#222 - Buyer Spotlight: Pastas, Pasta Sauces, Oils, and Vinegars, with Brooke Gil of Whole Foods Market

15:02Daniel Scharff:Yes. I mean, the tallow takeover trend for 2026, that one caught me by surprise. I mean, I knew about it before part of our trends, obviously, but literally overnight last year at some point, my unit sales were up triple digit in beef tallow in animal fats in general. And then I narrowed it down. I'm like, what's driving this? And it was the beef tallow skew. And I have one. And so that caught me by surprise. So I mentioned it at work during a review for the week. And one of the gals was like, oh yeah, It's a huge face trend. Like it's a skincare thing. People are using it to have that young glow.

15:36Daniel Scharff:I'm like a tallow glow. Anyhow. So yeah, it's bringing a totally new customer into the set who is literally buying it to put it on their face, which is totally cool with me. It's not my thing, but I've been using the same face lotion for like 20 years. sell.

15:51Brooke Gil:Okay. So beef tallow, for fellow dumb people out there, is, according to Google, the rendered fat of cattle used both for cooking and non-culinary purposes like making soap and candles. So what you're saying is basically there's this TikTok beauty trend where people are, it sounds like, rubbing it on their faces as moisturizer. And then because of that usage, then people are also more interested in buying stuff that beef tallow is in for cooking also, or are they really just buying it straight up off the shelf just to use as moisturizer?

16:21Daniel Scharff:I want to say there's separate trends. There is a trend for like using more parts of the animal. So more sustainability from nose to tail. There's also the perceived benefit of using like all of the parts of the animal, like when you're cooking as well. So that's one trend. The beauty trend really caught me by surprise, just because I don't follow a lot of beauty trends. So when I heard that people are literally buying it, like the jars of it to use as facial care. I think it's great. Please keep doing it. I mean, I hope it's working for everybody.

16:51Brooke Gil:Okay, that's really interesting. Yeah, I wasn't sure if it was like, oh, so they get interested in it for one purpose, but then also like, yeah, I should eat some of this in my food more as well. Because also like, you know, beef tallow fries and all this other stuff and chips and everything, all that kind of stuff has taken off as well. So I guess, okay, you're talking about a TikTok trend and how that influences stuff that really is important on shelf and how you would react that kind of stuff. How do you look at some of these things that are happening in terms of, okay, is this just like a trend and this is happening right now and it's having a moment?

17:24Brooke Gil:Maybe I need to react and have a little bit more availability of SKUs on shelf or just, you know, have more stock for something like that versus things that you really believe will be, will have staying power and be on shelf for a long time and really like a movement and you need to react in a more substantial way to stuff like that.

17:41Daniel Scharff:I don't know that there's a way to tell the difference, honestly. Some of the strangest trends hold on the longest. I will say that I follow my category strategy. I think when I approach my categories and I'm thinking about ways I want to change the assortment, when I'm looking at innovation or when I'm partnering with a brand to come up with innovation to fill my white space or to meet one of these trends, first and foremost, I'm thinking, does this make sense for my category strategy or does my category strategy need to be changed? Do I need to zhuzh it a little bit? So leading with organic is always is part of all my category strategies is how can I increase my organic percentual assortment, but also like going beyond the classics.

18:20Daniel Scharff:I think you're going to find that in all of my sets right now and in all of my category strategies. So like finding ways to bring interesting surprise and delights to the consumer that also really satisfy.

18:32Brooke Gil:I love it. And I really like every time someone says zhuzh on the podcast. So you get the bingo points for that one. Okay. So because you have all of these categories and so much interesting stuff is actually happening within them. I wonder if you could just give me a quick, like just a summary of each category and what you're really seeing happening right now in each of those categories, just one by one.

18:53Daniel Scharff:Okay. Well, oils, beef tallow, olive oil, avocado oil, they're all driving growth. That is where the customer is voting with their dollars right now. For pastas, I kind of love this one because there's a lot of things going on in this category. There's a lot of people stocking up and voting for my opening price point, but there's also a customer who is discovering and moving up in price point and trying more of the bronze cut, the slow dried pastas, and they're open to trying totally different cuts than they tried before. And that's all part of my strategy, but I'm excited to say that it's working.

19:30Daniel Scharff:And then for vinegars, we have our, you know, like continues to drive with apple cider vinegar. Our customers love their apple cider vinegar, but also with the restructuring of the category just over a year ago, a year and five months ago is when we came up with our national core assortment and merchandising of white balsamic. Suddenly people understand what to use it for and they're buying it. White balsamic is seeing its day along with those crushed fruit vinegars. So I'm really excited about that. And then in pasta sauces, indulgence. That is like the name of the game right now. Everyone wants something super indulgent.

20:05Daniel Scharff:My alfredo selection literally i doubled or tripled it earlier this year it was somewhere i just wasn't caught up with rest of market and now i want to say i'm whole foods market is leading in alfredo don't quote me but i haven't pulled the latest stats but the assortment i am really proud of it and there's something for everybody in there and it's not just basic classic alfredo with and a garlic alfredo i've got some really cool stuff in there i don't know if you've tried any of the newer ones, but like Carbone, they have their mac and cheese. So delicious.

20:36Brooke Gil:I know I'm holding up a Carbone. I almost brought out the mac and cheese one because I recorded a podcast with Eric a few weeks back and I just sat there and ate it with a spoon. I'm like, oh, are you supposed to cook this? This is just good as hell. I'm like, eat this with a spoon. It's so good. So just a quick question on the indulgence part. Okay. So we know that there has been a lot of inflation in general in the system over the last couple of years. Do you see an impact on how people are shopping your category? Let's say something like pasta sauce. Like, okay, maybe people tighten their belts, they don't eat out as much, but then maybe they're buying more premium pasta sauce because they want to have fancier meals at home.

21:13Brooke Gil:Do you see anything like that over the last couple years?

21:16Daniel Scharff:I think you're spot on. We have a very healthy business with our premium sauce category. Yeah, we're definitely selling a lot of premium sauce, more premium sauce than we ever have. The problem I'm seeing right now is every brand that comes to me that's new is premium. I'm like, I can't be all premium sauce. Like there's got to be like a really part of my strategy with all of my categories is to have a really balanced pricing ladder. I've got to keep a really healthy opening price point. And that can't just be private label all the time because everyone that, you know, that some people want branded.

21:45Daniel Scharff:Then how do I get that middle tier? That middle tier has been disappearing a bit over the last couple of years. So that was one of the things I focused on with my last reset back in January was really reestablishing that middle tier price point, but still with some really delicious, incredible sauces.

22:02Brooke Gil:That's so interesting. Okay. So there have been a lot of brands coming on very strong with you guys having a lot of success. Do you see any commonalities between the brands? Like for the ones that have done well and been successful? Yeah. I think a lot of them are premium brands, but anything you see, whether it's about their branding or their packaging or their execution, or just something you really like about their teams or how they approach the market or how they support the business at Whole Foods? Anything that you can look across and be like, yeah, this is a winning recipe right now?

22:31Daniel Scharff:There's a few things. I think supporting your program is number one. Promotions drive trial. They build momentum. They are key for any program success, like getting behind it and driving that trial. Our customers love to try new things when they're on promo, and they also stock up when they're on promos. So I think that's a key part of the partnership. But then also when you think about like, how do we keep our customers coming back to Whole Foods and continuing to grow these brands and drive their success on shelf? And it's really truly through that innovation. And typically when they innovate with us, it's like so that we're literally helping them, giving guidance on basically what do we need in our set?

23:08Daniel Scharff:What is our customer going to vote for? Most likely based on what we know about our customer and what's working today and the trends we're seeing in Italy, specifically from my desk. So innovating together and then creating some sort of first to market exclusivity time frame to really set Whole Foods as not just the market leader, but that like destination for exploration and discovery within a brand. That's key. We want people to keep coming back to Whole Foods because they know they're going to get the best of the best and they're going to have all the choices in the world.

23:36Brooke Gil:That is pretty interesting. I guess another question is you have some categories where maybe people end up having to buy the product more frequently. Like if it's a pasta sauce, maybe they're going through a jar of it pretty quickly. Like you could get through a lot of the jar in just like one meal, right? Whereas something like olive oil maybe sits for longer, right? Because you don't use as much of it depending on how often you cook. Do you feel like how brands support the business is impacted by that kind of purchase frequency by consumers? Like your demo can be better or worse because, I don't know, maybe somebody just has enough olive oil at home at that point.

24:11Brooke Gil:Or maybe it's more effective because it really gives you a chance to interrupt their purchase frequency. And then it can bring a lot of incremental business by doing more demos on an infrequent purchase thing. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, do you see any difference in what you like? No, I need you to promote more or less because of the frequency of purchase or basket occurrence of that product.

24:27Daniel Scharff:I think about vinegars. They last forever. And there are certain types of vinegars that people will forget they have in their pantry. And so they'll sit. So we have to remind them of ways to use that product to get through it by telling them on the bottle what to use it for. But I think with olive oils, one, you should not be buying anything that when you open it, it's going to sit in your pantry for more than two months. Because, Daniel, that is what makes a rancid olive oil in your pantry. You really need to get through it within about two, three months maximum, really truly. Otherwise, you should be smelling your bottle at home.

25:02Daniel Scharff:Smaller bottles of olive oil, I think, are actually really important. And I think our customer likes the price per ounce. But I'm questioning, like, how much are they really getting through? like, you know, a two-person, three-person family, maybe they don't go for the full liter of olive oil. I think the 16.9 ounces would be plenty. And why not get two? Have one in backstop for when that one, because they have a two-year shelf life.

25:24Brooke Gil:That makes a lot of sense that I'm sitting here in front of you with this nice little 3.4 ounce bottle of olive oil that I think would be airplane friendly. And that would be about a two or three month supply for me. Okay. So I wonder if you could give a little bit of specifics for your expectations for brands? I know it's going to be really different because, yeah, people, the purchase frequency is going to be really different for these categories. But what do you tell brands who just are getting on shelf with you across different categories, some benchmarks that you want to see, you know, whether it's velocity or just, you know, growth of the business over time?

25:55Brooke Gil:What kind of info can we share with people?

25:57Daniel Scharff:Absolutely. So I'm always going to provide benchmarks to each brand based on category. what part of the category are they playing in who would they be benchmarked against they're never going to be benchmarked against my like a key core supplier that's nationally you know placed i try to be really reasonable but i also want to you know encourage them to i don't want to set the bar too low so i give like a six month because i want to be reasonable i think a lot of people like want to look at their product and look at their performance in the first like two months and i'm Like, no, give yourself a minute.

26:29Daniel Scharff:Let it like sit for three to six months and then let's see how you're doing. And in those three to six months, make sure that you've done some demos. Make sure you've done at least a couple of promos because that's when you're going to see how you're going to perform. And then at the year mark, this is where I think you should be. And things change. Like, you know, depending on what comes into the category, that can impact how another brand performs. So these are not hard and fast. Like, you must meet this deadline or else, you know, like there's it's not like that. It's like, hey, this is where I'd like to see you in six months.

26:58Daniel Scharff:Here's where I think we should be at in a year. If we don't get there, let's look at what kind of support you're doing for the program, and then let's keep going.

27:06Brooke Gil:It's great to hear how chill you are about it and how relaxed. Because on the brand side, those are like the most anxiety-inducing three to six months of our life. Like, am I going to do well? Am I going to get to stay? Because, you know, that's the dream for so many brands is to get to work with you guys. So that's their big race. And hopefully they take it very seriously and, you know, can do really well in those six months when you look at it at the end of it. But I mean, that's really very reassuring to hear how you're pretty understanding about it.

27:35Daniel Scharff:I want to say one thing, though, about that is after a year of being on the shelf, if you're selling less than a unit per store per week, almost in any category, and you're putting a lot of money into supporting the program and trying to drive, that's when you have to sit back and say, like, is this working? Like, if you're not selling any product and you're supporting it in Whole Foods, is it selling any product? What needs to change? So I think that there is like you have to have some degree of performance behind you after a year to validate that this is the right thing to keep going.

28:05Brooke Gil:Yeah. Or it's not a good partnership at that point, probably for both sides. For either one. Yeah. OK. And then another thing I wanted to ask you about is how you balance national, regional, local brands. Right. Because they all play a really important part in Whole Foods. And you guys do a really wonderful job, especially supporting local brands in the stores, incredible signage. And I know the team members really get behind brands that they love locally as well. But how do you figure all of that out with your planograms and the kind of support you throw behind the different brands?

28:36Daniel Scharff:Well, I'm sure you realize this, but we have a very robust and capable Forager and emerging brands team. They're like the rock behind all of our local supplier program, just in general. And I really rely on them to like suss out what are the brands that are coming to them that are coming to me? Do they make sense locally? is that customer excited about this brand? Do they know who they are? Does this meet a specific need for that customer of that region? When you think about regionality, for my categories, there's very specific ones where it's very strong. So you think about like Northeast, here's a hard and fast number to put behind it.

29:13Daniel Scharff:So our stores there have an average of 12 feet of pasta sauces. That's 12 feet, top to bottom, pasta sauce. And then you go to any other region, the average is eight, maybe six, but they can, you know, like eight is the average size. So that's four extra feet of pasta sauce that customer has been voting on historically. Like they set those stores up. So like Northeast, I have a plethora of space for local and regional brands that speak to that customer. And we have a lot of big brands that are out of New York City in that area. So you think like Carbone and Rao's and several others, Michaels of Brooklyn, and they all have extended assortments there to speak to that customer.

29:54Brooke Gil:That is really interesting. And yes, I love your Forager team, just some of my favorite people out there. And I think probably the one job everybody in our industry agrees that they would like to have. It just seems like so much fun. And all of them, really, I think it's so much joy out of just being able to personally interact with and help all of the brands. Probably a lot of people know this, but we've gotten to do tons of events with your Forager team, the local and emerging brands team all over the country. We just did one in Boston the other week with John Lawson. There are a hundred brands there that got to talk to him at that event.

30:30Brooke Gil:And then we also had Mabel from the baking team and it was just incredibly special. We've now been able to do those local events. Like I was in North Carolina with Dustin Kennedy a couple of weeks back and everyone there got to meet him. We had a sold out event in Asheville, North Carolina. Everyone was just overjoyed to get some time with him. And we had Margie in Chicago as well. And we've got Patrick coming to our SoCal grocery run in just two days time, actually. And yeah, Jordan Bray, we got in Austin at a big event. It's so much fun. I think just they're all really wonderful people who just approach brands with just so much excitement.

31:07Brooke Gil:And they're really eager to help them, even if it might not be the right time for them for Whole foods. They love just looking at the packaging and giving feedback and ideas, but also just hearing their perspective on brands is really interesting too, especially like I walked around with Jordan Bray and just heard him giving his thoughts about the brands and he has a culinary background. Just the way he tastes stuff is so interesting to hear.

31:28Daniel Scharff:He and I go way back to Southwest. He was a purchasing assistant at the same time I was.

31:32Brooke Gil:Oh, cool. It was so much fun just to hear how he thinks about it, which is really different from how some of the other foragers think about it too. But yeah, what an awesome team. Okay. So speaking of, you know, feedback and things like packaging, I wonder if you do have any insights just specifically on product packaging. I think these are some of these categories where people would just really say, especially something like olive oil, like packaging is so important in that category to stand out. Like we've talked about, especially if it's one where consumers don't have as much education and wouldn't know as immediately and instinctively if they like the same way that they would with just a beverage or something like that.

32:09Brooke Gil:So do you have any packaging insights for the brands?

32:12Daniel Scharff:I do. Something I like, the way I like to describe it is you need to be able to tell your story and tell your customer what your product is at a glance. You really only have a customer's attention at a glance. And it's the same thing in fashion retail. You need to look at like a table of clothing and know what that outfit looks like at a glance. So it's the same thing. We have a split second to entice someone and then maybe they pick up the back and read the back. And then you have their attention for like whatever you have on the back. So I think on the front, especially in olive oil specifically, like I said, flavor and finish is key.

32:45Daniel Scharff:Saying what kind of olives are in it. That's really important, especially for a more premium product and the usage. So if you can be like pretty direct, I mean, you've got cooking and salad oil with Brightland or you've got sizzle and drizzle or you've got like everyday and premium with some brands. Like just being very clear about what the usages are. And sometimes you can do whatever you want with it. Absolutely. but like having some direction helps pasta sauces same thing also having a clear branding i have some brands who i have to like beg them like please make your brand name bigger on this sauce or on this label no one knows who you are because you don't say it and like i love what your product is i love that you're saying what it is but like you need to have a brand presence because people are going to be loyal to your brand not to this one type of product does that make sense yeah

33:32Brooke Gil:Yeah, absolutely. Especially if it's not some totally kind of unique packaging that people could just associate with your brand, which people accomplish in, I think, a lot of different ways. So that makes a lot of sense. I really just like clarity of brand, like stuff that's easy to understand, that, you know, you don't need all of the different stamps all over the thing to read really carefully to understand what's going on.

33:52Daniel Scharff:Keep it simple. If it's like a menagerie of things to look at, they're never going to know what to look at and they're just going to keep going.

33:58Brooke Gil:Yeah. So another question I want to ask you is around how you work with brands on forecast. And obviously, like everybody wants to work with you guys and never short you and get big distribution with you and be able to supply all that product and be in your good grace as always. But for something like olive oil, I know it can be a little challenging, right? Because you have the harvest that happens at a specific time of the year. And then if there is this really crazy demand spike, that might be harder for them to react to if the business hopefully goes really well versus something like, let's say, pasta sauce, where they can probably be a little bit more reactive and work with their manufacturing partners to churn out more for an increased store count, stuff like that.

34:40Brooke Gil:Has it been really pretty seamless to work with the brands and getting the inventory as demand grows in particular brands in these categories? Or is that ever a challenge? Do you feel like you're on the same page with the brands when that happens?

34:53Daniel Scharff:I haven't struggled too much. I think it was like when you're launching a very small local brand like Fat Gold in Northern California. I am obsessed with this brand. I love how simple the packaging is and I love how clear everything is. It's like you're looking for a great label. It's one of my favorites. But anyhow, so she has Case Pack 12 and I knew like, okay, you're gonna be in these 25 stores. Here's I think how many units per store per week we can do. She's like, I think we can support 25 stores and no more that year. So like just really having a clear understanding of like, what are their production quantities, especially with the smaller brands that we're just launching.

35:29Daniel Scharff:With the larger brands, the question more is like, hey, if you run up against inventory issues and supply issues, one, I need clear communication. Two, I need to know before it happens. Like, don't want to know the day that you're running out and that your service level is going to, like, drop. So let's just stop communication and finding your way around it. And with promotions, we have an inventory planning team that supports us, and they're incredible. The work that they do is so, so valuable to keeping us in stock and helping drive sales for the brands.

35:57Brooke Gil:And what would you do in that kind of situation? Unfortunately, it can happen. Let's say a brand is like, hey, I am going to have a one or two month inventory issue for whatever reason. If they give you that heads up, which they should do, what can you do to try to plug the gap? Obviously, the real estate on your shelves is so valuable. You have so much traffic in the stores. Would you do anything reactively? I know it's tough to act that quickly. I mean, it's so hard to change things on shelves in so many stores. Is there anything you actually do or you just want to know and make sure you have enough of the other products on shelf because demand might switch around a little bit?

36:32Daniel Scharff:Totally. So it depends on the level of the brand and how much they're driving every week. So we had an unfortunate circumstance where a brand, the owner passed away and they did not have inventory planned. And it was a family business. So they were still running, but they realized they weren't going to have any product. Well, it was a fairly big chunk of business. So I said, OK, well, I'm going to forecast these other brands up. I'm going to work with you guys. Please keep me updated on where you're at with getting inventory back in line. Just keep the communication open. Every couple of weeks, I need to know where you're at and if there's a change in dates.

37:04Daniel Scharff:So I did forecast product. I told stores, please fill in these holes for this time being. This product will come back. But if I've got a product who has maybe one or two SKUs, fairly small volume, not a key player, then I'll say, okay, hey, do you have any promotions coming up? Let me look. Okay, we need to cancel those because we don't want to drive demand when there's limited supply. And then, hey, OK, so it's going to be two months. We have a long term out of stock program that like if products are going to be out of stock specifically with UNFI, then we've got a way to identify it in the system.

37:36Daniel Scharff:The stores take it off the shelf temporarily once they sell out. And then we bring it back as soon as UNFI says that there is inventory again. We flip the VIN in our system and we start ordering it again and we allocate product. So that's a new process as of about five years ago that I helped, right? And it's like golden because things used to just fall off the shelf when they went out of stock. And now that's not the case. We have a process around it.

37:59Brooke Gil:That's so interesting. And I hope everybody who just heard that really appreciates the level of insight there, because I think anyone who's been on the brand side has been in that situation where we have to give some news that we don't really want to give, and we're not sure how, what you're going to do with that information. So that's incredibly interesting to hear. Thank you. So just as we come kind of towards the end here, I have a couple more questions I would really love to ask you. So I know that you guys go really deep on quality standards. The Whole Foods kind of banned list of ingredients is probably the thing that brands pay the most attention to in the industry.

38:34Brooke Gil:And I wondered if you could talk about the new standard for standalone oils.

38:39Daniel Scharff:Absolutely. It's been unofficially a standard for years, since before I even came into the role. We don't allow any chemical solvents in the extraction of oils. That includes animal fats, I learned this year, because apparently there is a use of chemical solvents in that. And that's really it. Everything has to be expeller-pressed, mechanically taken out. And I will say that's not industry standard. A lot of refined olive oils are produced and extracted using chemical solvents. It's just not something Whole Foods has ever stood for as part of our holistic wellness. And basically I'm taking what's always been unsaid and saying it and putting a stamp and putting it out there for everybody.

39:16Daniel Scharff:But yeah, I currently don't have any on shelf that we're aware of that were extracted with chemicals. So.

39:20Brooke Gil:Cool. And then I also, I have to just ask about the whole seed oils thing. It seemed like, you know, I hear a lot of different perspectives on this from like, yeah, there's a lot of noise about it, but we're not really seeing it reflected so much in people's actual virtuous behavior right now. How are you thinking about it or what are you paying attention to?

39:38Daniel Scharff:I just want to make sure that we're meeting our customers' needs, that we're meeting where they're at. So if they're switching from seed oil to avocado oil, I want to be in stock in avocado oil. If they're still buying their canola or their sunflower seed, I'm going to have it. I need to meet all the customer needs. Maybe my forecast change based on growth and maybe my assortment gets tweaked a little bit. But I will always cover all the need bases unless there's a safety concern.

40:02Brooke Gil:Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Okay, so one question as we wrap up here is, I wonder if you could tell me, what is a day in the life like for you, Brooke? How much of it is just trying all the new oils that are coming in and sent across your desk versus working with some of your longer history national brands versus taking calls with emerging brands versus, you know, working with your team on analytics and fighting for more feet of space for the pasta sauce and other regions? Can you just take me through a little bit of it?

40:34Daniel Scharff:Yeah. So every week, every Monday, I spend the morning polling reports just to see how things are going. And I'm well enough solidified in my desk and my understanding and appreciation of my brands and what roles they play. And that I don't have a lot of surprises on a week-to-week basis. And when I do, I'm like, oh, something to look at here. But I'm always looking at year-over-year net sales, year-over-year unit sales, looking at year-over-year profitability, looking at you over your average price point on shelf and looking to see how promos are performing and if they're performing a forecast.

41:05Daniel Scharff:So that's kind of like my weekly grounding of the business. And then I mean, I get a lot of emails I will share with you. I think a lot of people like brands, they find me before I find them. I do get out and I comp shop. I go to food shows. I love comp shopping when I get into other regions because they're places I've never been. And I discover new products that maybe haven't come to me yet. One of my favorites was I was up in NorCal visiting a producer of some oils and it was an incredible trip. And on top of it, I went to one of their small co-ops and discovered Damya Olive Oil. And that's the Tunisian woman-owned, woman-founded, woman-produced olive oil.

41:42Daniel Scharff:And it's incredible and it's right in line with everything I'm going after in that category. So yeah, you never know who you're going to discover when you're out and about in a small boutique retailer, but I do get a lot of emails. So I spend a lot of time in meetings and in emails.

41:54Brooke Gil:I mean, I know you have a team that you work with as well. Can you talk a little bit about what are the different roles and what do people work on and how do you all work together?

42:02Daniel Scharff:Sure. So like there's a lot of merchants. All the merchants have, you know, between one and up to five, I think, categories, depending on how big the categories are and how intense they are. We have assistant category merchants who help us answer questions for suppliers, help us with like specific tasks around data, reporting, that kind of stuff. We have our team leaders who we check in with. I talked to my team leader probably at least once a week. I'm like, hey, gut check something I'm thinking about. It's kind of a big move. What do you think? I'm also a promo captain. I don't know if anyone's really aware of captainships, but we've got captainships among the merchants.

42:38Daniel Scharff:And it just helps us become bigger, like have a more of a leadership position within the group and gives us more like specialized information.

42:46Brooke Gil:Sorry, what's a promo captainship? What does that mean exactly?

42:49Daniel Scharff:So I basically have a group of eight merchants who I help kind of guide and mentor and we plan our promotions together on a quarterly basis. And then I help manage and basically we look at analytics. We look at like what's driving, why do we want to run this display? What's it going to do? How do we make it better? What does that discounting make sense for that program? What kind of marketing can we put behind it that will really amplify and drive sales? So it's really just like someone who advocates for the group and make sure that we're all selling as much product as we can on promo and really making our events work for our suppliers.

43:25Brooke Gil:That's cool. What's the best promo you ever saw?

43:29Daniel Scharff:I can't pick. That's like picking between children. But I will say the Mediterranean event that we've had the last couple of years in March is such a heyday. It's so beautiful on shelf. There's so many beautiful products. The aisle is lit up with yellow tags and there's so much great product to choose between.

43:44Brooke Gil:All right. Well, Brooke, I know when everybody hears this podcast. They're going to be hoping for ways to meet you at shows throughout the year. I wonder if you could just quickly highlight a few shows that you expect you'll be at over the course of the year where potentially people could try to catch you.

43:58Daniel Scharff:Sure. I anticipate being at the Winter Fancy Food Show in San Diego. I more than likely will be at the New York Fancy Food Show for summer. And I'm really hoping to go to Chuto Foods in Milan in May. So those will be the three shows I go to.

44:12Brooke Gil:Incredible. Okay, Brooke, I really want to thank you. This has been a super interesting discussion for me as category novice, just to understand a little bit more about what's going on and how you do your work. And I'm sure you'll get a lot of LinkedIn requests after this one. So be prepared for that. I really want to thank you and just your whole team. Honestly, it just has been one of the most supportive teams, I think, for brands in our community and the amount of time that you as the category managers and all of the foragers have really spent with all of the early brands helping them out, giving them just a lot of your energy and time.

44:48Brooke Gil:So I really thank you for all of that and for being on the podcast today.

44:51Daniel Scharff:Thanks for including me. This is a very cool thing that you do. So thank you.

44:53Brooke Gil:Thank you. All right. Bye, everybody. All right, everybody. Thank you so much for listening to our podcast. If you loved it, I would so appreciate it if you could leave us a review. You could do it right now. If you're an Apple podcast, you can scroll to the bottom of our Startup CPG podcast page and click on write a review. Leave your company name in there. I will try to read it out. If you're in Spotify, you can click on about and then the star rating icon. If you are a service provider that would like to appear on the Startup CPG podcast, you can email us at partnerships at startupcpg.com. Lastly, if you found yourself grooving along to the music, it is my band.

45:33Brooke Gil:You can visit our website and listen to more. It is superfantastics.com. Thank you, everybody. See you next time.