BTS: What a Whole Foods Market Demo Roadshow Looks Like

Hi friends. How are you? We’re doing well, too. Thank you. Just a little sleepy.

We hope you’re buckled in and ready for this week's blog because we’re taking you behind the scenes on a Whole Foods Demo Roadshow!

First, what is a roadshow you ask? Well, getting on shelves at big name stores like Whole Foods is super exciting, and a big accomplishment for a small company like ours. However, believe it or not, getting on shelves can be the easy part. The hard part is staying on shelves. In order to keep our shelf space, we need to make sure that customers are buying snacks and they continue to bring our partners good business. As brand owners, it’s our goal to build a community around our brand, and that all starts with meeting YOU, face-to-face. So… how do we go from landing on shelves to being in your pantries?

For us, we take a heavily people-based approach. Once a store stocks Absurd Snacks on their shelves, we reach out to the store to see if there would be a time that we can come down to meet their team, share some samples/merch, and get to know them a little bit better. Whole Foods, being our first chain retail partner, has been a huge supporter for us, and we want their teams to know how much we value each and every one of them. 

Now, it’s time to get to know the customers, the people who will actually buy the snacks and share with their networks too! We reach out to the stores and schedule demos, which are essentially 4 hour sampling events where we set up a little table in-store to hand out samples, stickers, and share our story with new faces.

A lot of our stores, like Whole Foods in Vienna, VA or Whole Foods Market Kentlands (check out others on our Whole Foods Market store locator), are pretty far from where we’re based in Richmond, so we need to make the trips worthwhile. We’re very lucky to have an amazing support system, so when we head up towards DC, we are able to stay with friends and family and demo for a few days at a time.

Typically, our demos fall on weekends, so we can maximize on work during business hours and hit the stores at their busiest times. A typical demo weekend starts on Friday morning:

Friday

7:30am: We’re in the car, heading up I-95 (our favorite road to be on during rush hour)

9:45am: Arrived at Whole Foods. Grab a cart, unload the car, and head on in.

10am: Check in with customer service, meet with a grocery team member to get setup. We’ll usually work together to find a good spot to set up. Our favorites are by checkout or 

10:10am-2pm: DEMO DEMO DEMO! Samplin’, snackin’ and slingin’. We always love to hear y’all’s feedback so we can continue to improve our snacks for future batches.

The demo setup usually includes our table, branded tablecloth, marketing materials, stickers, samples, and of course bags of snacks for everyone to purchase should they love them (which they usually do)!

An added bonus is when we run into other founders demoing their products and we get to bond over the beauty that is starting a food company. Here’s a pic of us with Lucy from One Trick Pony who is currently taking over the world with her cookie collab with Whisked by Jenna.

2:05pm: All packed up, check in with the grocery team on inventory and see if we can get more placements!

2:15pm: We’re back in the car headed to our next demo spottttt! Quick lunch ‘n munch in the car.

3-7pm: Rinse and repeat. New store, new faces!

7:30pm: Headed back home for dinner, a much-needed shower, and rest.

10pm: Well-deserved sweet treat and time to relax for a bit.

Saturday/Sunday

The story continues. On a heavy demo weekend, we’ll usually demo upwards of 10 stores between the two of us.

As we add on new stores and new partners, especially those that are outside of our reach, we’re always looking for new friends who are willing to jump in and spread the love. If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, or if you are looking to make a few extra bucks, let us know!