Nurturing Emerging Food Brands with Emily Schildt
Listen on: Apple | spotify | google
Meet Emily Schildt
Emily Schildt is the founder and CEO of Pop Up Grocer, the first experience-first grocery store. She has worked for more than a decade in the CPG space, culminating in a role at the forefront of trends. Pop Up Grocer features emerging, better-for-you brands in food, home, beverage, and body care through its temporary and permanent physical locations, and its e-commerce box offering.
Emily recently opened her first permanent Pop Up Grocer location in downtown Manhattan! As the mastermind behind this innovative retail concept, Emily has revolutionized the way we experience and discover emerging food and beverage brands. This new, permanent location showcases over 400 unique products from 130+ up-and-coming brands, complemented by a charming café offering a rotating selection of bakery and coffee partners. While the ongoing pop-up locations will continue to delight customers nationwide, the NYC flagship store invites you to indulge in a one-of-a-kind shopping experience daily.
Episode Highlights
During this episode of The Food Means Business Podcast, we discuss:
How a trip to Italy reformed Emily’s diet and relationship with food
The challenges faced by new CPG brands in a competitive market
How a lead generation idea became a multi-city pop-up grocery store concept
The importance of captivating storytelling, distinctive branding, eye-catching packaging, and fostering meaningful consumer connections
Successes that brands have enjoyed after being featured at Pop Up Grocer
That time with friends and loved ones can be key ingredients in the CPG business
-
00;00;00;19 - 00;00;25;01
Djenaba
You were listening to the Food Means Business Podcast, which features the personal stories and secret ingredients behind what it's like to abandon your day job to start a food business. I'm Djenaba Johnson Jones, former marketing executive turned entrepreneur and founder of food business incubator Hudson Kitchen. Join a community of fellow food business owners and subject matter experts to learn and laugh with us as we explore a startup world that's a little more culinary and a lot less corporate these days.
00;00;25;08 - 00;00;29;10
Djenaba
Hi Emily. Thank you so much for being here. Welcome to the Food Means Business podcast.
00;00;29;22 - 00;00;31;10
Emly Schildt
Hi. Thank you for having me.
00;00;31;23 - 00;00;45;25
Djenaba
Absolutely. Absolutely. So I love to just jump in and talk about your career trajectory. This podcast is all about individuals that go from working a corporate job to launching a business. So I'd love to hear your story.
00;00;47;22 - 00;01;30;13
Emly Schildt
Nice story. It starts, I guess, at a little bitty yogurt company that you now know as Chobani. I was one of the early employees and built the digital marketing team there. The Web presence for the brand. So social media, in its early days, influencer relations in its infancy before content creators was a term and I had the good fortune of working pretty closely with that founder who's pretty, pretty exceptional human being and leader and entrepreneur.
00;01;30;23 - 00;01;54;18
Emly Schildt
So I think that's where I caught the bug and certainly built the desire to create a business that would do good in the world. He sort of taught me that. Whether you like it or not, business is actually the way to affect change. So when I left there, I didn't want to just go work another old desk job.
00;01;55;17 - 00;02;27;29
Emly Schildt
The company had grown faster than Facebook and Twitter combined at the time may still be one of the fastest growing food companies in history. And I knew that I wouldn't be content just going anywhere else after that. So I decided to, in typical millennial form, take some time and traveled and regained my breath, regained myself a little bit, and decided that I would consult with small food companies.
00;02;27;29 - 00;02;47;09
Emly Schildt
And I did that for about eight years, maybe seven or eight years. And it's over the course of that time working with these businesses primarily at the point at which they were just coming to life, just launching their product that I had the idea to create what is now pop up grocer.
00;02;48;22 - 00;03;05;28
Djenaba
That is so cool. So thank you for that. So take us back a little bit. Tell us about little Emily and what her plans were for the future growing up like your family, was food always a part of what you of your life and you know what you did growing up now?
00;03;07;29 - 00;03;08;23
Emly Schildt
Little Emily.
00;03;08;24 - 00;03;11;08
Djenaba
Me either.
00;03;11;08 - 00;03;47;03
Emly Schildt
Emily was pretty lonely and pretty independent, so my interest in food really spun in college. I think when I realized I was an adult and I would have the opportunity to create my own food reality and kind of reform my diet, my relationship with food. So, like most diets, transition stories or like a passion for food epiphanies, it began in Italy.
00;03;47;27 - 00;04;25;21
Emly Schildt
I went abroad and just realized that everything I had believed about food as sort of like a means to an end was wrong, or just a way of living that I no longer desired. And I really started to eat for pleasure and enjoyment and nourishment. And yeah, that's where a much healthier, positive relationship with food began. And I guess, yeah, shaped my my career.
00;04;26;28 - 00;04;38;16
Djenaba
Got it. So let's talk about pop up grocer. So you came up with this idea. How did the idea come to be and how do you work with emerging brands?
00;04;38;24 - 00;05;15;04
Emly Schildt
So in my work with my consulting work with these brands as they were coming to market, I got a peek behind the curtain at the experience of launching and retail and brick and mortar for the first time. I never really been exposed to that in my work for a CPG company kind of being isolated in digital marketing. And I just realized how difficult very simply it was for a product to get on shelf to be accepted by a retailer.
00;05;15;11 - 00;06;07;05
Emly Schildt
And then once you're there, all of the new barriers that emerge, a lot of which are cost prohibitive slotting fees demanded marketing spend in addition to just very simply being one of like 60 SKUs within a category. And so it would be very easy for someone to overlook you in such a crowded space. And so a light bulb went off for me, having worked so intimately with these brands and feeling so passionate about what they were creating and truly feeling like it was exceptional business end to end and wanting them to have the opportunity to just simply get in front of the people that they were looking to reach.
00;06;08;28 - 00;06;48;08
Emly Schildt
That's when I realized that I should just create that environment myself if it didn't exist. That's sort of the ideal physical space in which to launch product, and that's what I created in April 2019, a ten day grocery store pop up. It was really no bigger ambition than that at the time. I thought maybe it was going to be an additional service offering that I would extend to my clients and potentially a good way for me to interact with a lot of emerging brands and create a pipeline for my consulting business.
00;06;48;16 - 00;06;55;20
Emly Schildt
I certainly didn't envision it in and of itself being my my business moving forward.
00;06;57;01 - 00;07;02;25
Djenaba
So how does it work? Do how do you select the brands that you feature in your stores?
00;07;03;29 - 00;07;39;20
Emly Schildt
So today we have opened nine pop ups across seven cities. They exist for 30 days at a time in each city, and we feature somewhere between 100 and 150 brands that fall under the grocery umbrella. So food, beverage, Home, Pet body care, and that amounts to somewhere around 400 SKUs or products. So and our criteria have been more or less the same from day one.
00;07;41;00 - 00;08;19;07
Emly Schildt
One and probably the most important of which for our concept particularly is is it new to market? So everything we feature is a new product from an emerging brand, which we define having come into existence within the last five or so years. And it has to be doing something creative and innovative. So using a familiar ingredient in a new format, there may be a sustainability component, may have a really compelling founding story.
00;08;19;07 - 00;08;35;17
Emly Schildt
So that's where the meat of our decision making lies. And then once it passes that first criterion, we look at ingredients sourcing responsibility and packaging it has to be superficially cute.
00;08;36;25 - 00;08;46;19
Djenaba
I, I, I agree. I think beautiful packaging sells the product for sure. And your stores are beautiful. So you want to have something pretty on the shelves as well.
00;08;46;19 - 00;09;11;24
Emly Schildt
And selfishly, it contributes to the overall design and esthetic appeal. And we also know at this point what gets people excited. So it's to the brand's benefit to, you know, we want them to be received well in our space. And so having packaging that stands out on shelf is going to make them more successful.
00;09;15;02 - 00;09;27;23
Djenaba
So I read that you are opening a permanent location for a pop up grocer. And I'm just first, congratulations on that. I think that that's fantastic. How will the permanent location differ from the pop ups that go on?
00;09;28;26 - 00;10;03;14
Emly Schildt
Yeah, So I think a lot of pop up concepts are are primarily in existence to test for a permanent model. Will this work? Our pop up model will be retained in the permanent model. So pop ups have always been our thing and will continue to be in that. We create this momentous occasion on which to visit a new set of products that we believe people want to discover.
00;10;03;21 - 00;10;25;22
Emly Schildt
And so the the nature of the pop up is well-suited to what it is that we want to accomplish. And so the permanent the distinction between pop ups, which will continue to do across the country and the permanent store, are just that this will be a long standing destination, a reliable destination for people to come and discover new products.
00;10;26;22 - 00;10;45;26
Emly Schildt
They will just continuously rotate. So I think our challenge for the next year is to kind of retrain people who know us as the traveling, like the traveling circus of grocery to understand that that pop up now means in the permanent stores anyway that the stuff is always new. But we are here to stay.
00;10;47;27 - 00;10;58;17
Djenaba
Great. So can you give an example of some brands that you've worked with that kind of started out in your stores that may have gone on to do great things?
00;10;58;26 - 00;11;23;26
Emly Schildt
So many. I would love to be able to take credit. I, I can't do that. Unfortunately, I wish there was I was just saying this yesterday, which sounds like a tracking device, you know, or something that could really allow for us to see the progress of a brand once it's been in our store and and its life thereafter.
00;11;24;17 - 00;11;58;21
Emly Schildt
But unfortunately, that doesn't yet exist. But yes, we have many success stories. Countless. In fact, I was just talking yesterday with someone about how Partake Foods was a part of our very first location, the the test. Even Denise and her husband hand-delivered boxes of cookies. And obviously now it's just so rewarding, amazing and is so deserving of success, have really what feels like skyrocketed.
00;11;59;05 - 00;12;25;00
Emly Schildt
I'm sure it doesn't feel like that to them, but it feels like it happened really fast. And so that's really thrilling for us to be a part of the ride. Same thing with Fly By Jane. They were also very a part of our very first store and now are available in Costco and have a myriad of wonderful products in their portfolio sales.
00;12;25;00 - 00;12;28;29
Emly Schildt
In our last pop up, about a third of them were fly by train.
00;12;29;07 - 00;12;29;23
Djenaba
Oh, wow.
00;12;29;29 - 00;12;58;01
Emly Schildt
The success of that brand is is amazing. And I could go on and on honestly. And yeah, it's really just over the last three years that we've been doing that, we've, we've had the great fortune and pleasure to work with brands time and time again. Some have been a part of every single pop up that we've done, just continuously launching new flavors, etc. with us.
00;12;58;01 - 00;13;04;17
Emly Schildt
And, and yeah, it's, it's a great joy. And the reason why it is that we do what we do.
00;13;04;23 - 00;13;20;26
Djenaba
I completely agree like I, I've seen brands and coming to hats and kitchen that have grown onto their own facilities and are doing amazing as well. I can't take credit either. I'd love to be a I always tell them I really enjoy being a part of their journey. That kind of is rewarding for me. So I, I totally get it.
00;13;22;01 - 00;13;27;17
Djenaba
So let me see. And I'm sorry I lost my place here.
00;13;27;21 - 00;13;28;04
Emly Schildt
All right.
00;13;28;22 - 00;13;41;06
Djenaba
Um, I know when I was researching you, I was got curious. Has any, like, big grocery or big food companies come to attempt to work with Papa Grocer.
00;13;43;04 - 00;13;44;16
Emly Schildt
Brands or retailers?
00;13;44;26 - 00;13;48;25
Djenaba
Retailers? Yeah.
00;13;48;25 - 00;14;13;21
Emly Schildt
Yes, yes, and yes. You know, I. Yeah, I mean, when I opened that first pop up, like I said, I didn't really expect it to be anything at all. I obviously had no idea how to. Maybe not obviously, but I had no idea how to run a grocery store. I still don't. I tell people all the time that no one knows what they're doing and if they tell you anything different, they're just better liars, I guess, than I am.
00;14;13;29 - 00;14;49;15
Emly Schildt
But I definitely know I'd do it. And I was then stunned when all kinds of interested parties reached out to me just at the end of that ten days, including some of the biggest retailers in America. So, yeah, I think, you know, there are a lot of things that these big retailers do well and there are a lot of things that a few things that they think they're willing to admit that they're really not good at.
00;14;49;15 - 00;15;08;21
Emly Schildt
And I can confidently say that one of those is source in emerging brands and specifically sourcing those that are really going to be a match for their consumer base in terms of price and appeal and founding story and all of that.
00;15;09;18 - 00;15;22;06
Djenaba
Yeah, I have to imagine they're using public grocery to to find out brands build to fill their own shelves with. I'd have to assume that you're definitely the testing ground for.
00;15;22;06 - 00;15;54;29
Emly Schildt
Them and I mean it's been you know we do an end of year survey among our brands and year after year one of the top three reasons why they say they have found such value in working with us is this type of grocers stamp of approval. If they're just the sheer fact that they're able to go to a retailer and say, we've been in pop up grocer despite what they sold.
00;15;55;17 - 00;16;24;22
Emly Schildt
Right. That sales data is really helpful and validating as well is it is really meaningful to a buyer. And then again, that's surprising. Surprising to me. I hear me a little that but you know, I mean, we are doing a lot of hard work in terms of finding these brands, building relationships with them, scrutinizing their labels. So it's extremely helpful for those for whom this is their job to do that as well.
00;16;25;18 - 00;16;37;19
Djenaba
Thank you. Can you talk a little bit about because I know you get to see everything that kind of comes through. Can you talk about 2023 and what you're seeing as far as food trends?
00;16;38;08 - 00;17;18;11
Emly Schildt
Oh, I hate to wear the trend forecaster hat because no one really knows. But even I you know, who like I'm on the cutting edge and I see it all but I think that's something exciting. Apologies. I live in Manhattan, so no worries. Always a target to live fairly close to a firehouse. So let me know if I need to to meet.
00;17;19;15 - 00;17;20;07
Djenaba
Yeah. You're good.
00;17;21;24 - 00;17;40;23
Emly Schildt
Yeah. I think we have seen continued interest in, I guess. Yeah. I don't.
00;17;40;23 - 00;17;41;25
Djenaba
Know. We'll give it a minute.
00;17;42;22 - 00;18;17;12
Emly Schildt
Guess literally every 10 minutes. They just give us, uh, what we noticed in our most recent location in Denver, for example, about a third of maybe more than than maybe about a half of our top selling brands, both units and group sales were products that are rooted in Asian flavors or cuisine. So that could say a number of things.
00;18;18;14 - 00;19;04;08
Emly Schildt
But I think one aspect of that that's interesting is that maybe, you know, we're we're moving on to the a little bit more, dare I say, like adventurous or accepting in terms of like a flavors flavor profile level of spices. Um, I don't know. I think it's just like as someone who has been surprised over the last three years to witness how little people know how to cook or how timid people are about trying new things, I think to see some of the things that are widely accepted in our space just means that we're moving in the right direction.
00;19;04;08 - 00;19;58;05
Emly Schildt
We have also noticed in terms of protein bars, you know, we're some like more overwhelmingly popular items over the last few years. It seems to be some decreased interest. And I don't know if it has to do with like protein specifically, but I think this younger generation is optimistically viewing diet with a bit more like intuition and balance and being so conscious of calories and that the back label counts.
00;19;59;15 - 00;20;28;29
Emly Schildt
They're more like front label excitement and colors and taste. I don't know which I personally just think is, is. And again, like, like I said, when I had so reinvigorated view on food in Italy, just and selfishly like thinking about food in the less restrictive way and so I don't know. That's kind of a dodgy answer to your question, I guess.
00;20;28;29 - 00;20;53;07
Emly Schildt
But I don't like mushrooms are going to be big. They're already big. I don't like I don't know what they're you know, like I don't want to be the one who says like collagen. And I don't like I don't necessarily want that to be big. I don't know. I think, uh, I think some of the trends of the last couple of years will continue as well.
00;20;53;07 - 00;21;20;09
Emly Schildt
As far as like the overwhelming shift to food, almost like fashion being very much or your food choices being very much a statement of you or identity and then being really cool or the need to be cool and story forward as a result.
00;21;20;09 - 00;21;41;10
Djenaba
So thank you. So as a business owner, sometimes we get kind of wrapped up in our businesses and what we do and sometimes tend to think, think about them. 24 seven When you what you do to relax or kind of step away from the business so you can kind of reinvigorate yourself and and move forward.
00;21;41;10 - 00;21;49;05
Emly Schildt
Um, I'm also terrible at answering this question. I am really good at I'm really good at setting boundaries.
00;21;49;05 - 00;21;50;25
Djenaba
I'm not Oh, that's great.
00;21;51;11 - 00;22;04;00
Emly Schildt
I'm not a freak about work. My boyfriend, like, recently was like I criticizing me a little better. I think he's very curious. He's like, I'll be interested to see if this all works out for you, you know, because you're so chill.
00;22;06;09 - 00;22;06;12
Djenaba
That.
00;22;06;15 - 00;22;20;28
Emly Schildt
You would be a good case study or something, you know? And so but I guess what I'm I'm trying. I'm doing it for the good of us all, you know, because if it works, then everyone can follow suit.
00;22;21;22 - 00;22;32;21
Djenaba
It's true. No, that's great. I keep reading about or reading about that. I keep reading about, like, work less, make more money or whatever, like be more successful. And so I think there's got to be something to that.
00;22;32;27 - 00;23;15;05
Emly Schildt
Yeah, I am. I have a very I'm a very routine person. So like, I wake up every morning and I move my body in some way. I come back and I cook a really delicious, nutritious breakfast and have a similar sort of routine to close out my day. I make a lot of room for time or for friends and social activity and time and nature and yeah, I think it makes me more productive and work more efficiently in the hours that I do actually spend.
00;23;15;15 - 00;23;19;02
Emly Schildt
And I don't carry so much resentment throughout the day as adults.
00;23;20;21 - 00;23;24;28
Djenaba
I think that's great. We can all aspire to be like you, Emily For sure.
00;23;24;28 - 00;23;27;21
Emly Schildt
I don't know. Caroline For me, for.
00;23;31;03 - 00;23;54;11
Djenaba
So at Hudson Kitchen, we have what we call the money bell that we bring people who are celebrating something could be anything from getting, you know, a new to a new retail partner or a new customers. So we'd love to hear like what you're celebrating could be anything business related or personal as well.
00;23;54;11 - 00;24;27;05
Emly Schildt
I'm celebrating the opening of our first store. It seems like such an obvious answer, but it really is the most thrilling thing in my life right now. Definitely the most challenging and the most teaching as well. It took us 18 months to land a location, not something I expected nor forecasted from a financial perspective. For the company it is.
00;24;27;26 - 00;24;54;27
Emly Schildt
It was a real test to my chill mode, just enduring. I mean, we just I endured so much rejection, I wouldn't wish it upon anyone. I mean, just landlord after landlord just didn't want to take a risk on us. And it would much prefer to take a tenant who has 15 other locations or $50 million in the bank, either of those things going to it.
00;24;56;12 - 00;25;18;09
Emly Schildt
So it feels like an enormous win just to get the space. And now I'm crossing all these other hurdles, like trying to get costs down for the build out and trying to ensure we open within our free rent period. And it is not for the faint of heart. So I will really be ringing the bell when we're open and this thing is like real.
00;25;18;09 - 00;25;25;01
Emly Schildt
And I haven't run the company into the ground, so excited for that. Yeah.
00;25;25;15 - 00;25;40;14
Djenaba
Yeah. It took me four years to from idea to opening my facility, so I. I'm with you. I understand. Yeah. And so to me, I kind of realize it's about the journey and not necessarily, you know, when the thing actually opens and happen. Yeah.
00;25;40;14 - 00;25;46;05
Emly Schildt
Amazing. Congratulations. I mean, yeah, it's a real test of patience, and I already knew I didn't have any, so.
00;25;48;06 - 00;25;52;20
Djenaba
The situation kind of makes you have the patience. So, yeah, it's fine. It all works out.
00;25;52;20 - 00;26;02;11
Emly Schildt
Yeah. I mean, we can all we can all stand to improve in the areas in which we can.
00;26;02;11 - 00;26;09;03
Djenaba
Well, and we thank you so much for joining us on the Food Business podcast. Please let everyone know where they can find out about you and more about pop up.
00;26;09;03 - 00;26;38;04
Emly Schildt
Grocer Yeah, Pop up Grocer dot com is our website. With all the information about where we're opening next, we have a full brand directory. If you want to poke around and use some filters, you know, by dietary preference or values and see some of the brands that we feature. And we're also on Instagram where you can talk with us at that grocer.
00;26;39;01 - 00;26;57;23
Djenaba
Oh, thank you so much. The Food Means Business podcast is produced by Hudson Kitchen. It's recorded and edited at the studio at Carney Point. Our theme song is by Damien de Sandys, and I'm your host, Jennifer Johnson Jones. Find out more about Hudson Kitchen by visiting the Hudson Kitchen dot com or follow us on Instagram at the Hudson Kitchen.
00;26;58;09 - 00;27;04;16
Djenaba
Listen below and leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. Until next time.
Connect with Emily:
Recommendations from the episode: