March 25, 2026 • 45 mins
A lot of people say they understand Walmart and Sam’s Club. Scott Nemec has lived the food side for decades, then walked into the agency world and realized how much more there is to learn. We talk about that career shift, why “broker” earned a bad reputation, and what it takes to reshape the narrative with real capability across analytics, item management, replenishment, and customer-ready selling.
We also dig into the biggest force reshaping shelves right now: private label and premium private brand growth. From Bettergoods to broader private brand tiering across retail, we break down why good product matters, how trust gets built one great experience at a time, and why packaging and a sharp reason-to-buy often decide whether a product wins or quietly disappears. Scott shares how strong partners stay proactive, track food trends, place smart bets, and avoid the trap of “me too” innovation that only sounds differentiated inside the building.
Then we zoom out to the shopper reality: inflation pressure, the emotional bond people have with favorite foods, and why snacking keeps expanding even when budgets are tight and meal routines are changing. If you’re a founder or brand leader aiming for Bentonville, we offer practical advice on timing, persistence, getting honest feedback, and building a story that earns a yes. Subscribe for more real-world retail strategy, share this with a teammate, and leave a review with the one private brand item you think is truly best-in-class.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:07):
Hello and welcome to the Retail Journey Podcast.
I'm Charles Greenhouse, one ofyour hosts.
And I am James Harris, and todaywe're talking to Scott Nemick.
Nimek?
Nimek.
SPEAKER_02 (00:19):
It's Nimik.
SPEAKER_00 (00:21):
I'm James Harris.
Uh, and today we're talking toScott Nimek, uh a new addition
to our team here at High Impact.
And uh been looking forward tothis.
Thanks for joining us.
Appreciate it.
Thanks for the opportunity.
Happy to be here.
So um tell us about Scott.
Where are you from?
SPEAKER_01 (00:37):
Yeah.
Kids.
So family.
Yeah, grew up in Wisconsin,originally a northerner.
Uh, made my way down toBentonville 10 years ago.
How deep into Wisconsin are wetalking?
Like more than halfway.
More than half.
Okay.
Yeah.
Closer to Canada than Illinois,I think would be to put it.
Um, yeah, and so my my journeyreally started at UW Eau Claire,
(00:59):
and Hormel Foods recruitedheavily there.
And they had a presence oncampus, and they came and they
made a pitch.
And so I thought it seemed likea great spot to work.
I like that they could kind ofsend you out across the country
and they had offices everywhere,but there's always the
opportunity to kind of come backto the mid rest Midwest routes
and just kind of like resettlethere.
So that was where myprofessional career began.
(01:21):
And I started in Des Moines,Iowa, and then over the course
of about 20 years, bouncedaround to um New Jersey, worked
out of Pennsylvania for a littlewhile, went to Minnesota, went
out west to California, cameback to Wisconsin and worked in
the Milwaukee area, back toMinnesota again, and then about
10 years ago made the move downhere in Bentonville and finally
put some roots in the ground.
(01:42):
So I had a good 20-year run withkind of a traditional CPG meat
and yeah, meat and food company.
And uh was fortunate I gotmarried halfway along the way
there and was able to bring mywife along with me for a good
chunk of that journey.
And then we had uh our firstchild was born in Milwaukee, had
a son, and then as we moved toMinnesota, my daughter was born
(02:03):
there.
So we've got two kids who now,as we fast forward, they're 15
and 13, respectively.
That's crazy.
And uh man, we're just happy tobe in this market, be in this
area, and it's just been atremendous place to raise our
kids.
So a two-year stint inBettonville 10 years ago, is
that yeah, exactly.
Yeah, it's it's the classic,like, you know, you come in, you
(02:24):
come in kicking and screaming,and then you go out kicking and
screaming if you go out at all.
Yeah, yeah.
So it would be what, 12 yearsago?
10, just over 10 years ago thatyou moved.
SPEAKER_00 (02:34):
You landed here.
Very cool.
Yep.
Yeah.
And it happens so much, it's acliche now.
Yeah, I didn't want to come.
Now I'm not leaving.
SPEAKER_01 (02:41):
Yeah.
And look, I'm I'm extremelygrateful that Hormel gave me the
opportunity to come down here.
Um, you know, the the majorityof my time here was with them,
and I led the category teamthere for eight years servicing
Walmart, and we had, I think, 11different advisorships.
And then I kind of took a careerpivot and bang the mic.
Uh, I took a career pivot andmoved to an ingredient company.
(03:02):
And so that gave me anopportunity to really hone in on
kind of the backside of food,and and a lot of the emphasis
really was focused aroundprivate brands.
And so all of my meetings wereat the Culinary Innovation
Center.
Yeah.
And it was dealing with the PDsin the food spaces.
So you would sell to the proteincompany who would sell the
finished product to theretailer.
(03:23):
And our goal ultimately, right,would be to sell in solutions to
Walmart, get Walmart's specapproval, right?
And then that solution will bepushed out to whomever the
supplier may be.
So it was rare that we weresupplier of record.
Right.
You know, um, certainly a fewinstances, but usually it would
be forming the partnership.
We called it the triangle sale,right?
We'd form the partnership withWalmart, and then they'd have
(03:45):
their partnership with existingsuppliers, or we would bring a
supplier partner that we had tothe table.
SPEAKER_00 (03:50):
There's a handful of categories that kind of operate
like that.
They're not very many, but a fewwhere you've kind of got a
triangle.
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (03:57):
How many categories did you work across?
A carry?
Yeah.
More than I can count.
I mean everything food.
Yeah.
Everything food, everything OTC.
Yeah, it was it was broad to saythe least.
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (04:08):
Yeah.
And uh then high impact.
SPEAKER_01 (04:11):
Yeah.
So then I took uh summersabbatical, gave myself a summer
break for the first time in 20something years and just spent
time with the family, kind ofre-re-centered, reconnected, had
uh uh off chance to reconnectwith Charles.
SPEAKER_00 (04:24):
You were on a run and I I caught up to you, I
think.
SPEAKER_01 (04:27):
You might assume?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
No, you hopped on one of thosee-bikes that we got out there.
See if I'm on an e-bike, maybe.
Um, but yeah, Charles and I, Imean, I think I had met you
originally near the inception ofmy time in Bentonville.
I mean, I think we probably goback 10 years.
Yeah, but just tell the peopleseven-year gap in.
SPEAKER_00 (04:43):
Tell the people how we met, because I'm actually
quite proud that I used to dothis.
Yeah, we were in a group fitnessclass at the community center at
5 a.m.
SPEAKER_01 (04:50):
That was my first introduction to Charles.
Yeah.
And then I think justperiodically we crossed paths
over time, whether it was at thecoffee shop and uh in a store at
a restaurant or whatever.
Yeah.
And so at 5 a.m.
SPEAKER_00 (05:01):
I don't know.
I just wanted more credit forthat.
Everything that gets me out ofbed that early is fishing.
Yeah.
That works too.
It was uh be a four 4 15, 4 30wake up and go show up at the
gym.
It was a great.
I don't do that.
Yeah, but we were yeah, whathappened?
SPEAKER_01 (05:16):
I don't know.
Life got in the way.
Yeah.
But yeah, so anyway, Charles andI had a kind of a chance
encounter, and I I saw somethingthat you had posted on social
media, and it spoke to me.
I thought, hey, I want to justconnect and understand a little
bit of your story and thejourney that led you to where
you were.
And then I guess kind of fastforward seven months later, and
(05:38):
here we are, six months into mycareer with high impact, which
has been great.
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (05:43):
Thrilled you're here.
Um, as a you know, client growthleader, helping people through
the journey and helping themmake better decisions.
You you were at Hormel foralmost 20 years.
This very established, very kindof different than uh in this
space, this broker space.
(06:04):
You you tend to get a widevariety of experience,
absolutely, expectation, initialdecision ideas to like, well,
here's what might work best atnot just retail, but Walmart,
yeah, Sam's Club.
I'd love to hear a little bit ofyour you know initial entry to
this space, some of the thingsthat maybe big CPG prepared you
(06:25):
for or other thoughts you'vehad.
SPEAKER_01 (06:27):
Yeah, I mean it's interesting, right?
So great question or greatcomment anyway.
Um brokers were a dirty word.
Right.
Right?
I mean, like you you everybodyknew a broker, but they knew
them all for the wrong reason.
Right.
And it was like it would be veryrare that you'd go out and
encounter somebody in the wildand they'd want to tell you a
(06:49):
great story about the brokersupport that they had or this
tremendous broker relationshiphow long ago that they had.
I mean, this is really like theduration, right?
Okay, yeah.
And so I mean, there was alwaysthis kind of negative
connotation that I put out therein terms of like brokers and and
the agency side of things,right?
Well, you weren't alone, yeah.
Yeah, and I'm sure that's like ait it exists for a reason,
(07:12):
right?
There's certainly things thathave led to that mindset or
people to think that way.
Um, so there were some barriersto overcome there just on my own
accord, right?
Of like, is this the space Iwant to be in?
And how do I break the mold?
How do I help kind of likereshape that narrative that
exists, right?
Yeah.
Um, I I felt like I knew what Iwas getting into based on the
(07:33):
conversation Charles and I hadhad, based on the opportunity to
come in and meet with a lot ofthe team members and really get
into the weeds on what the joblooks like.
Yeah.
I had no idea.
Yeah.
And I would say it's like apleasant surprise.
Um, my eight years in marketprior to coming here, I think
had kind of built up in me a lotof ego.
(07:54):
And I think I was very confidentthat I had mastered the
universe.
And I would tell you, it wasn'tuntil I got here that I fully
realized how much I still didn'tknow.
And, you know, one of theluxuries we have is a very
diverse group of people withtremendous backgrounds and
expertise.
And so, like, just having all ofthose resources at my disposal,
it was a relief, right?
(08:15):
Because I knew like there's alot more that I can't do than I
thought.
But just having the people hereand having the network and the
support in place to be able tolike overcome that and kind of
connect all the dots has been atremendous relief.
And I think that that's probablysomething that a lot of agencies
are lacking in, where they maybe solid on the sales side of
(08:35):
things, right?
But they may not have the backend.
Right.
They may not be as dialed on thereplen side of things.
Yeah, they certainly aren'tgoing to have like item
expertise.
In fact, I know you know certaincolleagues of mine that like
they're still doing all theirown item management despite
having broker support on some ofthese bigger customers, right?
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (08:52):
Well, it's something that I'm probably most proud of
from a cultural standpoint is Inever wanted this place to be a
pla where I've got information,so I'm important.
Yeah.
You know, if you need to getsomething from somebody else
that has that information, wereally do have a team that's
just willing to help.
Yeah.
No matter what.
SPEAKER_01 (09:12):
Um yeah.
And it sounds like lip service,right?
But like it's just it's the mostcollaborative environment I've
been a part of.
And I think in in part, whatresonates with me is, you know,
we've kind of, as anorganization, we've made a
decision to say we don't want tocompete against ourselves.
And we're not going to battleagainst one another within
categories.
Right.
Now that's just a microcosm, butwhat that represents to me is
(09:33):
like just this broader mentalityof like everybody is in it for
the greater good.
Oh, and it's a team sports guy.
Joint success.
Yeah, we can all win.
But it's the team that uh winsor loses.
Exactly right.
And so there isn't this dog eatdog, and it's not like being on
Wall Street where like I onlywin if you lose or if I outsell
you, that's how I get ahead.
(09:54):
It's like, you know, the risingtide lift here.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, rising tide will lift allboats or all around.
Right.
So and then you you brought upthe word culture, James, and
that's something I want to justtouch on for a minute.
And I want to stop short of youknow, painting myself a
psychophant, but culture is notwords.
Everybody has words, culture isactions, it's behaviors, right?
(10:15):
And that's what drives anddetermines a culture.
And that's something else that Iwould say is unique to this
place relative to my experiencesprior at the other organizations
I've been a part of.
Like, yeah, we've got the wordson the wall as well, but it's
not really about that.
It's how people behave, it's howthey treat one another, it's how
like we act as individualswithin the organization.
(10:36):
And I've never seen it so livedout as I do here.
Just the spirit of service, um,the the way that everyone is
embraced.
And I'm sure that like even thecauses that we get behind.
I'm sure there are things thatare very important to you, but
you're not pushing that on thegroup, like, hey, I want to go
out and do environmental worktoday because that's what
(10:57):
matters to me, right?
And and maybe it's fosteringpanic.
I want to come in.
Yeah.
Everybody's able to kind ofpursue their own passions,
right?
And there's a way to kind of fitthat in.
And it's like, whether it's youknow, fostering or whether it's
homelessness, or maybe it's, youknow, helping battle addiction,
whatever it might be, right?
Like, there's just so manydifferent avenues where we're
not saying, hey, this is theflag in the ground, this is what
(11:17):
we support, this is what we'rebuilt on.
But it's like, hey, what'simportant to you?
Let's find what matters.
And then on an individual level,what that represents to me is
like family is really importantto me.
And one of the opportunitiesI've been afforded with this
role has been to drop mydaughter and her friend off at
school every day.
That's great.
They happen to, you know, go toschool about half a mile from
here.
(11:38):
Yeah.
And it just aligns well with theschedule.
That's never something I've beenable to do, but it also isn't
something I pursued.
Right.
But I think about it now, andit's like, I wouldn't give that
up for anything.
Yeah.
Right.
And that's what's so importantto me.
Now, other people, it may bepets, it may be personal
interests, it may be, you know,car, whatever they're into, but
it's like pursue your passionsand fit it into your life.
(12:01):
It doesn't have to be exclusiveof what you only do outside of
this building, if that makessense.
SPEAKER_00 (12:06):
I mean, especially men, we like to think we're
compartmentalizing everything,but life's just kind of one big
loop.
Absolutely right.
Yeah.
And you've got to work andyou've got to sleep, you've got
to eat, and you, but you alsohave to do the things that are,
you know, what a legacy is,which is your kids, your
friends, your spouse, yourpartner.
I appreciate that females don'tpretend like we actually can
(12:27):
compartmentalize things.
Like, no, it's actually it's allconnected and you know, a
balanced life, or maybe activerebalancing.
Because you know, there'sthere's times you know, we've
we've traveled together, you goon a work trip and you get back
home.
There's some you gotta make somedeposits back into the family
bucket because we were just gonefor a couple days.
(12:48):
And yeah, yeah.
I think that uh I think itmatters a lot.
Um sad, I was at a funeral lastnight, and you know, it's hard
to go to to funerals, you neverreally want to, but being you
know forced to recognize thatyou know life is fragile.
Absolutely.
Um it it matters, you know, bothwho you're gonna spend it with,
what you're gonna do, and kindof the impact that you have as
(13:11):
you go.
So well, from a familyperspective, right?
SPEAKER_01 (13:14):
I mean, we've kind of got three varying stages
here.
You know, you've got on theprecipice of launch and kind of
like that part of adulthood.
And I'm kind of stuck in theseodd teenage sort of years.
And Charles, you're kind ofushering your way into that,
right?
So it's like, yeah, you kind ofget to see all the various
phases, but yeah, time isfleeting, right?
When you start thinking aboutlike in our perspective, it's
(13:35):
like, well, we got five or sixmore years with kids in the
house.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (13:39):
It's we got the daddy-daughter dance in uh
February, and they play thatstinking song that Cinderella
one, and it's like, guys, comeon.
You're killing me.
I wasn't trying to cry tonight.
You know, what are you doing?
And then you at the same time,you look back at those pictures.
Oh, it's awesome.
And and like, you know, with menow, yeah.
(13:59):
I've got you know, 17, 18,almost 18-year-old twins and
15-year-old boy.
Um, and you look back at thosepictures and you're like, Yeah,
we did do that.
I was there.
That was fun.
Like, yeah, um, you know, yeah,while you're going through at
the time, yeah.
You've got the you got the proofyou've made the investment.
Um so what uh you know, whatwhat are you uh what are you
(14:20):
looking to build here at uh highimpact?
I mean, we're we're anentrepreneurial company, uh,
you're in the sales group.
Most people that uh you knowwant to go into sales, it's kind
of a form of entrepreneurship,right?
Uh you can create your destiny.
So uh what's Scott building hereat High Impact?
SPEAKER_01 (14:39):
Yeah, I think I I'll approach it two two separate
ways.
From a personal perspective, Iwant to keep rounding out my own
skill set.
You know, I made the commentearlier that I didn't realize
how much I didn't know.
And so as I stop and take kindof my own periodic moments of
reflection and look back at theprogress I've made, how much
(14:59):
I've grown just in terms of myknowledge base in these six
months, that's definitely anarea I need to continue
investing in.
And I'm fortunate to besurrounded by the resources we
have here to support thatgrowth, right?
Um and it's just workingone-on-one.
It's leaning on, you know, ouranalytics partners that we have
on the business and just kind ofalmost osmosis, right?
(15:21):
Just acquiring knowledge andexperience from them.
Um, from a business perspective,I'd really like to see us be
able to put more of a flag inthe ground with food.
And obviously, my backgroundcertainly lends itself well to
that.
So, how can I better support ourgrowth in that space?
Yeah.
Where I would say, by and large,we're underdeveloped relative to
(15:42):
some other categories.
And so I've got a uniqueoffering and some, you know,
tenure in that space that Ithink I can bring value to the
table.
Just a matter of finding theright partners and then kind of
making those connections andbringing them into the fold.
SPEAKER_00 (15:59):
I think that's probably so much new that's
emerging in food.
Uh, whether you know, whethertalking about like freeze dried,
right?
Yep.
That's everywhere now.
It's dog food, it's pet food.
It's a you know, that wasn'treally that much of a thing not
very long ago.
Sure.
A lot of things happen in thatway, but then also a lot of
innovation around store brands.
Yeah.
Um, you know, where everybody'sused to great value and equate
(16:22):
where it's nationallyequivalent.
Um, Better Goods is not nationalequivalent.
It in some cases is the bestproduct on the shelf.
Yeah.
Um, but there it's just it's anexciting time, I think, to be in
food.
SPEAKER_01 (16:34):
Yeah, I completely agree.
And and so as I kind of harkback to those times with Carrie,
that was kind of a fun ride tobe in.
So that was sort of at theinception of the Better Goods
introduction, right?
And just kind of seeing like howquickly that spread and how many
categories it went across.
And then yeah, and even productsand and subcats that you would
(16:55):
never expect to see a premiumprivate brand, there's a push
there and it's and it'shappening, right?
And so that is that has beencertainly one big piece of the
puzzle there with the inceptionof that.
SPEAKER_00 (17:08):
Yeah.
When you think about a like agreat supplier brand uh to to
Walmart in the food space, likewhat separates the good from the
great when it comes to a athriving food business?
SPEAKER_01 (17:23):
Oh, I want to try to avoid being cliche, right?
I mean, I think that's easy tofall into, but it's um reactive
versus proactive.
Like I think the the bestpartners, the ones that come to
mind are are people like aGeneral Mills or like uh PepsiCo
Fritole to just kind of givesome context.
They're always looking outahead, like what's coming.
(17:44):
Um, one of the things they'vedone with the Lay's brand is
kind of these like LTOs, yeah,right.
And it's just a greatopportunity to keep some
freshness in the set and kind ofcycle through flavors, see what
sticks.
And then obviously, if you hit ahome run, then you kind of roll
that into your everydayoffering.
But those types of things arejust kind of always like
continuing to push thingsforward to push the envelope, as
(18:06):
opposed to I think you're good,are the people who are like,
hey, we're gonna do whatever youneed us to do.
You tell us, you know, to jumpand we're gonna ask you how
high.
You tell us where you want togo, and we will come alongside
of you.
But who's leading theconversation, right?
Who are those people who are onthe cutting edge saying, like,
no, you need to do this and youneed to do it now?
SPEAKER_00 (18:25):
Do you have to be a multi-billion dollar brand to be
able to lead?
Yeah.
Tell talk to me about some ofyour experience and finding ways
to lead from what I'll call itthe pack as opposed to the
biggest.
SPEAKER_01 (18:38):
Yeah, I think a big part of it is just being aware
of what are those key industrytrends.
Yeah.
And there's so many sources thatyou can glean some of that
information from, whether it'sMintel, Data Essentials, you
know, a lot of times in food,what'll happen is these ideas
and concepts that infiltrate CPGreally started at the restaurant
and food service level.
Yeah.
So it's kind of monitoring thatas kind of the future ground, if
(19:02):
you will, of like what are thosekey flavor profiles?
What are the flavor trends thatwe see coming?
And then how do you cling on tothat?
Sometimes it takes a littlehedging, right?
Like you don't always knowwhat's going to hit.
You're not going to bat athousand, right?
You're going to get a couple ofwhiffs.
Yeah.
But I think that's certainly abig part of it, right?
Is like identifying thoseoutlets that can kind of give
you that broader scope, broaderspectrum, and then keying in and
(19:24):
making your bets accordingly.
SPEAKER_00 (19:25):
Like, but so at the same time, you know, there like
I think about walking Expo West,right?
And now you'll see some likelegit innovation.
Like, oh, that's a great idea.
Yeah, then the whole rest of theaisle is oh, here's some more
yogurt with me twos.
Yeah, it's just one afteranother.
Yeah.
Um, I think the trick is likefind that first thing, yeah, but
(19:49):
find it based on yourunderstanding of the shopper and
their needs and their wants.
Sure.
Then you can innovate aroundthat, and you're not just a
one-hit wonder or um copycat.
SPEAKER_01 (19:58):
Yes, exactly right.
Nobody wants a Me Too.
Right.
And like I I don't know, I'velooked, I haven't seen a better
mousetrap yet, right?
Like it works, it's tried andtrue.
Like, play the hits.
Um, I think what happens a lotof times is people get in their
own heads and they convincethemselves that they're
differentiated enough.
Like, no, no, no.
It's this is not just yogurt andoatmeal.
(20:19):
We also have flax in there.
It's like, okay, but I can pickup flax and sprinkle some over
the top, or whatever, maybe,right?
Yeah.
So I think that's that's a goodpoint that you raised.
SPEAKER_00 (20:30):
I mean, I yeah, I've seen that with different
companies I've either been apart of or just been around
where they're they're talking tothemselves.
Yeah, and yeah, they have anindustry knowledge that their
shopper doesn't have, but ifthat's the thing that keeps the
shopper from buying your productbecause they're not in your
industry, you probably haven'tyeah, you probably haven't
worked it all the way throughyet.
It's great.
(20:50):
Yes, well said.
Happens a lot in the package.
You know, I mean it's what's thewhat's the reason to buy, what's
important about it, what's thedifferentiation?
And you look at the pack andit's just not compelling.
Yeah, it's not actually a partof what you're telling the
customer itself.
SPEAKER_01 (21:05):
Yeah.
Um well it I want to go back tothe better goods example for a
minute.
I I think that's interesting.
Just like the the tenets thatexist for that brand, right?
There's kind of three pillars tobetter goods, and it's like
plant-based, and then it's likebetter for you.
Then they kind of have thatthird pillar that's like
culinary creations.
But that's basically like kindof all inclusive, right?
(21:26):
So I mean it's it, I guess,credit to the private brands
team to at least say, like, hey,we want to kind of have this
reservoir over here where we cankind of fit the all other.
It may not be plant-based, itmay not be better for you, or it
may not, you know, it may not befree of all the right never
ennies.
Yeah, but like it's just anawesome concept and yeah, this
profile, like whether it's achip or whatever.
SPEAKER_00 (21:47):
Anything from that brand that wasn't good that
didn't hit, yeah.
The pizza, the bubbly, or yeah,uh the like chocolate covered
almonds, even that's adefinitely good.
Um they've really done a greatjob.
Good product matters.
I agree.
Uh yeah, food doesn't tastegood.
Well, and you you have one ortwo good experiences.
They've got 600 items, right?
(22:07):
So now you're gonna be morewilling as a consumer to
purchase across the store fromthat from that brand because
they they won you over with agood product that was less than
the thing next to it.
SPEAKER_01 (22:19):
And I know we live in a Walmart world here, right?
Walmart and Sam's drivenenvironment, but you see the
same sort of thing occurringreally across the landscape.
Like Aldi has simply nature.
And I know that's not quite thesame concept in terms of like
unique offer, but it's it's thecleaner, it's the better for
you.
Target has a number of brandsunder their umbrella as well,
(22:40):
right?
With Good and Gather andFavorite Day.
And so you see a lot more ofthis kind of tearing.
Absolute machine.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Kroomer does the same thing withthe private selection.
And yeah, it's just you'rereally seeing a lot more of this
tiering that's that's occurringbecause everybody's trying to
elevate private brands.
And I think we all recognizethere was a point in time where
like your private brand was yourOPP, it was your prize fighter.
(23:03):
Just get something out there ascheap as can be.
Yep.
You know, one example that Ialways like to use that people
aren't even like aware of howyou can kind of what's the word
I want to use?
Like devalue a product or brand.
But like, yeah, I love mountainmix.
Great value mountain mix is likeit's on our shopping list every
trip.
I eat that stuff, like it, it'smy lifeblood, right?
(23:25):
Well, one of the things thatthey do in there is it's very
difficult.
You'll never find a wholecashew.
If you're lucky, you'll find ahalf cashew, but then you'll
find a lot of parts, yeah,right, or broken pieces.
Yeah, it's just a way to addvalue.
You still have cashews, you'restill including the key
component, but you're doing itas value.
Standalone because they'rebroke, yeah.
(23:46):
Yeah.
So just little things like that,right?
I mean, the same thing happenswith like rice.
SPEAKER_00 (23:50):
I think you just ruined mountain mix for me
because I felt like they wereprobably those old when I got
the bag, and yeah, I must havebroke it.
Good luck ever eating that againwithout thinking about the cash.
SPEAKER_01 (23:59):
Now I'm gonna be constantly staring at my half a
cashew.
Yeah, funny.
But you will be happy to knowthey moved away from MMs for a
short time.
I didn't say anything about it.
Somebody must have, because nowthey're back.
They're back.
Yeah.
Yeah, I figured it was you, butokay.
I know.
Safe assumption was not in thiscase.
I want to put that on record.
SPEAKER_00 (24:16):
Yeah.
Yeah.
They just they taste better.
Yeah.
MMs.
But yeah, so okay, so into 26,yeah, private brands do seem
like a very significant pillarof growth.
Sure.
Expanding faster than nationalbrands for 15 years.
Yeah.
In a in a yeah.
(24:37):
So using data to not just sayseems like it is a huge pillar
of growth.
What what as a brand should webe thinking about it?
Like what should the brands outthere be considering as private
brand becomes a faster uh aspectof growth?
SPEAKER_01 (24:54):
Yeah, I mean, I'm gonna tie it back to I think you
have to be prepared to failquickly.
Try and try and fail and learnand adapt because that's what
that's what they're doing inthat space, right?
They're not afraid to give it ashot and then you know, so be
it, you hit reset.
Now, the luxury as a privatebrand, you're not putting as
much at stake in terms of yourbrand integrity because there's
(25:16):
certain expectations of like anOPP if you're in a great value
or whatever, right?
Whereas if um, I don't know whata good example would be, but uh
lint lint chocolates orwhatever, right?
Like there's there's a prestige,kind of a premium component that
goes that.
So you want to be a little bitcareful about devaluing your
brand to a point, right?
So I think brands have to be alittle bit careful about that,
(25:39):
but I still think that you justdon't try stuff that's too
weird, right?
Right, yeah.
Stay in your wheelhouse, buttake some shots.
Yeah, like it's it's worth arisk.
And you know, there are ways toget that feedbackly, right?
Maybe it's a a test.
You do a few hundred stores orwhatever.
I mean, there's paths to kind ofget that feedback before you
(25:59):
have to make the full commitmentand put, you know, millions of
dollars at risk.
SPEAKER_00 (26:04):
You know, and I I worked uh years before I started
this, I worked at Unilever onthe food side.
Um, and you you really uh I gotto see a lot of research that
showed just how emotional um thepeople's connection with their
favorite foods are.
And now we're in this situationwhere we've had basically kind
(26:24):
of really out of controlinflation.
Yeah, uh, it's gotten betternow.
I think the most recent numberis 2.4, but that's on top of the
11% and the 13% that we had inprevious years.
So things have cost are costingmore and wages haven't caught up
with it.
Uh, and you see, like atThanksgiving or with
Thanksgiving or Christmas,Walmart put out a$40 meal kit.
(26:47):
And it was a very adequate mealbecause people, whether they're
struggling financially or not,like they want to be able to put
that on for their kids andgrandkids, have those memories,
take those pictures, but it wasquite a bit less food than it
had been past previous years.
And I think that the that'sthat's a big opportunity right
now is how do we how do we makeproducts that let people have
(27:10):
the dignity of eating andsharing what they want to, yeah,
but for less.
SPEAKER_01 (27:15):
Yeah.
You know, and let's just focuson like one specific trend,
right?
Snacking as a whole.
In a vacuum, you look at the thestate of you know, the financial
situation circumstances thatpeople are feeling, logically,
it would make sense like we'regonna cut out some of those
in-between meal meals, right?
(27:36):
Like that's one way to cut backis we're not gonna pack the
pantry with packages of fruitsnacks or cheez-its or whatever.
Right.
But in fact, what you're seeingis like there's kind of like a
continued proliferation ofsnacking almost at the expense
of the meal, meal time, right?
And so it's like it, those arethe types of things that you
have to identify those trendsand then get on board and make
(27:56):
sure that you're swift in yourresponse to them, right?
Like, because if if you're justlike, nope, we're we're a meal
company, that's what we do ismeals, you're gonna lose your
audience, right?
Like meal time is fading.
Do you have single serves?
Do you have convenient packagingto take to go, right?
Is it shelf stable that they canhave it in an office desk drawer
or you know, sitting on their ontheir workstation or whatever?
(28:19):
Like little nuances like that, Ithink, are important to kind of
key into and ensure that you'rekind of positioned accordingly
for that.
SPEAKER_00 (28:26):
And it's like we say the you know, our kind of
mantra, if you want to call itthat, for high impact for 2026
is what got us here, ain'tgetting us there.
Yeah.
Um, and I think you have to livewith that mindset in food.
Um, you especially when you lookat some of these legacy brands.
I read a really fascinatingthing a week or two ago about
how Kraft owned um um mac andcheese.
(28:50):
Yeah, right.
Um, but then for whateverreason, company acquired new
partner merged with Heinz, etcetera.
They've essentially lost, Ican't remember exactly what it
was, but about 30 margin points,or not marginal points, share
points, share points, yeah.
Uh from just you know, thebetter for you, the you know,
license things.
Yeah, um, they just take an eyeoff the ball.
(29:11):
Yeah.
It's like, wow, that was thatwas a billion dollar cash cow.
Yeah.
That obviously there wasinnovation on the table because
other people did it.
Um and they just they blinkedand missed it.
Yeah.
Um I think it is harder for thebigger companies to to stay
relevant.
SPEAKER_01 (29:28):
Yeah, I think part of the way to do that, right, is
like through acquisitions ofthose types of brands.
So, like the example that Iwould use, tying right into what
you just said, James, um,Annie's, right?
Annie's has taken a good chunkof that share, right?
And I think that's GeneralMills, if I'm not mistaken.
Like they weren't in that space,right?
But had an opportunity, saw theopportunity.
(29:49):
I'm gonna give them credit.
I wasn't a part of thatdecision, but I'm gonna say I
think they identified, like,hey, this is where the puck is
going.
Yeah.
Like, let's let's get in andmake this investment now.
And I think that's one it's fairto say that's paid off for them,
at least at a micro level,anyway, right?
But those are, yeah, those arethe types of things where if you
can't get there and if you can'tinnovate and commercialize, then
(30:10):
go acquire.
SPEAKER_00 (30:11):
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
I appreciate the the you know,deep Wisconsin reference of
skating to where the puck isgoing.
SPEAKER_01 (30:17):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yes.
Do we need to elaborate on that?
SPEAKER_00 (30:21):
I just wanted to make sure I think that's the the
puck.
This is hockey.
This is a hockey reference.
Thank you.
Um, yeah.
So, you know, we talked to ExpoWest briefly earlier, and this
is sort of the land of emergingtrends, many, many, many
emerging brands for those thatare in that kind of space,
hoping to get into the show, um,you know, major grocery in the
(30:42):
US, clearly Walmart, um, Sam'sClub.
What have you seen be the mostsuccessful um in either timing
trends or just like recognizingwhat it takes to compete with
these you know majorcorporations?
Oh, that's a good question.
SPEAKER_01 (31:00):
Um regardless of what's at the root, I think
timing and a little bit of luckgo a long way.
And unfortunately, you can'tstrategize around that.
But you know, one of the itemsthat kind of keeps coming to
mind to me as we have some ofthese conversations is uh I
don't want to do the brand adisservice.
I think it's is it botchman'sthe Japanese barbecue sauce?
(31:22):
It's like the clear bottle withthe red lid on it.
Oh, yeah.
And it's like the stuff is justsome of the other yeah, and it's
just it's everywhere.
And it's uh talk about staplefoods.
That's another one of thosethings.
It's always in our refrigeratordoor, and the kids are putting
it on any Asian-inspired food orany recipe that we have that
includes rice and meat.
It's like it's gettingsmothered.
Yum yum sauce.
That's what uh people drink inmy exactly.
(31:43):
Yeah, another good example,right?
So I think there's there's thosetypes of things where it's like
sometimes you just catchlightning in a bottle, and there
is no special formula, there isno magic recipe.
Um, for the others, Walmart isalways paying attention to
what's going on.
Yeah, and I know as much asyou'd love Walmart to be your
point of entry, you know, goshoot straight for the top,
(32:05):
right?
Like have that be your home runswing.
I think it's important torecognize that building a
business and kind of having thestory to bring to a Walmart, if
they're not recognizing you,it's okay.
It doesn't mean that what you'redoing doesn't matter.
It's just creating the story andand perhaps you got to kind of
hit a couple of singles to stillscore some of those runs, you
(32:25):
know.
SPEAKER_00 (32:26):
Yeah, I was thinking like you're allowed to you're
allowed to strike out once in awhile.
Yeah.
But if it's a nine-game streak,yeah, you know, you burn that
bridge.
Yeah, and it's tough tore-enter.
Absolutely.
There's a lot of institutionalmemory in in companies and every
retailer I've ever worked with.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (32:43):
Well, I think there's also the unfortunate
circumstance of peoplesurrounding themselves with very
supportive friends and familywho are going to tell them all
the things they want to hear,but maybe hesitant to want to
give them some hard truths.
Yeah.
And sometimes you need the hardtruths, like yeah, it's just not
as good as you think it is.
(33:04):
Or it doesn't fit for thesereasons, and nobody's told you
that yet.
So I'll be the bad guy.
Yeah.
Like sometimes that's just thereality, right?
You gotta hit some hard truths.
SPEAKER_00 (33:15):
I did that the other day.
I was talking to a founder, andwhen she first gave me the
pitch, that sounded great.
And then we we talked foranother 15, 20 minutes, and I
was able to pull out like thereal benefits, the real things
people love about this productand the real whatever.
And I was like, okay, like whatdo you what would you rank your
(33:35):
pitch?
Uh you know, probably seven outof ten.
And I was like, Well, uh I thinkwe're at like two.
I think we're two out of ten.
She's like, obviously, a littlebit shocked.
But it's like, well, you justmentioned this benefit that
wasn't in there.
You mentioned this, and they'renot actually wanting that part,
they're wanting to solve thisother thing that you talked
about, which was yourinspiration from the get-go.
(33:57):
Yeah, like that needs to be thefirst thing.
Yeah, because it's the why.
It was just kind of like, oh mygosh.
Yeah.
Like, I think, oh no.
Yeah, but it's hard because youjust have had friends be like,
yeah, it's great.
Oh, we love it.
You know, and they they're stillbuying the product because yeah,
they are loving it.
But you know, some entrepreneursare great salespeople, but not
(34:17):
all of them.
Some great idea people justtotally need to be across the
table from a buyer.
Yep.
And I've seen the best productin the category fail because the
package didn't tell the customerexactly why they wanted to buy
it.
Um, yep.
It's tough, it's a toughreality.
So yeah, and to jump back toyour your question.
SPEAKER_01 (34:34):
So Scott's not your friend, he'll tell you the
truth.
Well, uh, yeah, whether it's meor someone, right?
I just you have to have those,you know, voices of reason in
your life that aren't just goingto placate you, but we'll hit
you with some of them.
You have to be humble enough totake it.
SPEAKER_00 (34:46):
Yeah, I love cliche.
Sharpening irons, you know,there's heat and there's spark
and there's friction involved.
SPEAKER_01 (34:51):
It's not just patting each other on the back,
but that's right.
Um, I there I love cliche.
So there's there's another onethat says, Um, you know, uh a
friend may stab you in the back,but a real friend will stab you
in the front, right?
And it's like sometimes you justneed that person that's like,
this is not right and this iswhy.
But I do want to speak back.
I feel like that's kind ofdodging your question.
(35:11):
That's taking the antagonistapproach to your question.
SPEAKER_02 (35:13):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (35:13):
Um, the other message that I would give to
people is if you're looking tobreak into this ecosystem and
this being, you know, Walmartand Sam's, like a lot of people
have done it, and a lot ofpeople have done it
successfully.
Like, find them.
Yeah.
Right?
Surround yourselves with thosepeople, whether it's other
founders, yeah, whether it'sagencies who have blazed some of
those trails or people who haveinternal experience at Walmart
(35:36):
to help navigate some of thecomplications.
Like, find those people.
And then the last piece that Iwould say is like, you're gonna
have disappointment.
There's gonna be discouragement,right?
You may not get the yes rightaway.
That doesn't mean that it's notright, it just means it's not
right now.
Yeah, right.
And I think the other part of ittoo is persistence matters.
Absolutely right, absolutelyright.
(35:57):
And then just so go prove thatstory elsewhere, right?
It's definitely an endurancesport.
Absolutely right.
It's a retail.
SPEAKER_00 (36:03):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I mean, that's incredibleadvice.
Fair segue to my next uhquestion, which is if you were
to go back to you know, Scottbrand new to CPG, what advice
would you give to uh you know,first five years in this CPG
retail business?
What what advice do you have forScott?
SPEAKER_01 (36:25):
Um I wouldn't I wouldn't change the experiences
that I had, right?
Like given the chance to goback, I don't I don't have
regrets.
Advice that I would give movingforward to somebody else would
be find a great organizationthat's going to equip you to be
successful, that's going tosupport you along that journey
(36:45):
and make some solid connectionsthere, but don't let that
prevent you from expanding yourhorizons and exploring other
areas of the store.
So I was predominantly in food,loved it, wouldn't trade it.
I love that I feel like I havesome level of expertise within
food, right?
But now as I get into this roleand we're touching other
(37:06):
categories and we're intoapparel and we're into home and
we're into OTC, it's so muchmore valuable having that broad
exposure because there's nuanceinto how all those other
categories operate.
And the it's the same shoppers.
It is same customers, samestore.
SPEAKER_00 (37:23):
They're buying the store.
Yes.
Um, that's an interesting thing.
Maybe you're maybe your yourgrocery trips, you're primarily
shopping grocery.
Yeah.
But it's the same consumers thatare, you know, buying mainstays
bedding for their kids.
SPEAKER_01 (37:35):
Right.
I made the comment when I when Istarted earlier, right?
As part of the interviewprocess, like I came in with a
little bit of ego, like, guys,I've done food.
I can do anything.
And where my mindset with thatwas is like cold chain is is a
big part of it.
Like, we're dealing with codedates, we're dealing with short
shelf life, we're dealing withyou know, food safety, all of
(37:55):
these things, right?
If I can handle that, yeah, OTCis no problem.
A bottle of ibuprofen can sit ona shelf for a year, you don't
got to do anything with it.
Right.
Ignorance on my part, becauseagain, there's just added layers
of complexity in other spaces,right?
Maybe it's not supply chain, butregulatory and compliance and
claims, like all those thingscome into the place.
SPEAKER_00 (38:19):
Right.
Yeah, fair point.
Yeah, like so you're gonna taketwo of these little things,
maybe three times a month, yeah,or like all every day every day.
It's bizarre to be valid point.
SPEAKER_01 (38:31):
But yeah, so I guess that in in in short, right, just
recap that part of it is like Iwill I wish I would have
broadened my experiences alittle bit earlier, even if it's
within the same entity, justmaybe explore other pieces of
the business that would havegiven me a different yeah, you
know, whether it's procurementor whatever.
Yeah, I'll just kind of roundout my experience in that
respect.
SPEAKER_00 (38:50):
Yeah, well, we like to hit you with our lightning
round as we uh we wrap thingsup.
Yeah.
Um you're a reader, podcastlistener.
Uh what are you what are youconsuming right now?
I do not read.
I am I am opposed to reading.
SPEAKER_01 (39:05):
I appreciate it.
I don't just I don't just notread.
I actively don't read.
Um I don't know how how broadour reach is gonna be, but I had
a a good friend that gave me abook for Christmas.
Yeah, I returned it and took thestore credits.
All right, friend.
That book's not getting read.
So what are you listening to?
Yeah.
(39:25):
Um primarily runs.
Yeah.
So I'm I'm a morning run guy.
I like the exercise in themornings.
To me, it's it's a lot ofmindless content.
So it's sports primarily.
I'm still coming off a veryrough end to the NFL season for
my beloved Green Bay Packers.
Yeah, so I'm I'm consuming asmuch as Vitrial as possible.
(39:46):
A lot of vitriol from the thefaithful up there.
So I'm I'm soaking up everyminute of that.
Um, there's a couple of clownsthat are part of a Barstool
sports podcast.
And so it's just the perfectbalance of humor and comedy into
obnoxious takes that they throwout there.
So for me, it's like whatevercan take my mind off the pain of
running.
(40:06):
Yeah, that's kind of where Ifind myself going.
And then um, you know, thelonger road trips, uh, things
like Theo Vaughn, the guy's justa character.
Yeah, he's funny.
He's very inquisitive.
So I think what I find myselfgravitating towards are the
people who have just kind of anatural curiosity.
Yeah, I like to ask dumbquestions.
I find myself gravitatingtowards those people who also
ask dumb questions but are doingso not to trip you up and not
(40:30):
because it's gotcha journalism,but it's like they legitimately
just want to learn.
SPEAKER_00 (40:34):
Love a different angle, not just the typical.
Yeah.
Speaking of gotcha journalism,second question biggest retail
blunder.
Oh, my biggest retail blunder inyour career.
SPEAKER_01 (40:45):
Um, how much time do we have?
Just one?
Do I do I only have to talkabout one?
Um, yeah.
I I got this one readily queuedup.
I'll go back.
This is years ago.
Uh, I was calling on roundiesand we had before they were
Kroger, yeah, back when theystood alone.
And uh we had a Delhi accrualprogram with them where we would
(41:07):
commit to setting aside tradefunds, right?
And then reinvest those tradefunds in the business.
Um, but I was tested withtracking and managing that
accrual myself via Excel.
And so when you have a formulaerror in one cell of Excel, no,
but it translates across youknow 18 other cells and in six
(41:28):
other tabs and everything else.
So we had an issue wherenightmare.
Yeah, I mean, look, weover-accrued.
So from a customer perspective,it was phenomenal, but in
essence, we had to kind of finda way on the company's behalf to
recoup you know, a uh hefty, itwas five figure costs which we
(41:49):
were able to do so manypromotions this year.
SPEAKER_00 (41:50):
I don't know what's going on.
Exactly.
SPEAKER_01 (41:51):
So it got to five figures at a roundies back in
the back.
That's exactly right.
Yeah, that's that's exactly likethe the uh relativity matters
there.
So we basically had to kind ofyou know fire sale and just blow
the doors off with a couple ofthings to kind of recoup all
these funds that we had giventhem on account of my single
keystroke error that did not goon.
SPEAKER_00 (42:12):
I can't remember the circumstances, but I had a very
similar thing running a companywith the word analytics in it.
And uh I got I got busted oncewith something that was you know
broken link or whatever.
And yeah, but that that's whatforced me then to I developed
these macros where uh to tobasically before I'd send it
(42:34):
off.
I'm like, is this good?
Is there are there mistakes?
And without making the mistake,I probably never would have done
that.
Yeah, and how many futuremistakes did I prevent?
Yeah, yeah.
I think I was on uh like my lastvitamins was so big the line
review dock got to be like ahundred something megabytes, but
(42:55):
it was like I think it wasversion 87, was the actual one
that I presented because it waslike make enough changes, save
new version.
Because like I'm not yeah takingthis whole thing down because
I've had to recreate an entireline review spreadsheet with
smart moves.
The way that I did it wasthere's a lot of data going on.
(43:16):
Sure.
Okay, well done.
Last question What do you whatare you motivated for in uh
2026?
What am I motivated for in 2026?
SPEAKER_01 (43:23):
Uh I'm excited to keep building the book,
hopefully, like do a littlebusiness development.
So one of the things that wedidn't touch on, but I think was
important to address is a lot ofagencies, you you know, you eat
what you kill is what they say,right?
And and I know that we subscribeto the same mentality here, but
I felt very fortunate to be sortof gifted a desk, right?
(43:45):
Gifted a book of business whereit wasn't just go out and see
what you can find.
And I didn't have to rattleevery tree and tap into every
piece of the network.
Um, so that helped me get myfeet under me and kind of like
plug the dam a little bit so Icould address other.
Deficiencies that I felt like Imay have had, right?
So looking ahead now, I'm I'mnot there yet, but I'm catching
(44:05):
stride.
I feel like I'm gettingcomfortable.
So I want to be able to helpgrow our overall.
I'm looking forward to walkingan expo and fancy foods with you
this year.
I think that's a great way tostart.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm looking forward to that.
And find those next hits.
And you know, everybody wantsthe the diamond and the rough,
and everybody wants the next bigthing.
And you know, you can do a lotof like takes and puts on
(44:26):
essentially like lottery ticketson who's going to break through.
But I think just finding thesebrands that have kind of hustled
and done it at the street level,going door to door, and at least
establish like a base businessthat's poised for the the
springboard.
I think that's maybe the sweetspot.
Of course, that's what anybodywould say.
And I don't know exactly how youfind them, but that's where I
(44:48):
want to put some focus andenergy is less around what might
be the next big thing and morearound like what is already sort
of on the climb that we can kindof intercept on the way up and
just you know pour some gas onit for them.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (45:02):
Well, thank you, Scott, for joining us.
Um well had I'd be remisswithout saying I think you're
the funniest person in thebuilding.
Is that immeasurable?
Is that quantifiable?
I don't remeasure it.
Okay, perfect.
Uh you've been an awesomeaddition to the team and uh
appreciate you spending timewith us today.
And as always, thank you forjoining us today on the retail
(45:25):
journey.
You can check out any of ourpodcasts on our website,
highimpactanalytics.com, orwherever you download your
podcasts.
Thanks.
Hello and welcome to the Retail Journey Podcast.
I'm Charles Greenhouse, one ofyour hosts.
And I am James Harris, and todaywe're talking to Scott Nemick.
Nimek?
Nimek.
SPEAKER_02 (00:19):
It's Nimik.
SPEAKER_00 (00:21):
I'm James Harris.
Uh, and today we're talking toScott Nimek, uh a new addition
to our team here at High Impact.
And uh been looking forward tothis.
Thanks for joining us.
Appreciate it.
Thanks for the opportunity.
Happy to be here.
So um tell us about Scott.
Where are you from?
SPEAKER_01 (00:37):
Yeah.
Kids.
So family.
Yeah, grew up in Wisconsin,originally a northerner.
Uh, made my way down toBentonville 10 years ago.
How deep into Wisconsin are wetalking?
Like more than halfway.
More than half.
Okay.
Yeah.
Closer to Canada than Illinois,I think would be to put it.
Um, yeah, and so my my journeyreally started at UW Eau Claire,
(00:59):
and Hormel Foods recruitedheavily there.
And they had a presence oncampus, and they came and they
made a pitch.
And so I thought it seemed likea great spot to work.
I like that they could kind ofsend you out across the country
and they had offices everywhere,but there's always the
opportunity to kind of come backto the mid rest Midwest routes
and just kind of like resettlethere.
So that was where myprofessional career began.
(01:21):
And I started in Des Moines,Iowa, and then over the course
of about 20 years, bouncedaround to um New Jersey, worked
out of Pennsylvania for a littlewhile, went to Minnesota, went
out west to California, cameback to Wisconsin and worked in
the Milwaukee area, back toMinnesota again, and then about
10 years ago made the move downhere in Bentonville and finally
put some roots in the ground.
(01:42):
So I had a good 20-year run withkind of a traditional CPG meat
and yeah, meat and food company.
And uh was fortunate I gotmarried halfway along the way
there and was able to bring mywife along with me for a good
chunk of that journey.
And then we had uh our firstchild was born in Milwaukee, had
a son, and then as we moved toMinnesota, my daughter was born
(02:03):
there.
So we've got two kids who now,as we fast forward, they're 15
and 13, respectively.
That's crazy.
And uh man, we're just happy tobe in this market, be in this
area, and it's just been atremendous place to raise our
kids.
So a two-year stint inBettonville 10 years ago, is
that yeah, exactly.
Yeah, it's it's the classic,like, you know, you come in, you
(02:24):
come in kicking and screaming,and then you go out kicking and
screaming if you go out at all.
Yeah, yeah.
So it would be what, 12 yearsago?
10, just over 10 years ago thatyou moved.
SPEAKER_00 (02:34):
You landed here.
Very cool.
Yep.
Yeah.
And it happens so much, it's acliche now.
Yeah, I didn't want to come.
Now I'm not leaving.
SPEAKER_01 (02:41):
Yeah.
And look, I'm I'm extremelygrateful that Hormel gave me the
opportunity to come down here.
Um, you know, the the majorityof my time here was with them,
and I led the category teamthere for eight years servicing
Walmart, and we had, I think, 11different advisorships.
And then I kind of took a careerpivot and bang the mic.
Uh, I took a career pivot andmoved to an ingredient company.
(03:02):
And so that gave me anopportunity to really hone in on
kind of the backside of food,and and a lot of the emphasis
really was focused aroundprivate brands.
And so all of my meetings wereat the Culinary Innovation
Center.
Yeah.
And it was dealing with the PDsin the food spaces.
So you would sell to the proteincompany who would sell the
finished product to theretailer.
(03:23):
And our goal ultimately, right,would be to sell in solutions to
Walmart, get Walmart's specapproval, right?
And then that solution will bepushed out to whomever the
supplier may be.
So it was rare that we weresupplier of record.
Right.
You know, um, certainly a fewinstances, but usually it would
be forming the partnership.
We called it the triangle sale,right?
We'd form the partnership withWalmart, and then they'd have
(03:45):
their partnership with existingsuppliers, or we would bring a
supplier partner that we had tothe table.
SPEAKER_00 (03:50):
There's a handful of categories that kind of operate
like that.
They're not very many, but a fewwhere you've kind of got a
triangle.
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (03:57):
How many categories did you work across?
A carry?
Yeah.
More than I can count.
I mean everything food.
Yeah.
Everything food, everything OTC.
Yeah, it was it was broad to saythe least.
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (04:08):
Yeah.
And uh then high impact.
SPEAKER_01 (04:11):
Yeah.
So then I took uh summersabbatical, gave myself a summer
break for the first time in 20something years and just spent
time with the family, kind ofre-re-centered, reconnected, had
uh uh off chance to reconnectwith Charles.
SPEAKER_00 (04:24):
You were on a run and I I caught up to you, I
think.
SPEAKER_01 (04:27):
You might assume?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
No, you hopped on one of thosee-bikes that we got out there.
See if I'm on an e-bike, maybe.
Um, but yeah, Charles and I, Imean, I think I had met you
originally near the inception ofmy time in Bentonville.
I mean, I think we probably goback 10 years.
Yeah, but just tell the peopleseven-year gap in.
SPEAKER_00 (04:43):
Tell the people how we met, because I'm actually
quite proud that I used to dothis.
Yeah, we were in a group fitnessclass at the community center at
5 a.m.
SPEAKER_01 (04:50):
That was my first introduction to Charles.
Yeah.
And then I think justperiodically we crossed paths
over time, whether it was at thecoffee shop and uh in a store at
a restaurant or whatever.
Yeah.
And so at 5 a.m.
SPEAKER_00 (05:01):
I don't know.
I just wanted more credit forthat.
Everything that gets me out ofbed that early is fishing.
Yeah.
That works too.
It was uh be a four 4 15, 4 30wake up and go show up at the
gym.
It was a great.
I don't do that.
Yeah, but we were yeah, whathappened?
SPEAKER_01 (05:16):
I don't know.
Life got in the way.
Yeah.
But yeah, so anyway, Charles andI had a kind of a chance
encounter, and I I saw somethingthat you had posted on social
media, and it spoke to me.
I thought, hey, I want to justconnect and understand a little
bit of your story and thejourney that led you to where
you were.
And then I guess kind of fastforward seven months later, and
(05:38):
here we are, six months into mycareer with high impact, which
has been great.
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (05:43):
Thrilled you're here.
Um, as a you know, client growthleader, helping people through
the journey and helping themmake better decisions.
You you were at Hormel foralmost 20 years.
This very established, very kindof different than uh in this
space, this broker space.
(06:04):
You you tend to get a widevariety of experience,
absolutely, expectation, initialdecision ideas to like, well,
here's what might work best atnot just retail, but Walmart,
yeah, Sam's Club.
I'd love to hear a little bit ofyour you know initial entry to
this space, some of the thingsthat maybe big CPG prepared you
(06:25):
for or other thoughts you'vehad.
SPEAKER_01 (06:27):
Yeah, I mean it's interesting, right?
So great question or greatcomment anyway.
Um brokers were a dirty word.
Right.
Right?
I mean, like you you everybodyknew a broker, but they knew
them all for the wrong reason.
Right.
And it was like it would be veryrare that you'd go out and
encounter somebody in the wildand they'd want to tell you a
(06:49):
great story about the brokersupport that they had or this
tremendous broker relationshiphow long ago that they had.
I mean, this is really like theduration, right?
Okay, yeah.
And so I mean, there was alwaysthis kind of negative
connotation that I put out therein terms of like brokers and and
the agency side of things,right?
Well, you weren't alone, yeah.
Yeah, and I'm sure that's like ait it exists for a reason,
(07:12):
right?
There's certainly things thathave led to that mindset or
people to think that way.
Um, so there were some barriersto overcome there just on my own
accord, right?
Of like, is this the space Iwant to be in?
And how do I break the mold?
How do I help kind of likereshape that narrative that
exists, right?
Yeah.
Um, I I felt like I knew what Iwas getting into based on the
(07:33):
conversation Charles and I hadhad, based on the opportunity to
come in and meet with a lot ofthe team members and really get
into the weeds on what the joblooks like.
Yeah.
I had no idea.
Yeah.
And I would say it's like apleasant surprise.
Um, my eight years in marketprior to coming here, I think
had kind of built up in me a lotof ego.
(07:54):
And I think I was very confidentthat I had mastered the
universe.
And I would tell you, it wasn'tuntil I got here that I fully
realized how much I still didn'tknow.
And, you know, one of theluxuries we have is a very
diverse group of people withtremendous backgrounds and
expertise.
And so, like, just having all ofthose resources at my disposal,
it was a relief, right?
(08:15):
Because I knew like there's alot more that I can't do than I
thought.
But just having the people hereand having the network and the
support in place to be able tolike overcome that and kind of
connect all the dots has been atremendous relief.
And I think that that's probablysomething that a lot of agencies
are lacking in, where they maybe solid on the sales side of
(08:35):
things, right?
But they may not have the backend.
Right.
They may not be as dialed on thereplen side of things.
Yeah, they certainly aren'tgoing to have like item
expertise.
In fact, I know you know certaincolleagues of mine that like
they're still doing all theirown item management despite
having broker support on some ofthese bigger customers, right?
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (08:52):
Well, it's something that I'm probably most proud of
from a cultural standpoint is Inever wanted this place to be a
pla where I've got information,so I'm important.
Yeah.
You know, if you need to getsomething from somebody else
that has that information, wereally do have a team that's
just willing to help.
Yeah.
No matter what.
SPEAKER_01 (09:12):
Um yeah.
And it sounds like lip service,right?
But like it's just it's the mostcollaborative environment I've
been a part of.
And I think in in part, whatresonates with me is, you know,
we've kind of, as anorganization, we've made a
decision to say we don't want tocompete against ourselves.
And we're not going to battleagainst one another within
categories.
Right.
Now that's just a microcosm, butwhat that represents to me is
(09:33):
like just this broader mentalityof like everybody is in it for
the greater good.
Oh, and it's a team sports guy.
Joint success.
Yeah, we can all win.
But it's the team that uh winsor loses.
Exactly right.
And so there isn't this dog eatdog, and it's not like being on
Wall Street where like I onlywin if you lose or if I outsell
you, that's how I get ahead.
(09:54):
It's like, you know, the risingtide lift here.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, rising tide will lift allboats or all around.
Right.
So and then you you brought upthe word culture, James, and
that's something I want to justtouch on for a minute.
And I want to stop short of youknow, painting myself a
psychophant, but culture is notwords.
Everybody has words, culture isactions, it's behaviors, right?
(10:15):
And that's what drives anddetermines a culture.
And that's something else that Iwould say is unique to this
place relative to my experiencesprior at the other organizations
I've been a part of.
Like, yeah, we've got the wordson the wall as well, but it's
not really about that.
It's how people behave, it's howthey treat one another, it's how
like we act as individualswithin the organization.
(10:36):
And I've never seen it so livedout as I do here.
Just the spirit of service, um,the the way that everyone is
embraced.
And I'm sure that like even thecauses that we get behind.
I'm sure there are things thatare very important to you, but
you're not pushing that on thegroup, like, hey, I want to go
out and do environmental worktoday because that's what
(10:57):
matters to me, right?
And and maybe it's fosteringpanic.
I want to come in.
Yeah.
Everybody's able to kind ofpursue their own passions,
right?
And there's a way to kind of fitthat in.
And it's like, whether it's youknow, fostering or whether it's
homelessness, or maybe it's, youknow, helping battle addiction,
whatever it might be, right?
Like, there's just so manydifferent avenues where we're
not saying, hey, this is theflag in the ground, this is what
(11:17):
we support, this is what we'rebuilt on.
But it's like, hey, what'simportant to you?
Let's find what matters.
And then on an individual level,what that represents to me is
like family is really importantto me.
And one of the opportunitiesI've been afforded with this
role has been to drop mydaughter and her friend off at
school every day.
That's great.
They happen to, you know, go toschool about half a mile from
here.
(11:38):
Yeah.
And it just aligns well with theschedule.
That's never something I've beenable to do, but it also isn't
something I pursued.
Right.
But I think about it now, andit's like, I wouldn't give that
up for anything.
Yeah.
Right.
And that's what's so importantto me.
Now, other people, it may bepets, it may be personal
interests, it may be, you know,car, whatever they're into, but
it's like pursue your passionsand fit it into your life.
(12:01):
It doesn't have to be exclusiveof what you only do outside of
this building, if that makessense.
SPEAKER_00 (12:06):
I mean, especially men, we like to think we're
compartmentalizing everything,but life's just kind of one big
loop.
Absolutely right.
Yeah.
And you've got to work andyou've got to sleep, you've got
to eat, and you, but you alsohave to do the things that are,
you know, what a legacy is,which is your kids, your
friends, your spouse, yourpartner.
I appreciate that females don'tpretend like we actually can
(12:27):
compartmentalize things.
Like, no, it's actually it's allconnected and you know, a
balanced life, or maybe activerebalancing.
Because you know, there'sthere's times you know, we've
we've traveled together, you goon a work trip and you get back
home.
There's some you gotta make somedeposits back into the family
bucket because we were just gonefor a couple days.
(12:48):
And yeah, yeah.
I think that uh I think itmatters a lot.
Um sad, I was at a funeral lastnight, and you know, it's hard
to go to to funerals, you neverreally want to, but being you
know forced to recognize thatyou know life is fragile.
Absolutely.
Um it it matters, you know, bothwho you're gonna spend it with,
what you're gonna do, and kindof the impact that you have as
(13:11):
you go.
So well, from a familyperspective, right?
SPEAKER_01 (13:14):
I mean, we've kind of got three varying stages
here.
You know, you've got on theprecipice of launch and kind of
like that part of adulthood.
And I'm kind of stuck in theseodd teenage sort of years.
And Charles, you're kind ofushering your way into that,
right?
So it's like, yeah, you kind ofget to see all the various
phases, but yeah, time isfleeting, right?
When you start thinking aboutlike in our perspective, it's
(13:35):
like, well, we got five or sixmore years with kids in the
house.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (13:39):
It's we got the daddy-daughter dance in uh
February, and they play thatstinking song that Cinderella
one, and it's like, guys, comeon.
You're killing me.
I wasn't trying to cry tonight.
You know, what are you doing?
And then you at the same time,you look back at those pictures.
Oh, it's awesome.
And and like, you know, with menow, yeah.
(13:59):
I've got you know, 17, 18,almost 18-year-old twins and
15-year-old boy.
Um, and you look back at thosepictures and you're like, Yeah,
we did do that.
I was there.
That was fun.
Like, yeah, um, you know, yeah,while you're going through at
the time, yeah.
You've got the you got the proofyou've made the investment.
Um so what uh you know, whatwhat are you uh what are you
(14:20):
looking to build here at uh highimpact?
I mean, we're we're anentrepreneurial company, uh,
you're in the sales group.
Most people that uh you knowwant to go into sales, it's kind
of a form of entrepreneurship,right?
Uh you can create your destiny.
So uh what's Scott building hereat High Impact?
SPEAKER_01 (14:39):
Yeah, I think I I'll approach it two two separate
ways.
From a personal perspective, Iwant to keep rounding out my own
skill set.
You know, I made the commentearlier that I didn't realize
how much I didn't know.
And so as I stop and take kindof my own periodic moments of
reflection and look back at theprogress I've made, how much
(14:59):
I've grown just in terms of myknowledge base in these six
months, that's definitely anarea I need to continue
investing in.
And I'm fortunate to besurrounded by the resources we
have here to support thatgrowth, right?
Um and it's just workingone-on-one.
It's leaning on, you know, ouranalytics partners that we have
on the business and just kind ofalmost osmosis, right?
(15:21):
Just acquiring knowledge andexperience from them.
Um, from a business perspective,I'd really like to see us be
able to put more of a flag inthe ground with food.
And obviously, my backgroundcertainly lends itself well to
that.
So, how can I better support ourgrowth in that space?
Yeah.
Where I would say, by and large,we're underdeveloped relative to
(15:42):
some other categories.
And so I've got a uniqueoffering and some, you know,
tenure in that space that Ithink I can bring value to the
table.
Just a matter of finding theright partners and then kind of
making those connections andbringing them into the fold.
SPEAKER_00 (15:59):
I think that's probably so much new that's
emerging in food.
Uh, whether you know, whethertalking about like freeze dried,
right?
Yep.
That's everywhere now.
It's dog food, it's pet food.
It's a you know, that wasn'treally that much of a thing not
very long ago.
Sure.
A lot of things happen in thatway, but then also a lot of
innovation around store brands.
Yeah.
Um, you know, where everybody'sused to great value and equate
(16:22):
where it's nationallyequivalent.
Um, Better Goods is not nationalequivalent.
It in some cases is the bestproduct on the shelf.
Yeah.
Um, but there it's just it's anexciting time, I think, to be in
food.
SPEAKER_01 (16:34):
Yeah, I completely agree.
And and so as I kind of harkback to those times with Carrie,
that was kind of a fun ride tobe in.
So that was sort of at theinception of the Better Goods
introduction, right?
And just kind of seeing like howquickly that spread and how many
categories it went across.
And then yeah, and even productsand and subcats that you would
(16:55):
never expect to see a premiumprivate brand, there's a push
there and it's and it'shappening, right?
And so that is that has beencertainly one big piece of the
puzzle there with the inceptionof that.
SPEAKER_00 (17:08):
Yeah.
When you think about a like agreat supplier brand uh to to
Walmart in the food space, likewhat separates the good from the
great when it comes to a athriving food business?
SPEAKER_01 (17:23):
Oh, I want to try to avoid being cliche, right?
I mean, I think that's easy tofall into, but it's um reactive
versus proactive.
Like I think the the bestpartners, the ones that come to
mind are are people like aGeneral Mills or like uh PepsiCo
Fritole to just kind of givesome context.
They're always looking outahead, like what's coming.
(17:44):
Um, one of the things they'vedone with the Lay's brand is
kind of these like LTOs, yeah,right.
And it's just a greatopportunity to keep some
freshness in the set and kind ofcycle through flavors, see what
sticks.
And then obviously, if you hit ahome run, then you kind of roll
that into your everydayoffering.
But those types of things arejust kind of always like
continuing to push thingsforward to push the envelope, as
(18:06):
opposed to I think you're good,are the people who are like,
hey, we're gonna do whatever youneed us to do.
You tell us, you know, to jumpand we're gonna ask you how
high.
You tell us where you want togo, and we will come alongside
of you.
But who's leading theconversation, right?
Who are those people who are onthe cutting edge saying, like,
no, you need to do this and youneed to do it now?
SPEAKER_00 (18:25):
Do you have to be a multi-billion dollar brand to be
able to lead?
Yeah.
Tell talk to me about some ofyour experience and finding ways
to lead from what I'll call itthe pack as opposed to the
biggest.
SPEAKER_01 (18:38):
Yeah, I think a big part of it is just being aware
of what are those key industrytrends.
Yeah.
And there's so many sources thatyou can glean some of that
information from, whether it'sMintel, Data Essentials, you
know, a lot of times in food,what'll happen is these ideas
and concepts that infiltrate CPGreally started at the restaurant
and food service level.
Yeah.
So it's kind of monitoring thatas kind of the future ground, if
(19:02):
you will, of like what are thosekey flavor profiles?
What are the flavor trends thatwe see coming?
And then how do you cling on tothat?
Sometimes it takes a littlehedging, right?
Like you don't always knowwhat's going to hit.
You're not going to bat athousand, right?
You're going to get a couple ofwhiffs.
Yeah.
But I think that's certainly abig part of it, right?
Is like identifying thoseoutlets that can kind of give
you that broader scope, broaderspectrum, and then keying in and
(19:24):
making your bets accordingly.
SPEAKER_00 (19:25):
Like, but so at the same time, you know, there like
I think about walking Expo West,right?
And now you'll see some likelegit innovation.
Like, oh, that's a great idea.
Yeah, then the whole rest of theaisle is oh, here's some more
yogurt with me twos.
Yeah, it's just one afteranother.
Yeah.
Um, I think the trick is likefind that first thing, yeah, but
(19:49):
find it based on yourunderstanding of the shopper and
their needs and their wants.
Sure.
Then you can innovate aroundthat, and you're not just a
one-hit wonder or um copycat.
SPEAKER_01 (19:58):
Yes, exactly right.
Nobody wants a Me Too.
Right.
And like I I don't know, I'velooked, I haven't seen a better
mousetrap yet, right?
Like it works, it's tried andtrue.
Like, play the hits.
Um, I think what happens a lotof times is people get in their
own heads and they convincethemselves that they're
differentiated enough.
Like, no, no, no.
It's this is not just yogurt andoatmeal.
(20:19):
We also have flax in there.
It's like, okay, but I can pickup flax and sprinkle some over
the top, or whatever, maybe,right?
Yeah.
So I think that's that's a goodpoint that you raised.
SPEAKER_00 (20:30):
I mean, I yeah, I've seen that with different
companies I've either been apart of or just been around
where they're they're talking tothemselves.
Yeah, and yeah, they have anindustry knowledge that their
shopper doesn't have, but ifthat's the thing that keeps the
shopper from buying your productbecause they're not in your
industry, you probably haven'tyeah, you probably haven't
worked it all the way throughyet.
It's great.
(20:50):
Yes, well said.
Happens a lot in the package.
You know, I mean it's what's thewhat's the reason to buy, what's
important about it, what's thedifferentiation?
And you look at the pack andit's just not compelling.
Yeah, it's not actually a partof what you're telling the
customer itself.
SPEAKER_01 (21:05):
Yeah.
Um well it I want to go back tothe better goods example for a
minute.
I I think that's interesting.
Just like the the tenets thatexist for that brand, right?
There's kind of three pillars tobetter goods, and it's like
plant-based, and then it's likebetter for you.
Then they kind of have thatthird pillar that's like
culinary creations.
But that's basically like kindof all inclusive, right?
(21:26):
So I mean it's it, I guess,credit to the private brands
team to at least say, like, hey,we want to kind of have this
reservoir over here where we cankind of fit the all other.
It may not be plant-based, itmay not be better for you, or it
may not, you know, it may not befree of all the right never
ennies.
Yeah, but like it's just anawesome concept and yeah, this
profile, like whether it's achip or whatever.
SPEAKER_00 (21:47):
Anything from that brand that wasn't good that
didn't hit, yeah.
The pizza, the bubbly, or yeah,uh the like chocolate covered
almonds, even that's adefinitely good.
Um they've really done a greatjob.
Good product matters.
I agree.
Uh yeah, food doesn't tastegood.
Well, and you you have one ortwo good experiences.
They've got 600 items, right?
(22:07):
So now you're gonna be morewilling as a consumer to
purchase across the store fromthat from that brand because
they they won you over with agood product that was less than
the thing next to it.
SPEAKER_01 (22:19):
And I know we live in a Walmart world here, right?
Walmart and Sam's drivenenvironment, but you see the
same sort of thing occurringreally across the landscape.
Like Aldi has simply nature.
And I know that's not quite thesame concept in terms of like
unique offer, but it's it's thecleaner, it's the better for
you.
Target has a number of brandsunder their umbrella as well,
(22:40):
right?
With Good and Gather andFavorite Day.
And so you see a lot more ofthis kind of tearing.
Absolute machine.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Kroomer does the same thing withthe private selection.
And yeah, it's just you'rereally seeing a lot more of this
tiering that's that's occurringbecause everybody's trying to
elevate private brands.
And I think we all recognizethere was a point in time where
like your private brand was yourOPP, it was your prize fighter.
(23:03):
Just get something out there ascheap as can be.
Yep.
You know, one example that Ialways like to use that people
aren't even like aware of howyou can kind of what's the word
I want to use?
Like devalue a product or brand.
But like, yeah, I love mountainmix.
Great value mountain mix is likeit's on our shopping list every
trip.
I eat that stuff, like it, it'smy lifeblood, right?
(23:25):
Well, one of the things thatthey do in there is it's very
difficult.
You'll never find a wholecashew.
If you're lucky, you'll find ahalf cashew, but then you'll
find a lot of parts, yeah,right, or broken pieces.
Yeah, it's just a way to addvalue.
You still have cashews, you'restill including the key
component, but you're doing itas value.
Standalone because they'rebroke, yeah.
(23:46):
Yeah.
So just little things like that,right?
I mean, the same thing happenswith like rice.
SPEAKER_00 (23:50):
I think you just ruined mountain mix for me
because I felt like they wereprobably those old when I got
the bag, and yeah, I must havebroke it.
Good luck ever eating that againwithout thinking about the cash.
SPEAKER_01 (23:59):
Now I'm gonna be constantly staring at my half a
cashew.
Yeah, funny.
But you will be happy to knowthey moved away from MMs for a
short time.
I didn't say anything about it.
Somebody must have, because nowthey're back.
They're back.
Yeah.
Yeah, I figured it was you, butokay.
I know.
Safe assumption was not in thiscase.
I want to put that on record.
SPEAKER_00 (24:16):
Yeah.
Yeah.
They just they taste better.
Yeah.
MMs.
But yeah, so okay, so into 26,yeah, private brands do seem
like a very significant pillarof growth.
Sure.
Expanding faster than nationalbrands for 15 years.
Yeah.
In a in a yeah.
(24:37):
So using data to not just sayseems like it is a huge pillar
of growth.
What what as a brand should webe thinking about it?
Like what should the brands outthere be considering as private
brand becomes a faster uh aspectof growth?
SPEAKER_01 (24:54):
Yeah, I mean, I'm gonna tie it back to I think you
have to be prepared to failquickly.
Try and try and fail and learnand adapt because that's what
that's what they're doing inthat space, right?
They're not afraid to give it ashot and then you know, so be
it, you hit reset.
Now, the luxury as a privatebrand, you're not putting as
much at stake in terms of yourbrand integrity because there's
(25:16):
certain expectations of like anOPP if you're in a great value
or whatever, right?
Whereas if um, I don't know whata good example would be, but uh
lint lint chocolates orwhatever, right?
Like there's there's a prestige,kind of a premium component that
goes that.
So you want to be a little bitcareful about devaluing your
brand to a point, right?
So I think brands have to be alittle bit careful about that,
(25:39):
but I still think that you justdon't try stuff that's too
weird, right?
Right, yeah.
Stay in your wheelhouse, buttake some shots.
Yeah, like it's it's worth arisk.
And you know, there are ways toget that feedbackly, right?
Maybe it's a a test.
You do a few hundred stores orwhatever.
I mean, there's paths to kind ofget that feedback before you
(25:59):
have to make the full commitmentand put, you know, millions of
dollars at risk.
SPEAKER_00 (26:04):
You know, and I I worked uh years before I started
this, I worked at Unilever onthe food side.
Um, and you you really uh I gotto see a lot of research that
showed just how emotional um thepeople's connection with their
favorite foods are.
And now we're in this situationwhere we've had basically kind
(26:24):
of really out of controlinflation.
Yeah, uh, it's gotten betternow.
I think the most recent numberis 2.4, but that's on top of the
11% and the 13% that we had inprevious years.
So things have cost are costingmore and wages haven't caught up
with it.
Uh, and you see, like atThanksgiving or with
Thanksgiving or Christmas,Walmart put out a$40 meal kit.
(26:47):
And it was a very adequate mealbecause people, whether they're
struggling financially or not,like they want to be able to put
that on for their kids andgrandkids, have those memories,
take those pictures, but it wasquite a bit less food than it
had been past previous years.
And I think that the that'sthat's a big opportunity right
now is how do we how do we makeproducts that let people have
(27:10):
the dignity of eating andsharing what they want to, yeah,
but for less.
SPEAKER_01 (27:15):
Yeah.
You know, and let's just focuson like one specific trend,
right?
Snacking as a whole.
In a vacuum, you look at the thestate of you know, the financial
situation circumstances thatpeople are feeling, logically,
it would make sense like we'regonna cut out some of those
in-between meal meals, right?
(27:36):
Like that's one way to cut backis we're not gonna pack the
pantry with packages of fruitsnacks or cheez-its or whatever.
Right.
But in fact, what you're seeingis like there's kind of like a
continued proliferation ofsnacking almost at the expense
of the meal, meal time, right?
And so it's like it, those arethe types of things that you
have to identify those trendsand then get on board and make
(27:56):
sure that you're swift in yourresponse to them, right?
Like, because if if you're justlike, nope, we're we're a meal
company, that's what we do ismeals, you're gonna lose your
audience, right?
Like meal time is fading.
Do you have single serves?
Do you have convenient packagingto take to go, right?
Is it shelf stable that they canhave it in an office desk drawer
or you know, sitting on their ontheir workstation or whatever?
(28:19):
Like little nuances like that, Ithink, are important to kind of
key into and ensure that you'rekind of positioned accordingly
for that.
SPEAKER_00 (28:26):
And it's like we say the you know, our kind of
mantra, if you want to call itthat, for high impact for 2026
is what got us here, ain'tgetting us there.
Yeah.
Um, and I think you have to livewith that mindset in food.
Um, you especially when you lookat some of these legacy brands.
I read a really fascinatingthing a week or two ago about
how Kraft owned um um mac andcheese.
(28:50):
Yeah, right.
Um, but then for whateverreason, company acquired new
partner merged with Heinz, etcetera.
They've essentially lost, Ican't remember exactly what it
was, but about 30 margin points,or not marginal points, share
points, share points, yeah.
Uh from just you know, thebetter for you, the you know,
license things.
Yeah, um, they just take an eyeoff the ball.
(29:11):
Yeah.
It's like, wow, that was thatwas a billion dollar cash cow.
Yeah.
That obviously there wasinnovation on the table because
other people did it.
Um and they just they blinkedand missed it.
Yeah.
Um I think it is harder for thebigger companies to to stay
relevant.
SPEAKER_01 (29:28):
Yeah, I think part of the way to do that, right, is
like through acquisitions ofthose types of brands.
So, like the example that Iwould use, tying right into what
you just said, James, um,Annie's, right?
Annie's has taken a good chunkof that share, right?
And I think that's GeneralMills, if I'm not mistaken.
Like they weren't in that space,right?
But had an opportunity, saw theopportunity.
(29:49):
I'm gonna give them credit.
I wasn't a part of thatdecision, but I'm gonna say I
think they identified, like,hey, this is where the puck is
going.
Yeah.
Like, let's let's get in andmake this investment now.
And I think that's one it's fairto say that's paid off for them,
at least at a micro level,anyway, right?
But those are, yeah, those arethe types of things where if you
can't get there and if you can'tinnovate and commercialize, then
(30:10):
go acquire.
SPEAKER_00 (30:11):
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
I appreciate the the you know,deep Wisconsin reference of
skating to where the puck isgoing.
SPEAKER_01 (30:17):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yes.
Do we need to elaborate on that?
SPEAKER_00 (30:21):
I just wanted to make sure I think that's the the
puck.
This is hockey.
This is a hockey reference.
Thank you.
Um, yeah.
So, you know, we talked to ExpoWest briefly earlier, and this
is sort of the land of emergingtrends, many, many, many
emerging brands for those thatare in that kind of space,
hoping to get into the show, um,you know, major grocery in the
(30:42):
US, clearly Walmart, um, Sam'sClub.
What have you seen be the mostsuccessful um in either timing
trends or just like recognizingwhat it takes to compete with
these you know majorcorporations?
Oh, that's a good question.
SPEAKER_01 (31:00):
Um regardless of what's at the root, I think
timing and a little bit of luckgo a long way.
And unfortunately, you can'tstrategize around that.
But you know, one of the itemsthat kind of keeps coming to
mind to me as we have some ofthese conversations is uh I
don't want to do the brand adisservice.
I think it's is it botchman'sthe Japanese barbecue sauce?
(31:22):
It's like the clear bottle withthe red lid on it.
Oh, yeah.
And it's like the stuff is justsome of the other yeah, and it's
just it's everywhere.
And it's uh talk about staplefoods.
That's another one of thosethings.
It's always in our refrigeratordoor, and the kids are putting
it on any Asian-inspired food orany recipe that we have that
includes rice and meat.
It's like it's gettingsmothered.
Yum yum sauce.
That's what uh people drink inmy exactly.
(31:43):
Yeah, another good example,right?
So I think there's there's thosetypes of things where it's like
sometimes you just catchlightning in a bottle, and there
is no special formula, there isno magic recipe.
Um, for the others, Walmart isalways paying attention to
what's going on.
Yeah, and I know as much asyou'd love Walmart to be your
point of entry, you know, goshoot straight for the top,
(32:05):
right?
Like have that be your home runswing.
I think it's important torecognize that building a
business and kind of having thestory to bring to a Walmart, if
they're not recognizing you,it's okay.
It doesn't mean that what you'redoing doesn't matter.
It's just creating the story andand perhaps you got to kind of
hit a couple of singles to stillscore some of those runs, you
(32:25):
know.
SPEAKER_00 (32:26):
Yeah, I was thinking like you're allowed to you're
allowed to strike out once in awhile.
Yeah.
But if it's a nine-game streak,yeah, you know, you burn that
bridge.
Yeah, and it's tough tore-enter.
Absolutely.
There's a lot of institutionalmemory in in companies and every
retailer I've ever worked with.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (32:43):
Well, I think there's also the unfortunate
circumstance of peoplesurrounding themselves with very
supportive friends and familywho are going to tell them all
the things they want to hear,but maybe hesitant to want to
give them some hard truths.
Yeah.
And sometimes you need the hardtruths, like yeah, it's just not
as good as you think it is.
(33:04):
Or it doesn't fit for thesereasons, and nobody's told you
that yet.
So I'll be the bad guy.
Yeah.
Like sometimes that's just thereality, right?
You gotta hit some hard truths.
SPEAKER_00 (33:15):
I did that the other day.
I was talking to a founder, andwhen she first gave me the
pitch, that sounded great.
And then we we talked foranother 15, 20 minutes, and I
was able to pull out like thereal benefits, the real things
people love about this productand the real whatever.
And I was like, okay, like whatdo you what would you rank your
(33:35):
pitch?
Uh you know, probably seven outof ten.
And I was like, Well, uh I thinkwe're at like two.
I think we're two out of ten.
She's like, obviously, a littlebit shocked.
But it's like, well, you justmentioned this benefit that
wasn't in there.
You mentioned this, and they'renot actually wanting that part,
they're wanting to solve thisother thing that you talked
about, which was yourinspiration from the get-go.
(33:57):
Yeah, like that needs to be thefirst thing.
Yeah, because it's the why.
It was just kind of like, oh mygosh.
Yeah.
Like, I think, oh no.
Yeah, but it's hard because youjust have had friends be like,
yeah, it's great.
Oh, we love it.
You know, and they they're stillbuying the product because yeah,
they are loving it.
But you know, some entrepreneursare great salespeople, but not
(34:17):
all of them.
Some great idea people justtotally need to be across the
table from a buyer.
Yep.
And I've seen the best productin the category fail because the
package didn't tell the customerexactly why they wanted to buy
it.
Um, yep.
It's tough, it's a toughreality.
So yeah, and to jump back toyour your question.
SPEAKER_01 (34:34):
So Scott's not your friend, he'll tell you the
truth.
Well, uh, yeah, whether it's meor someone, right?
I just you have to have those,you know, voices of reason in
your life that aren't just goingto placate you, but we'll hit
you with some of them.
You have to be humble enough totake it.
SPEAKER_00 (34:46):
Yeah, I love cliche.
Sharpening irons, you know,there's heat and there's spark
and there's friction involved.
SPEAKER_01 (34:51):
It's not just patting each other on the back,
but that's right.
Um, I there I love cliche.
So there's there's another onethat says, Um, you know, uh a
friend may stab you in the back,but a real friend will stab you
in the front, right?
And it's like sometimes you justneed that person that's like,
this is not right and this iswhy.
But I do want to speak back.
I feel like that's kind ofdodging your question.
(35:11):
That's taking the antagonistapproach to your question.
SPEAKER_02 (35:13):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (35:13):
Um, the other message that I would give to
people is if you're looking tobreak into this ecosystem and
this being, you know, Walmartand Sam's, like a lot of people
have done it, and a lot ofpeople have done it
successfully.
Like, find them.
Yeah.
Right?
Surround yourselves with thosepeople, whether it's other
founders, yeah, whether it'sagencies who have blazed some of
those trails or people who haveinternal experience at Walmart
(35:36):
to help navigate some of thecomplications.
Like, find those people.
And then the last piece that Iwould say is like, you're gonna
have disappointment.
There's gonna be discouragement,right?
You may not get the yes rightaway.
That doesn't mean that it's notright, it just means it's not
right now.
Yeah, right.
And I think the other part of ittoo is persistence matters.
Absolutely right, absolutelyright.
(35:57):
And then just so go prove thatstory elsewhere, right?
It's definitely an endurancesport.
Absolutely right.
It's a retail.
SPEAKER_00 (36:03):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I mean, that's incredibleadvice.
Fair segue to my next uhquestion, which is if you were
to go back to you know, Scottbrand new to CPG, what advice
would you give to uh you know,first five years in this CPG
retail business?
What what advice do you have forScott?
SPEAKER_01 (36:25):
Um I wouldn't I wouldn't change the experiences
that I had, right?
Like given the chance to goback, I don't I don't have
regrets.
Advice that I would give movingforward to somebody else would
be find a great organizationthat's going to equip you to be
successful, that's going tosupport you along that journey
(36:45):
and make some solid connectionsthere, but don't let that
prevent you from expanding yourhorizons and exploring other
areas of the store.
So I was predominantly in food,loved it, wouldn't trade it.
I love that I feel like I havesome level of expertise within
food, right?
But now as I get into this roleand we're touching other
(37:06):
categories and we're intoapparel and we're into home and
we're into OTC, it's so muchmore valuable having that broad
exposure because there's nuanceinto how all those other
categories operate.
And the it's the same shoppers.
It is same customers, samestore.
SPEAKER_00 (37:23):
They're buying the store.
Yes.
Um, that's an interesting thing.
Maybe you're maybe your yourgrocery trips, you're primarily
shopping grocery.
Yeah.
But it's the same consumers thatare, you know, buying mainstays
bedding for their kids.
SPEAKER_01 (37:35):
Right.
I made the comment when I when Istarted earlier, right?
As part of the interviewprocess, like I came in with a
little bit of ego, like, guys,I've done food.
I can do anything.
And where my mindset with thatwas is like cold chain is is a
big part of it.
Like, we're dealing with codedates, we're dealing with short
shelf life, we're dealing withyou know, food safety, all of
(37:55):
these things, right?
If I can handle that, yeah, OTCis no problem.
A bottle of ibuprofen can sit ona shelf for a year, you don't
got to do anything with it.
Right.
Ignorance on my part, becauseagain, there's just added layers
of complexity in other spaces,right?
Maybe it's not supply chain, butregulatory and compliance and
claims, like all those thingscome into the place.
SPEAKER_00 (38:19):
Right.
Yeah, fair point.
Yeah, like so you're gonna taketwo of these little things,
maybe three times a month, yeah,or like all every day every day.
It's bizarre to be valid point.
SPEAKER_01 (38:31):
But yeah, so I guess that in in in short, right, just
recap that part of it is like Iwill I wish I would have
broadened my experiences alittle bit earlier, even if it's
within the same entity, justmaybe explore other pieces of
the business that would havegiven me a different yeah, you
know, whether it's procurementor whatever.
Yeah, I'll just kind of roundout my experience in that
respect.
SPEAKER_00 (38:50):
Yeah, well, we like to hit you with our lightning
round as we uh we wrap thingsup.
Yeah.
Um you're a reader, podcastlistener.
Uh what are you what are youconsuming right now?
I do not read.
I am I am opposed to reading.
SPEAKER_01 (39:05):
I appreciate it.
I don't just I don't just notread.
I actively don't read.
Um I don't know how how broadour reach is gonna be, but I had
a a good friend that gave me abook for Christmas.
Yeah, I returned it and took thestore credits.
All right, friend.
That book's not getting read.
So what are you listening to?
Yeah.
(39:25):
Um primarily runs.
Yeah.
So I'm I'm a morning run guy.
I like the exercise in themornings.
To me, it's it's a lot ofmindless content.
So it's sports primarily.
I'm still coming off a veryrough end to the NFL season for
my beloved Green Bay Packers.
Yeah, so I'm I'm consuming asmuch as Vitrial as possible.
(39:46):
A lot of vitriol from the thefaithful up there.
So I'm I'm soaking up everyminute of that.
Um, there's a couple of clownsthat are part of a Barstool
sports podcast.
And so it's just the perfectbalance of humor and comedy into
obnoxious takes that they throwout there.
So for me, it's like whatevercan take my mind off the pain of
running.
(40:06):
Yeah, that's kind of where Ifind myself going.
And then um, you know, thelonger road trips, uh, things
like Theo Vaughn, the guy's justa character.
Yeah, he's funny.
He's very inquisitive.
So I think what I find myselfgravitating towards are the
people who have just kind of anatural curiosity.
Yeah, I like to ask dumbquestions.
I find myself gravitatingtowards those people who also
ask dumb questions but are doingso not to trip you up and not
(40:30):
because it's gotcha journalism,but it's like they legitimately
just want to learn.
SPEAKER_00 (40:34):
Love a different angle, not just the typical.
Yeah.
Speaking of gotcha journalism,second question biggest retail
blunder.
Oh, my biggest retail blunder inyour career.
SPEAKER_01 (40:45):
Um, how much time do we have?
Just one?
Do I do I only have to talkabout one?
Um, yeah.
I I got this one readily queuedup.
I'll go back.
This is years ago.
Uh, I was calling on roundiesand we had before they were
Kroger, yeah, back when theystood alone.
And uh we had a Delhi accrualprogram with them where we would
(41:07):
commit to setting aside tradefunds, right?
And then reinvest those tradefunds in the business.
Um, but I was tested withtracking and managing that
accrual myself via Excel.
And so when you have a formulaerror in one cell of Excel, no,
but it translates across youknow 18 other cells and in six
(41:28):
other tabs and everything else.
So we had an issue wherenightmare.
Yeah, I mean, look, weover-accrued.
So from a customer perspective,it was phenomenal, but in
essence, we had to kind of finda way on the company's behalf to
recoup you know, a uh hefty, itwas five figure costs which we
(41:49):
were able to do so manypromotions this year.
SPEAKER_00 (41:50):
I don't know what's going on.
Exactly.
SPEAKER_01 (41:51):
So it got to five figures at a roundies back in
the back.
That's exactly right.
Yeah, that's that's exactly likethe the uh relativity matters
there.
So we basically had to kind ofyou know fire sale and just blow
the doors off with a couple ofthings to kind of recoup all
these funds that we had giventhem on account of my single
keystroke error that did not goon.
SPEAKER_00 (42:12):
I can't remember the circumstances, but I had a very
similar thing running a companywith the word analytics in it.
And uh I got I got busted oncewith something that was you know
broken link or whatever.
And yeah, but that that's whatforced me then to I developed
these macros where uh to tobasically before I'd send it
(42:34):
off.
I'm like, is this good?
Is there are there mistakes?
And without making the mistake,I probably never would have done
that.
Yeah, and how many futuremistakes did I prevent?
Yeah, yeah.
I think I was on uh like my lastvitamins was so big the line
review dock got to be like ahundred something megabytes, but
(42:55):
it was like I think it wasversion 87, was the actual one
that I presented because it waslike make enough changes, save
new version.
Because like I'm not yeah takingthis whole thing down because
I've had to recreate an entireline review spreadsheet with
smart moves.
The way that I did it wasthere's a lot of data going on.
(43:16):
Sure.
Okay, well done.
Last question What do you whatare you motivated for in uh
2026?
What am I motivated for in 2026?
SPEAKER_01 (43:23):
Uh I'm excited to keep building the book,
hopefully, like do a littlebusiness development.
So one of the things that wedidn't touch on, but I think was
important to address is a lot ofagencies, you you know, you eat
what you kill is what they say,right?
And and I know that we subscribeto the same mentality here, but
I felt very fortunate to be sortof gifted a desk, right?
(43:45):
Gifted a book of business whereit wasn't just go out and see
what you can find.
And I didn't have to rattleevery tree and tap into every
piece of the network.
Um, so that helped me get myfeet under me and kind of like
plug the dam a little bit so Icould address other.
Deficiencies that I felt like Imay have had, right?
So looking ahead now, I'm I'mnot there yet, but I'm catching
(44:05):
stride.
I feel like I'm gettingcomfortable.
So I want to be able to helpgrow our overall.
I'm looking forward to walkingan expo and fancy foods with you
this year.
I think that's a great way tostart.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm looking forward to that.
And find those next hits.
And you know, everybody wantsthe the diamond and the rough,
and everybody wants the next bigthing.
And you know, you can do a lotof like takes and puts on
(44:26):
essentially like lottery ticketson who's going to break through.
But I think just finding thesebrands that have kind of hustled
and done it at the street level,going door to door, and at least
establish like a base businessthat's poised for the the
springboard.
I think that's maybe the sweetspot.
Of course, that's what anybodywould say.
And I don't know exactly how youfind them, but that's where I
(44:48):
want to put some focus andenergy is less around what might
be the next big thing and morearound like what is already sort
of on the climb that we can kindof intercept on the way up and
just you know pour some gas onit for them.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (45:02):
Well, thank you, Scott, for joining us.
Um well had I'd be remisswithout saying I think you're
the funniest person in thebuilding.
Is that immeasurable?
Is that quantifiable?
I don't remeasure it.
Okay, perfect.
Uh you've been an awesomeaddition to the team and uh
appreciate you spending timewith us today.
And as always, thank you forjoining us today on the retail
(45:25):
journey.
You can check out any of ourpodcasts on our website,
highimpactanalytics.com, orwherever you download your
podcasts.
Thanks.
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