Just a little blurb to say that for all of my whining about wholesale, I’ve met some really wonderful people who own and work at stores.   I love walking into Market Gourmet in Venice to restock my products, like I did today.  I’ve done two demos there (and had two cancelled b/c my products sold out, thus negating the need of the demo), and I know the people there and they know me.  It makes such a big difference!  After I drop off my products at a store, it can be oddly hard to figure out what happens to them beyond whether they sold or not, and whether employees are aware of them –  I’m just not there, and it’s not like I can stakeout the joint. But when I go to Market Gourmet just about everyone who works there who sees me makes a point to tell me about customers’ reactions — like how someone has been calling them daily to find out the availability of my bars, how people are so happy when they buy them, how a lot of people are buying two at a time (great when your smallish products are $5-6/ea), how my products fly off the shelves, and how I’ve developed a following.  It’s just so very nice.

Come to think of it, Metropulos and The Candy Store are also very good about sharing customer (and employee) reactions.  The only difference is that they’re out of town, so I don’t get to see them in person.  And at Chefmakers, I hear about and see customer reactions all the time… but I do work there, so it has an advantage. But it’s that communication and awareness of each other as human beings and business people that makes wholesale good.  Otherwise, when it’s impersonal, careless, or purely based on the bottom line, it’s just draining.

I’d never been to the Market Gourmet before I went to give them samples of my products, and actually, when I’m not looking for the people, my eyes wander on the shelves.  There may be lots of cupcake and frozen yogurt shops in LA, but true, well-rounded mom and pop gourmet stores are few and far between so if you can, check it out… and if your eyes wander to the shelf where my products are placed, so be it… and tell them that I said hello…

This entry was posted on Monday, June 9th, 2008 at 11:28 pm and is filed under BonBonBar LLC, Los Angeles, Stores. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.