#256 - What Is Grocery Run? with Dan Choi (NA Beverage Co) and Stephanie McGregor (Ringa)

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1:16We've said it before. We'll say it again. This is a relationship-driven business, whether it's relationships with distributors, accounts, or even your fellow entrepreneurs. If we get an account to say yes, that's obviously amazing. but there's so many more things that you can gain from the opportunity of just showing up, whether it's learning relationships, recon of the market, things like that. We're learning every day, no matter how long we've been in the industry. And we always take every opportunity with that lens in mind to be like, what are we gaining from this, even if it's not distribution?

1:50Because there's always something to learn. Start CPG, it's growing, like at least show up, even if you don't get selected to sample. like even just showing up with a backpack and bumping into your buyer. Even as a new brand who's just trying to test how are buyers going to perceive this, do they have feedback on the packaging and the flavors? There's no better place with a lower barrier entry than a grocery run event. Welcome to the Startup CPG podcast. Today we're going to tackle a question that's been coming up a lot in the Slack lately, which is, what is a grocery run? A lot of brands who are joining our community recently have heard about the event, they're planning to attend their first one, and they're asking the community, what's it like?

2:32What should I do to prepare for my first one? Who am I going to meet? I wanted to do one podcast episode with two of the brands who have been to the most number of our grocery runs so you could hear it directly from them. You are going to hear today, how do they pick which ones they want to go to? How do they prepare for a grocery run? What is the tangible outcome that actually you can get out of a grocery run? So for anyone considering applying to sample at or just attending one of our Startup CPG Grocery Run events, this is the episode for you. Remember, all of our grocery run opportunities are announced in our Slack channel and through our national email.

3:07So make sure you sign up via our website so you are in the know. All right, here we go. Enjoy.

3:18Welcome, everybody, to the podcast. I am so excited today to talk about our grocery runs, but really from a brand perspective, because you hear us talking about it all the time. We love it. We think it's the best thing ever. But really, the proof meets the pudding when you can actually hear about it from some of the brands who have been to the most number of grocery runs that I know of. So why don't we start off with some quick intros? Dan, I'm coming to you first. All right, Dan Choi. I'm the founder of a beverage company. We are on a mission to redefine the way we drink, connect, and celebrate.

3:51And we're doing that through functional sparkling teas for social moments. And I have done a lot of grocery runs. Oh, how many? So 10. I actually just counted a combination of attending as well as sampling app and can share more about how those went. Okay, and list some of them, please. Yeah, for sure. I'm going to try to go a little chronological. I remember the very first Startup CPG event I went to, Gelson's Grocery Run. I was actually pretty nervous. I heard about Startup CPG. I didn't really know much about it. And I was like, you know what? I'm just going to send it, go in there, bring in some samples and see what happens.

4:25After that, it was like Mothers, LA, Fresh Time. We did recently in the last month, I've done Chicago, San Francisco, as well as Hawaii. And then we're actually doing the Unify run coming up soon too. Also, I would kind of like Alley Rally. And I even did a couple more Gelson's runs too. So it's been great. All right. Do I have a vague memory of shotgunning one of your drinks at the Gelson's grocery run a year ago? Is that you? Oh, no. Yeah, exactly. I actually have that footage still. So just so everyone knows how that went, we're in the middle of our Gelson's grocery run in 2025. Everybody is lined up talking to the buyers.

5:03There's a huge long line for the beverage buyer that I think Dan was in. And I don't know how it happened, but I think Dan challenged me to shotgun one of his non-alcoholic drinks. And I'm a good time. And honestly, I was in a fraternity and I do like for people to know that I know how to shotgun pretty well. And so I think we raced or I just did it and it went well. Technically, it was an excellent shotgun, but I did also definitely splash the head buyer. Turns around and taps him. He's like, what the hell, dude? I was like, I am so sorry. I think you got him in the eye, Daniel. Anything can happen at a grocery run, right?

5:37Yeah. All right. Stephanie, I hope you don't also have one of these chugging stories about me, but let's see. I do not, but we have plenty of time for that. All right, let's do the intro. Hey, everyone. I'm Stephanie McGregor, founder of Ringa. And we are a line of consciously crafted, truly functional plant-powered products inspired by one of the most nutrient-dense plants on the planet called Moringa. And we've been very busy introducing our products to many buyer and consumer at so many grocery runs. Like literally whenever I fill out the form and it asks like, what startup CPG events have you been to?

6:15I literally just say like all of them. We love them all. Like Dan was saying, we've done grocery runs. We've done alley rallies. We've done the dinners. We've done sections at the trade shows. So I don't think it's any secret that we're big believers and supporters of what y 'all are doing at startup CPG for brands like us. All right. Thank you. And can you list a couple of the specific grocery runs that you went to? Maybe a couple of your favorites. And by the way, you guys are on because you guys fill out the most of the punch card for brands that have been to the most grocery runs, which is why I thought you were the best ones to invite.

6:46But yeah, hit us with a couple of your favorites. I love it. Yeah, I cheat a little bit because Dan just named them all. But yeah, I've been to almost the first one. I was going to go to the one at Whole Foods, which I think was literally the first grocery run, but sadly got grounded in Denver due to a flight situation. But flew out to the GoPuff run, which was like one of the very first. I do have a photo of you, Danielle, like standing up, taking a photo of all of us. And it was like a teeny tiny group at that point in time. And certainly those photos have grown over time. But yeah, we did GoPuff.

7:20We've done the ones that a lot of the trade shows. So Denver Newtopia. We've done the Gelson's one as well. It was leading in that long line to talk to Kristen. We've done High Touch. We've done Good Stuff. We've done Chicago. Chicago. We've done some of the opportunities with UNFI, Salt Lake City here coming up in a few days. So yeah, I guess I've probably done around 10 too since that was Dan's number as well. I love it. And maybe I'll just categorize them a little bit. So grocery run this national event series that we have. It can happen three different ways. It can happen specifically with a retailer.

7:55And this is when somebody like Gelson's is willing and interested to do an event with us. It can happen for a region or a city. So we can have the San Francisco one or the SoCal one, or it can be around a distributor show. So you mentioned we get to do it at the UNFI show and at the Gahey show. So those are three different ones that are varied and we're doing all of them and they're fun. Okay. So next question, what is a grocery run in your words? I obviously have the way that I like to talk about it, but for you, if another brand asks you like, what is a grocery run is this thing? What would you tell them?

8:29Yeah, I mean, I think there's different themes, as you know. Obviously, you've been curating them, so you got to read what the grocery rent is about and see how it aligns with their strategy. But it's just a way to get it to the market. And so what I liked about the regional ones is you had multiple buyers there in that region. So, for example, in Hawaii, we've been trying to actively expand into Hawaii, and there's like 60 different buyers in there representing major retailers like Foodland, even like CVS and Longs to 7-Eleven. So different channels down to earth and natural channel. But you also had food services there, too.

9:03You had colleges, universities, you had schools or private schools. You had hospitals, you had all sorts of stuff. and that was probably one of the most successful grocery runs I've seen, not to mention it was in Hawaii. So there's something wrong about that. Sometimes regional. That's also why we did Chicago. That's also why we did San Francisco. These are areas that we're trying to expand in. And then you have your like distributor specific ones too. So the Unify one, Unify, we're trying to get distribution on. So we want to go there. We want to talk to the Unify sales reps. We want talk to the Unify accounts.

9:35So that helps us from that perspective. And then you've got like account specific ones like Gelson's. Gelson's is a great account in our backyard in Southern California and someone that we just want to keep staying in front of. And so we go to all those grocery runs also. All right. So Stephanie, let me ask you even more pragmatically, what is it like when you're there? What is the setup like? Because I think a lot of people who haven't been are like, can someone tell me what it's like to actually be there? What's the experience of it like? I like to think of them as mini trade shows. It's like exactly what you would expect a trade show to be, but almost like speed dating style.

10:09So you get to go in if you're a brand that is selected for sampling, you go in with your little four foot table or your little setup, you're bringing all of the same supplies for the most part that you would bring to regular trade show, obviously samples, any sort of messaging, sales sheets, giveaway swag sometime. And what I really love about the format is you get a dedicated amount of time with the accounts that are present first before the floodgates open to everybody. And for the most part, from my understanding, brands that are selected to sample are curated by those in attendance. So you already know that you've gone through a filter to be top of mind with these retailers or whomever is there.

10:53Sometimes it's distribution partners. And for a self-funded brand with very limited resources, like I'm sure you've seen our entire team, right? It's just me and my husband, Paul. It's a really good way to tackle a lot, but in a smaller format. A lot of the same distributors and retailers that you might see going to an expo or sweets and snacks or whatever your industry is. I think split that spend up, split the resources up and go deep. Like Dan was saying, sometimes in regions, sometimes with just specific accounts versus trying to tackle it all in one trade show when everyone's trying to do the same thing.

11:31So we go to a lot of them, obviously, which is why we're here talking about it. But from like a strategic standpoint, I feel you're just really able to focus on and compartmentalize how you want to grow your business with a little bit more of a guaranteed positive outcome. Like there's typically next steps, even if you don't get like an authorization on the spot, but you're really able to cut through a lot of the noise that's existing at a traditional trade show. And then again, it's a one day, maybe two day thing. If you fly in and go to the dinners prior, we obviously always use it as a chance to get into the market, go look at retails, go shop stores.

12:07And then, of course, just meet the folks who are relevant in the regions that you're looking at launching. I love it. And yeah, Dan, you and I got to do a really lovely dinner in Hawaii where we had Patrick, the forager for Whole Foods, who covers Hawaii. And he came to that dinner. And what a beautiful chance to get to spend some time with him. And it was at the home of the woman who owns the distributor that was hosting the event the next day. And that was very special. It was super cool. So, Dan, obviously it's not like selling show. You're just there taking orders, right? I mean, that way you're not like in the distributor where they are and they're just placing orders.

12:40It really is, I think, much more of a relationship building show. What is your goal when you're at these grocery run events? What are you trying to get done? What are the conversations like? What does the follow up often look like for you with them? Yeah, I mean, sometimes it's like the first interaction you've ever had with him. And the longer I've been doing this, the more I realize that it's all about like finding excuses to run into the buyer again. and then you just keep kicking that can down the road and then all of a sudden you get authorizations in the next meeting. So for example, at Fresh Time, that was the first time we talked to anyone at Fresh Time.

13:09And so we talked to all the buyers, have all this good feedback. Didn't hear from them for months, right? I thought, okay, they forgot about us. I thought we were in. And then lo and behold, in a Kehi selling show, they come back around, they said, hey, you're gonna be in the innovation set. 69 door starts in May. And we just like our jaw dropped. And we're like, are you kidding me? Startup CPG made that happen. because that's where we had the first interaction with them. So I've had stories like that, Fresh Time. I'm hoping to have some from Hawaii. So I'll share those with you soon. Mother's Market, same thing.

13:39So it's just all about just staying in front of the buyers and just having another reason or excuse to see them again. At least that's how I like to view it. That's so good. It is a tough thing. Every CPG entrepreneur knows that of you have to create the demand with the retailers and also get the interest from the distributor, which then helps you get one and the other as well. Then you get the distributor and they have other retailers they work with. So it really is so important to be out there just stirring up interest and furthering conversations along all the time. And I'll just also comment because Stephanie mentioned about the curation of the sampling brands.

14:12I think it's good to explain how that works. When we do an event with a retailer, the retailer is making the selections. That's what we always want. Our goal with Grocery Run is outcomes. We want the most deals to happen as possible because that is what we try to do for brands in this world is really help you, especially getting distribution. And we believe that is most likely when the retailers can go through and look at all the submissions and pick the brands they believe are the most likely to be a good fit to actually have the sampling tables. And then from there, who knows how many they're going to pick?

14:42Sometimes it's been a high number. When we do ones with distributors, we do a line with them on which brands will be coming in that they would view as really innovative. and then there are other ones where our team may be looking at it more and that would be based off us really knowing about the brands through things like shelfies submissions through our events getting to know them researching the brands there are people on my team there's a committee that will look at all the submissions and really trying to find events that are good fit and i'll also mention we do have some regional events we're so lucky to get to do some of these for example the whole foods foragers we have an amazing event coming up which is in the southwest The idea of that event is I spoke with the Whole Foods Foraging team and they were like, yeah, we would love to have a way to just go and actually very efficiently meet with the best of the Southwest brands.

15:29So, yeah, we can help with that. We have a huge community. We go out and put the applications out there. And so, as you can imagine, the brands that we're going to be selecting for that event are ones that are going to be a good fit for that forager because that's what we want the deals to happen. And so if the forager is covering the Southwest region, we're mainly trying to set them up with a great look at all of the brands from that region. So we'll be doing a lot of those. Obviously, a lot of brands want to get involved, but we are really trying to prioritize the brands that we think can get the most out of the event in some instances.

15:57So coming back to just strategy a little bit. So, Stephanie, we have a lot of grocery runs that you have been to. I remember even you coming to like a Boston one we did earlier on with actually one of their foragers at the time. How do you decide which of the many grocery runs, which we'll probably do about 30 this year, you need to attend? Which ones fit with your strategy? How do you decide from the plethora that we are throwing? Well, early on, like when y 'all first launched the series, I mean, literally I was applying to and going to as many as I could. I really looked at it as an opportunity, like Dan was saying, to stay on the radar of these buyers.

16:37our philosophy was like if we wanted to show these folks these buyers people in these markets like we're willing to invest in our brands like if i'm flying across the country to do these grocery runs and meet you where you are like just think of what i'll do when we actually get on shelf now that we're in our selling season of summer so it's really hard to do anything as a beverage besides like stand in stores and execute and make sure your product is selling but We really look at areas of the country that we want to go deeper in or accounts where we're really trying to get in the door. Like UNFI is a good example.

17:17We did your UNFI show in Long Beach and actually just got into the Up Next program. And so now that we have distribution with UNFI, looking at these opportunities where, okay, these accounts that pull from UNFI, where are they? This is a great way. We're only in one DC of UNFI, so doing some of the larger shows still don't make sense. But getting into these regions and speaking to account managers that pull from UNFI at these grocery runs is a great way to start tackling the UNFI universe. We're listed in one division of Whole Foods. So being able to be put in front of different foragers. Any chance I get to chat with my forager, Darcy, face to face is awesome.

17:59So I'll get to see her in the Southwest just because these folks are so busy. So, again, we kind of look and see where our current business is, maybe where it's a relationship building opportunity or areas of the country where we're focusing on and where it makes sense for us to go in there and hopefully open a bunch of new accounts based on the fact that we now have distribution in those markets. I love it. But I am really excited to hear the news about UNFI up next. That's so awesome. Congratulations. Ring of the bell on that one. Let's go. That's right. Yeah. Let's get ready to ring. Yeah. I mean, for anyone looking to get into UNFI just to like we did that Long Beach show in January and we literally just got code.

18:41So that's how long it takes to get onboarded with UNFI. So plan accordingly. That's so great. Okay. So Dan, same question to you. You obviously like you have a product that can do well, probably almost anywhere in the country, just given the strength around NA and everything. But how are you deciding with all of the grocery runs that we're throwing this year? No, like coincidentally, you had been hosting grocery runs in like exactly the areas we want to expand it to. So either we're just lucky or we're, you're just like nowhere to do these things. Cause it just makes sense that those are the steps where you start to scale in those geos, especially for like better for you brands.

19:19It's probably a mixture of both. So that's, you know, at the end of the day, when I see that, I'm just like, oh wow, well, we just opened up a DC in San Francisco with Kehi. Like, why would we not do that grocery run? So that NorCal grocery run, for example, if we were to double click on that, like we started that trip off with the grocery run and we spent like a week driving around trying to close independence to add points of distribution at Kehi. And so it was like, well, why not? We'll just kill two birds with one stone. We did the same thing in Chicago. We started off with the Chicago grocery run.

19:50And then that branched out into like a full on like six state thousand mile drive, like tour into all these fresh times because we just launched in there. Try something new set there in their innovation set. So we literally went to like 37 different fresh times. We at least checked in, introduced ourselves. If we had time and it made sense, we did a demo and we did that in like six different states. But that all was kicked off with the grocery run. Stuff like that. I love that. I think that's a huge tip. And Stephanie mentioned it also about just how to make the most of these kind of trips. Because everything that we do also takes into account, like, we know the effort you have to put in.

20:27You have to take time off and take a flight and get there and have a hotel and bring product with you. And so we really try to make the event as valuable as possible. Get as many buyers there as we can. Because we understand that. We really do. But I think there's so much that you guys can do to make the most out of the trip. Exactly what you said about doing store visits, taking pictures of sets if you're applying to a retailer, really doing that ahead of time, maybe even before the buyer comes by at the grocery run the next day, doing demos if you can. I think it's so important to be out there in the market, especially when you're trying to grow in that market and you're prioritizing it.

21:01So I really like how you are both thinking about making the most of your time and expense on all of those things. Not even just like the big accounts. I mean, obviously those are great, but like the independents, like so in San Francisco, we closed Rainbow Grocery, which is in like downtown San Francisco. It's a co-op. But like what helped was the fact that we were there earlier and we knew the store, we could drop the names of the folks that we dropped samples off with. And then we triangulated that with the buyers at the grocery run and they're like, OK, we'll put it in order. It's like stuff like that.

21:35It's crazy. That's so good. I really love to hear that. And that's exactly the right way to do it as a founder. Just that triangulation thing that you mentioned, like it really just shows them that you care. And again, we always say this, this really is a people business and a good energy business. And they will respond so much to you making the effort to get to know them. Just a way to really strengthen the personal connection. So I love to hear that. And I really hope everybody listening, if you're going to a grocery run, thinks about doing stuff like that. Sometimes we try to arrange a store tour, like the Fresh Time one.

22:04they were kind enough to actually do a tour with their buyers of one of their beautiful stores there. And that was really meaningful, I think, for everybody. We got to do the same thing at the Central Market one in May. So we do try to organize those things. In terms of the format, just to explain a little bit to everybody, we do design the events to try to be really impactful for both the buyers as well as the brands, especially the ones that are tabling there. So we're still refining the format a little bit, but usually there would be tabling brands only portion, which might be an hour or something that really lets the buyers who are there spend time with the brands who have been selected to sample.

22:43As you can imagine, sometimes then we would have general admission tickets where brands are coming flooding in, and then it can get a little complicated, like especially if they're the Whole Foods forager there, Sprouts forager, there is a line to talk to them. And that can interrupt them actually getting around to the tables, which oftentimes they've selected. So we do cut up the format that way to try to make it really productive for everybody. It's never going to be perfect for anybody. Anyone who has a table wishes that none of those brands ever came probably. And all the people rushing in wishes that they had gotten there earlier because what if one of the buyers leaves?