of your oil with bread service would take a significant amount of product.

I like the idea of grocery store sales being driven by what people are introduced to locally in restaurants, but this might prove to be a difficult approach. While restaurants are quick to accept samples, they are typically hesitant to introduce anything to their customers that they aren’t confident they can continue to carry. “Freebies” rarely make it into rotation, and restaurant stockrooms often have sample cases of specialty condiments and liquors collecting dust.

If you do find yourself working with a restaurant willing to introduce your oil to their clientele, the presentation would be critical. Serving a side of your oil with table bread would require a significant amount of product in house, and there would likely be a tremendous amount of waste. Servers throw away full cups of unused dipping sauces on a regular basis. You are also depending on those servers to call attention to your oil and get your name out, and unfortunately, that would not happen consistently.

For more bang for your buck, the restaurant could bring a bottle of the oil to the table with a drizzle spout. Depending on the size of the restaurant, they would only need to have a couple of bottles in rotation at a time. Since the oil is still in its bottle, if it isn’t used none is wasted. More importantly, the customer would have the bottle in their hand. They would be able to view your label and become familiar with your packaging, which would certainly help with your brand recognition.

It really is a great idea, but it would take a lot of trust in the restaurant’s intentions. Once you hand over the product, you have very little control over where it goes from there.

Does it?

The original goals is to get the product in the store, (not. to promote a product that is already in the store)

You can bring in an convince the manger very effectively to get YOUR product in HIS store.

Follow up with awesome service and good display material, like printed tips etc, etc.

 

think about it....

Traditional or not it WILL be very effective to get YOUR new product in the mangers store.

You could also test this with the recipes printed off and taped to the bottle.

or

Inside the bottle which would be a reward type thing like the ring in the candle. :) (https://jezebel.com/the-silly-scammy-world-of-diamond-candles-1520153614)

You could target health food stores and other places where people are frequently using apple cider vinegar for “health benefits.” The Sprouts grocery here in the bay has an enormous display of apple cider vinegar for this reason.

People hate drinking it, but believe it does something. They also don’t know what to put it in. So you’ve got an opportunity to solve their problem by showing them how to use your products rather than choking down a spoonful of vinegar by itself.

So some place like a small supplement shop doesn’t sell vinegar, but has customers that buy vinegar...and probably drink smoothies.

So you market to them, you’re the only vinegar in their store (no competition), use the smoothie/shake example, and potentially you’ve got sales people explaining your product benefits rather than just sitting on the shelf.

I’d also think about end cap style displays and signage to give to the groceries. If your stores sell more product, they make more orders.

Easiest way to get more orders is with existing customers. You can write newsletters for yourself, and also for your customers. Think Trader Joe’s flyers as well as email.

Hey Allen, selling the vinegar to smoothie and supplement stores, that's a possibly shirt-worthy idea :)

Never thought of that avenue, great suggestion!

Hey Arthur! The thinking is to show that the product itself is super awesome, and that it can actually justify that high $22/bottle price.

So you gotta build it up a bit to show WHY it's worth 5x the price of standard olive oil!

Great suggestions Quantella!

Something like a Costco order is the ultimate dream :-)

Bahahahha I've never heard of these diamond candles, that's hilarious!