Season 4 Episode 9: Retail Ain't Dead Yet

Michael Maher: Welcome everybody to the longer game, the podcast where we talk all about retail. That means a lot of things to a lot of people, but here at the show, that means in store, e-commerce, marketplace, all that good stuff. Retail is very much not linear. That was a really weird saying of retail is not linear.

that's just the reality now. And that means a lot of things have changed, how people experience stuff in store versus how they experience stuff online, the convenience factor, all those things. And we have someone today to talk about that on the show. His name is Al Schuster.

He is the president of Polaris Brand Promotions. Al, welcome to show. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Al Schuster: Glad to be here, Michael.

So my name is Al Schuster. I'm the president and owner of Polaris Brand Promotions. are a ⁓ ⁓ promotional, staffing, and experiential marketing agency ⁓ in and around the Philadelphia area. What we do is we send brand ambassadors out to promote brands, ⁓ products, and directly to consumers, whether it be at a retail location, at a ⁓ sports stadium.

at like a trade show, wherever we need to really kind of be the face of our clients' brands to people and they need that staffing, that's where you'll find our team. Michael Maher: What would you say to people if they said, retail's dead? Al Schuster: I would say retail isn't dead, retail is not going to die. Retail is changing.

We've seen that for the past several years now. ⁓ I it's always changing and evolving ever since you had the first person exchange something for a good or ⁓ service. ⁓ it's changing dramatically. I we started to see this with Amazon and kind ⁓ of the the e-commerce boom.

And now we're it more tech focused than ever with Michael Maher: Sure. Al Schuster: online shopping and delivery services, whether it be for like, you know, your grub hub and door dash for like, you know, for restaurant foods, or you have like all the supermarkets have their kind of their online delivery services now. I really strongly feel that, you know, within the next 10 to 20 years or so, especially as people are just acclimated, the next generation is being acclimated to just doing everything on their phone.

⁓ you're going to see that a lot of retailers start shrinking their in-store space, meaning the space where customers actually go in and shop aisle to aisle. it's going to be very advantageous for them to get rid of that and basically turn retail locations into more of an order pickup location. ⁓ Michael Maher: and more BOPUS than anything, which is what we've seen like the Walmarts and the Kroger's of the world with Clicklist and other things do. Al Schuster: Yeah, I mean, we're starting to see what that was some of like the kind of like your fast food chains where you've gone away from ordering it ⁓ to a human being at a register to ordering on a touchscreen or ordering on your app and then just going there for pickup.

⁓ yeah. Michael Maher: I worked at Starbucks, by the way, like two decades ago. never, I mean, I guess I could have anticipated, but the thought of someone ordering something on an app and just placing a drink out on the counter seems wild to me because it was all really old, like DOS systems at the register. mean, Walmart, excuse me, Starbucks has done a great job of updating technology, but it has changed the experience in store.

is not, it really requires the people behind the counter. Al Schuster: you Michael Maher: to go above and beyond to engage instead of it just being a here's your drink experience. Al Schuster: mean, there is that personalization. It depends from brand to brand, but I think we generally consider kind of like grocery store and even to a degree like, I guess like kind of your, your or whatever is still around the, like the big clothing retailer locations.

It's very much just a kind of a ⁓ self-exploring system where you go around and you kind of look at things, you select things. you know, a brand like Starbucks definitely wants that kind of customized, personalized experience. But to your point, yes, can place that order on an app and then just go and pick it up. So I think it all depends upon the brand and the type of store or the type of retail location that you're talking about.

But when you're talking about commoditized goods, which a lot of like food products are, and maybe even some clothing products are, then yeah, I mean, ⁓ you definitely scale back that. that consumer interaction, that consumer engagement by the brand, but you're still gonna have people who need to purchase those goods and services, so to speak. So you're definitely gonna have people who are just like, all right, let me just cut the humans out and go after, go and just order online when I need it.

Michael Maher: Great. Yeah, well, and you look at e-commerce, apparel related, the return rates are insanely high for obvious reasons. People can't try stuff on. I think there's fraud that's in there as well.

But people will very often buy two different sizes of something, determine which one fits best, and return it. That's kind of the MO of mean, can, with Warby Parker, I know you can try on glasses. It's a little bit different than how something like a shirt or a dress or something like that, how that feels is going to be very different. So kudos to someone like Warby Parker for implementing technology to actually help reduce returns likely and increase satisfaction to the customer.

But it's very, very challenging to do that. I mean, it's impossible to do it online really for most clothing. So there's a reason why those return rates are so Al Schuster: Yeah, I mean, clothing in and of itself, yeah, I mean, you have people who they can't try it on a store. They don't want to bother to go out into a store and get changed in a ⁓ room.

Yeah, could definitely see the appeal of just buying two and returning one, or ⁓ if a really expensive clothing item, buying it, wearing it and returning it, which, you know, has definitely predated the kind of the online shopping. ⁓ What was It was going on for a long while. Michael Maher: That's been around for a while. You leave it.

That's been around for a while. You leave the tags on and then you return it. Yep. Al Schuster: Yeah, exactly.

so, I mean, you know, overall in terms of like, you know, there are commoditization, but there is yes. I mean, you obviously do want to try before you buy liquid to ellipsis, what we call it, kind of when we do alcoholic beverage demos. But yeah, I mean, overall, I would just say, you know, I think the chance to really control whether or any even independence or is really control the brand experience. Michael Maher: Mm.

Al Schuster: when you go into the store. And it's a matter of kind of weighing how much of a brand experience do you want versus changing trends versus how can we maximize our profit and our investment in this store. I definitely am gonna see, know, as people do like everything on their ⁓ and retail spaces, which are, you know, they've been a necessity until recently within like, Michael Maher: Yeah. Al Schuster: you know, the past 20 years or so, you've always needed a physical place to go to.

And I think now you're going to see the consumer really change away from, you know, all the pain points that are associated with going out and shopping, having to drive somewhere, especially in inclement weather, having to find a parking spot, grab a cart, you know, or a basket or something, and then navigate a physical space with other people. And you could do all of that online, it's just going to be a matter of Michael Maher: Mm-hmm. Al Schuster: Okay, well, what do we need an actual store for as opposed to just a pickup location?

Michael Maher: Yeah, I was only being slightly facetious when I said, what would you say if people said that retail's dead? Even in the height of the pandemic, e-commerce was still only 20 % of sales that's happening. So retail, think, is never going to die. I really have a hard time believing that.

Part of it, I think, is think about why some elderly people go to the doctor. Al Schuster: you Michael Maher: They're not going because they're really sick. They're looking for someone to engage with. They want human interaction.

And I think at a very, very base level, we as humans are created to be in community. I believe that from the bottom of my heart, God intended us to be around other people. I think there's a reason why we see people becoming more depressed, suicide rates going up, because we are more isolated because of our devices. I think you can even see stuff like, I don't know if it was like 2012 when But I know the iPhone was released in 2007, 2008, I think.

But then 2012 was when things really started to accelerate. It could have been 2007, 2008 when things started to accelerate. But I believe we're meant to be in community. So I think people want and desire that.

But something you and I have talked about, whether on camera or off, just the experience is not quite the same when people go into a retail store, right? Al Schuster: I mean, totally not. I've said to a lot of people, it's like no one looks at the second page of the Google search results. The same thing kind of goes when you're on online shopping app or like a store website.

store is going to push to the top ⁓ what they you to see. And the same thing, mean, you can get premium placement of products in stores, but let's say you go in and you're looking for a jar of salsa, which I actually did yesterday. You can actually look at one spot, maybe they split them up a couple places, but you can generally go one spot and see all your options and pick them up and compare them very easily. brands may have an advantage, like you walk down a soda aisle, half of it's Coke, the other half's Pepsi.

⁓ But you can look around pretty easily for additional options. And when you're doing online shopping, again, you're very much geared to what goes to the top of their search results because we kind of assume that that's like, Michael Maher: ⁓ okay. Yeah. Al Schuster: the top result, the one that matches the most to what we're looking for.

When it comes to in-store experiences, and this is where I'm kind of very fearful that over time, you're gonna take the shopping out of shopping, you're gonna take the shopping out of the retail experience. It's like, you have so many things that make up that shopping, that retail experience. You have the signage, you have the music, you have, like if you're purchasing ⁓ meat, seafood, fresh vegetables, produce, you can actually look at the items. When you're looking at boxes of product, you can look and inspect the box before you bring it home.

you're dealing with like online delivery, for instance, the pain ⁓ keeping something that is inferior to the quality you want is going to be less than the effort it takes to return it. If the is slightly damaged, ⁓ you're gonna probably gonna Michael Maher: Yeah. Al Schuster: drive to the store and get a refund or I know there are some refund and alternative options, but you know, Michael Maher: I mean, I've even anecdotally had it where it's like, these raspberries are already bad.

It's like, I'm not going to drive back to the store for one container of raspberries, even though they cost six or seven bucks. Al Schuster: Exactly. Right, or the meat is, okay, maybe it's got a little bit too much fat on it than I would have wanted to pick out, but it's like, all right, I can live with that. You're kind of, by moving a lot of these things online, you're kind of taking away from that choice, that option that the consumer has had for so long and maybe is taken for granted in a little bit.

Michael Maher: Yeah. Is that what you mean by taking the shopping out of shopping? Al Schuster: Exactly. when you're basically, mean, you can do a lot on your phone, but you're not actually selecting the materials, the products that you will be consuming.

leaving up the store to do that based upon ⁓ you just put into your, your cart. Now, you know, I'm like a butcher box member. mean, you know, if you're promoting quality, you need to consistently have that quality. But if you're the closest supermarket, you can kind of ⁓ your team put whatever you want in the cart and you know, it gets delivered to you.

They are fulfilling the promise. It's exactly what you ordered, even though it not was exactly what you wanted, you know, or if they delivered the wrong item, especially just a perishable thing, you might just live with it instead of to your point going through the whole hassle of returning. Michael Maher: We have talked with several brands on this show ⁓ mentioned how important sampling ⁓ to their, what I would call discovery process with a consumer. One of the most notable, I believe last season, was ⁓ Germain, head of sales at Fishwife.

And he talked about how he actually came from ice cream over to tin fish and how ice cream was way easier to sample. than tinfish, but it was so crucial because it can be something like tuna or mackerel or you whatever it is in a can can be so polarizing. I mean, they've done a great job from a brand perspective. The quality is amazing too, but they go above and beyond.

It's not just try this thing. It's hey, try this thing on a cracker. Try this thing paired with this other thing. and by the way, we have this Gia non-alcoholic cocktail ⁓ go with it.

So they're creating a real experience. but they're not just doing it in big stores. They're going to smaller, like a butcher shop or a select specialty retailer, someone who the owner has a vested interest in this product really doing well, or just really believes in it because they've gone in and talked with the owner and the owner's like, I mean, this is amazing. They're curating the store based on things that they love and they can sell.

It's not, you know, being in a target or whatever, which they are in now, but it's not being in a target where you're dealing with the buyer and trying to get shelf placement and they're not like, we're going to vouch for every single product. They want to see, you know, sales velocity. These owners can then talk to these people, these small specialty retailers and say, Oh, you want a great tin fish? I just had this.

It was amazing. I'd pair it with this. I'd get these, this cheese right here. And so that sampling has really helped them to get discovery so that when they do find them on Amazon for convenience or do see them in a retailer, it's like, Oh yeah, I've had this.

Now it's a lot easier to put them in your cart and buy. Al Schuster: Yeah, mean, sampling is kind of how our agency was started. You know, we've been around, like I said, for about nine years now. Polar Spray and Promotions does in-store demos as well as like pop-up activations at concerts, sporting events, music festivals.

We do trade shows anywhere where you can get in front of a lot of people to represent a brand. So, you know, for us, yes, you know, Michael Maher: ⁓ cool. Al Schuster: We always tell our potential clients and our current ones, know, sampling is not the end all and be all of your marketing program. It's not the one thing you should throw all of your money in, but it is a key critical component.

It is an expensive one. You know, rates generally 50 to $80 an hour, depending upon the type and style of product we're talking about here, for just to send a brand ambassador out. but you get so much more of that personal engagement, Michael, that you were referring to. Our brand ambassadors are taught, engage the consumer, pull them in, ask them questions like, what do you normally try or drink or eat or whatever?

Encourage that sale, ⁓ away that swag. And having that personality is so critical. I almost kind of jokingly tell our ⁓ clients sometimes, it's like, you ⁓ two things ⁓ make your program a success. Number one, your product has to taste good.

I'm sorry, but it doesn't taste good. It's not going to sell. Common sense, I know. the other thing is having an engaging, experienced, brand ambassador who loves talking with people, loves representing the brand that they're out doing the demo at that day.

A lot of times you don't need a massive, expensive kind of setup or anything. You just need those two critical components. Michael Maher: Bing bing bing bing bing! You can't sell crap.

Yeah. Yeah. Al Schuster: We've had clients that are ⁓ I wanna spend money on custom boots and all this expensive swag and stuff. I'm like, no, if they like it, they're gonna try it, put it in their cart, take it home, use it for a while, and then probably add it to their shopping list for next time.

It's simple, it's not complicated. Michael Maher: I've seen brand owners, especially in the beginning, where they are the ones sampling. there was a brand on here for a previous episode called Sour Milk. And they actually had a really interesting, they basically did drug distribution model where they told people on social, hey, we're going to come deliver this to you on the street in a brown paper bag.

People met them on the street. They delivered the product. It was just like testing throughout the summer. They biked around.

They talked to people. Then people found stuff in stores next summer, the next time they did a production run. It was in, I'm pretty sure it was in New York City. And I no, maybe it was in, I think it was in Colorado.

Either way, they did first that way, talked with people, got feedback. And then when people did see their product in the store, they were, ⁓ like, ⁓ I these founders. I know these people. Like there was engagement and that's the community ⁓ piece, I think so.

crucial that is really missing now, we go into this, what I'll call just formative language of like at a grocery store, like, hey, how are you? Hey, what's going on? Et cetera. Instead of using a different mode of language to engage people and actually have a conversation.

And that could be with this brand ambassador, it could be as simple as like, have you ever tried tin fish before? Or just something like that. what's your weirdest experience with tuna? Like you could really have a good time of that I'm just thinking of tin fish now that's on the brain.

like coming up with something just to disrupt people out of what's going on, engage them, because ultimately people do want to be engaged. And then building a memory for them so that they want to come back and purchase. And then you also create new brand ambassadors by building that engagement with those people in store. Al Schuster: Yeah, we've had a number of clients, especially at trade shows, like some of the bigger ones like Expo West, Sweets and Snacks, where they're working their booth.

are the founders of the company. They were just launched. And they need to go out and they are the salespeople. They handle pretty much every, you know, ⁓ aspect the business because they haven't, you know, scaled up enough to have staff.

So yeah, see it all the time. The benefit to having brand ambassadors, especially with an agency like ours, Michael Maher: Right. Al Schuster: where we don't have minimums, you can use this as much or as little as you want, same price. The great thing about having brand ambassadors is they're an extra hand.

And they may not be like, they may not know your product inside and out, your brand inside and out, they're not gonna be able to answer every question under the sun. But they are gonna be able to handle a majority of them. And the great thing about hiring brand ambassadors, especially really experienced ones, is they know what to do. They come with that.

Michael Maher: ⁓ that's awesome. Mm-hmm. Al Schuster: experience base of being able to walk into a store, know what they need to do, know how to represent a brand to consumers. And that's a huge help, especially as you are growing.

Again, it's not cheap to hire a brand ambassador, but like, you if you can't be in two places at once, if you don't want to lose out on an opportunity, that's where an agency like ours. Michael Maher: Yeah. you what do you think brands might be averse to when it comes to a brand ambassador? What are the typical reasons they say, ⁓ you know what?

What are their objections? Like, no, you know what? I don't know if we're going to do this. Al Schuster: First of all, cost.

think there's a little bit of a sticker shock there. That's number one. Definitely number two would have to be fear of the brand ambassador not being able to represent the brand as well as they do. And a lot of times, potential clients have come to us and said, I've worked with these brand ambassador agencies and they only sell like, I don't know, make up some numbers, like five to 10 units.

Michael Maher: Okay. Okay. Al Schuster: where I can sell 30 to 40 in a three hour demo. it's, you we kind of have to educate them a little bit.

It's like, well, you know, I mean, am I saying they're not true? No. But, know, every store is different. Every, you know, engagement is different.

mean, factors like weather and things like that. And, you know, yeah, sometimes brand ambassadors may not be, you know, the best relative to the owner of the brand, the product. we are still going out there and we are still executing, raising brand awareness, engaging with consumers. So, you know, that is kind of the most critical thing is really just getting out there and ⁓ having brand ambassador just really engage and, you know, kind of determine the metrics and build upon your results.

That's the most important thing. Like we meet with our clients weekly, monthly, quarterly, whatever, however often they would like to kind of go through the results, look at what worked, what... didn't work so well, what we can do to fine tune the program and only make it more successful as time goes by. So you can never take like a one-off demo, like, ⁓ we sent you out for a one-off demo, they only sold two units.

It's like, well, what were the factors? know, we always tell brands, like, you know, if you're set us up to do like one event, and that's your 100 % judge, there's a ton of issues which could impact the success of that event. If you start us off doing 10 to 20 events, then at least we can see across the board, was there a lot of success? Was it kind of like...

Michael Maher: Right. Sure. Bad weather, doesn't go out because it's raining, like that alone could kill the demo. Al Schuster: Right, right exactly.

the worst is the store just shoves them in the back near the product and they're missing 90 % of the traffic, which is why we're launching the sample finder app, we touch on before the end. Michael Maher: Mm. Yeah, or maybe they put you in the bathroom to sample in there and nobody wants to. I'm only teasing.

That would be quite awkward. Al Schuster: Nah, that hasn't happened yet. That would be really awkward. Well, no, we changed our staff.

It's like, you have any issues on site, us. We've never gotten placed in the bathroom yet. I will tell you one horror story that went around and we kind of nipped this in the butt really quickly. A store called it.

And of course, we can't physically be there at every store. We have them check in and check out using GPS. Obviously, we expect the store, the client, if they're having problems to let us know as well. Michael Maher: Sure.

Al Schuster: Brand ambassador checked in, checked out, everything was fine. And then we got a call from the store, I think it was like during or after the demo, stating that the brand ambassadors, I guess they managed to finagle their schedules. They were doing two brands for two different agencies at the same time. And they just kind of set their table across like County corner, but there was a security camera up above them.

And the store employee was like, yeah, this isn't right. Like they didn't doing this enough to know. And so like we fired the person, they kind of let all the agencies know like, your person's doing this. But yeah, mean, so that's kind of the one that was inventive, interesting way to gain the system.

But at the same time, it's like when you're out there representing a brand, you're devoted 100 % to that brand. It doesn't matter if you're doing another demo for a competitor the next day, the next week or whatever, like you're supposed to be 100 % for that brand. Michael Maher: Mm. Yeah.

Sure. Right. Yeah, for sure. Well, yeah, they were driven to the point of being fired, which ⁓ always pay off.

So Al, when you look into the future, into your so-called crystal ball, where do you see this going really well in retail? Like, ⁓ is ultimate, in your mind, ultimate experience for a consumer look like? We know we want people to change the in-store experience to really be more of an experience. We know.

Al Schuster: enough. Michael Maher: People can leverage those stores like a Walmart can leverage their store more for a distribution as opposed to just you know being this huge huge Warehouse that people can walk but like where do you actually see the future of in-store retail going if it's a success? Meaning people are wanting to show up. They're excited about shopping again Al Schuster: Okay, so they wanna, okay.

What I would like to see is stores turn into experiential engagement spaces, as opposed to just places you purchase products from. And what I mean by that is, everyone kind of jokes around like, oh, everyone knows Costco for the samples. It's part of their brand, it's part of their identity. I think a lot of consumers might maybe not quit their membership, would be very turned off if all of sudden demos were prohibited.

Michael Maher: Right. Sure. They'd be disappointed for sure and people would talk about it. Al Schuster: ⁓ totally, totally.

So, I mean, what I'd like to do is see stores do kind of more, not just samplings, but experiential. Whether, you know, it doesn't need to be a sampling, although samples do always help, but it can be like a cooking class or, you know, I know like some total wine stores, they'll do like, they'll do actual classes. They have an actual classroom style setup where you can come in and learn about different types of wine and spirits and things like that. And I think as people crave more that interaction, that human connection.

gonna be very important to differentiate yourself, again, just from a place where you exchange money for products. I think brands are really gonna need to, you know, to make ⁓ the exciting. is to ⁓ really incorporate more that and really to advertise and promote that more. Because a lot of times, Brands just rely when they do demos on the natural foot traffic of the venue.

And sometimes brands can also, you know, they'll put it out on their own personal social media, which gets their fans. The stores might put it on their social media or maybe like on a chalkboard or a dryer race board in the store. So being able to advertise and promote them, I think is going to be very much important so people know. It's like I've had a ton of times, it's like...

Michael Maher: Yeah. That's very passive. Al Schuster: ⁓ if my partner had known about this, they love whiskey, they'd know about it. How long are you gonna be here for?

Are you gonna be here tomorrow? Like no, we're only here during this time. This is why we're launching the Sample Finder app. It's an app that's in development.

And what it's gonna do is it's gonna promote in-store demos and other like kind of public promo events where you get samples, you get out merchant swag, you get discounts or whatever. Write your phone for all different types of brands that work with us and other agencies. and we're going to award points for your activity, like ⁓ checking in, leaving reviews, doing our trivia Tuesday. And then from there, we're going to award like monthly prizes and giveaways for like the number of points that are earned and kind of a lottery-based system where we'll randomly draw to get like loot crates and things like that.

Because we really want to kind of promote these in-store experiences in one centralized platform. Because, you know, like I was talking with a major retailer who we've worked with and they're like, Michael Maher: you Yeah. Al Schuster: Well, we don't want to drive people to your app. We want to drive it to our app.

Well, the chain stores app. I was thinking to myself, if you want an app who does like clothing, health and beauty, food, alcohol, sweets and snacks, things like that, then you're going to have one resource that gets all those people beyond just each store just kind of promoting their own, if that makes sense. Michael Maher: Yeah. ⁓ it makes a ton of sense.

think even in my own life about a, you're talking about whiskey and you're speaking my language. There's a, there's a store, ⁓ alcohol supply store. don't know what you call it. Bag box shop is what they call it in Atlanta or in Georgia.

no, they call it a package shop is what they call it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Package store. Yeah. Which is like, which was like so interesting to me, but there's a store I live in Cincinnati across the river in Newport. Al Schuster: Photoshop.

Package, package store, yeah, package store, you're right. Michael Maher: Kentucky called the Party Source. It's a one-off store. We've got a huge selection of wine, great wine buyers.

They've got a ton of different, I mean, I'm in the heart of, an hour or two outside of Bourbon country. So there's a ton of Bourbons whiskeys and Ries, and they do a lot of barrel picks these different companies. And they've got amazing liquor selection like Amaro's ⁓ and Vermouth's and this stuff. Well, they do something every quarter called the sample soiree and they do promote it and they talk about it on social.

They talk about it their email list and they do it ahead of time and promote to people and say, hey, come in for this sample soiree. You know, it's whatever this Friday and you go in and you get to go and sample a bunch of stuff pretty much for free. Not quite for free, but pretty much. you ⁓ a bunch of different things.

You're in the store. You're a little liquored up. You're probably more willing to buy stuff. You're not walking out of there probably with nothing.

it's a really, and they even have sample like snacks and other things like that, but it's a really amazing experience and they're promoting it ahead of time, getting people involved and engaged to, to come out. And you've got different reps that are working the booth. Some of them are, are, you know, brain ambassadors. Some of them are owners, more than likely it's, it's brain ambassadors, but they're coming out and talking about the product and you're having a good time and finding out about this tequila or this bourbon or Al Schuster: Hmm?

Michael Maher: this Prosecco, like you're really having an experience that to me feels like a win in a time when retail has not been as experiential to your point. Al Schuster: you kind of hit the nail on the head there. I mean, and that's the thing where, you know, a lot of stores don't promote these. Now, what you're talking about has a, sounds like it has a bunch of different brands.

is more an event. you're doing, right, which is 99 % what you're dealing with is one brand only, which is why they don't, you know, advertise them as much. usually people aren't going to drive to a store to do like one little quarter ounce sample of ⁓ and then, Michael Maher: Yeah, it's not one brand only because it's the retailer putting it on. Yeah.

Al Schuster: or maybe shop and go home, they want something more substantial. And that's where we kind of want to basically make it an ongoing thing at these stores. It's not the end all and be all of driving traffic. When you walk into a liquor store, you're going to buy something.

Like 99 % of the time, people going in are buying something. So the store doesn't have a major interest in promoting one over the other or... They probably just if they bought in a new product they want to get it off the shelf and you know make it worth their investment to buy in fact That's what a lot of our clients do they'll sell in like five cases and say okay Well if you buy five cases, I'll give you a couple of samplings to help to promote it So that's kind of the stores motivation to do this, but yeah, you know for those larger events It will bring people in because you're getting a substantial experience what we're looking to do like for instance with sample finder is just give all that volume to people so that they can Michael Maher: Mmm.

Al Schuster: You know, maybe instead of shopping at their normal store on a Friday, they'll do one on Thursday, or they'll shop at a different store that has a demo. Or if you're in a major city, you can almost make a scavenger hunt out of it and kind of go around from store to store to store and trying different samples and every... Michael Maher: Sure. Hmm.

You could get people points for achieving a scavenger hunt too. That would be really cool. Inside the app. Al Schuster: It's, we considered it, it's in the works, you know, to do something like that.

But yeah, the possibilities are there and that's what we really want to do. And it's funny, I was out with a friend of mine and you we were in kind of this posh area of the suburbs of Philly and I was thinking to myself like, okay, well how do we create that experience for like a clothing store, like a boutique clothing store, a little small establishment, you know, like maybe one or two people working at a time. And I got to myself, like thinking to myself like, okay. you bring one of the designers in to talk about their product.

You serve champagne. Maybe you don't give away free dresses, but you give away some free merch or swag from that designer and things like that. And that you can create a kind of almost experiential event out of any type of retail that you're doing. Even like an auto shop, could maybe do simple classes on how to identify problems or how to pick certain things.

And, the, you know, or the parts manufacturer comes in to, you know, kind of help, you know. Michael Maher: Mm. ⁓ for sure. Al Schuster: provide a geek out experience for car enthusiasts.

There's all these different ways, but stores really need to capitalize on that to make themselves relevant in an era when is just so easy and convenient just to do on your phone. It's delivered to you and you move on. Michael Maher: Yeah, I really gotta know now, what salsa did you walk out of the store with? Al Schuster: Oh, I'm not going to play favorites.

It was just one of the generic ones. was just kind of looking around. I was looking around for something different, you know, and I just looked at it. I was having my buddy and his three boys over for dinner and we're doing tacos.

And I'm just picking out a salsa. And this is the first example that came to my mind. But I was looking for like, do I find something like interesting, different, something I wouldn't normally find just by looking at it again? Michael Maher: ⁓ OK.

I was just curious what your intention was going in and what you ended up working out with. okay. Al Schuster: the top of the results. And I just wound up going with something generic because kind of like the little smaller brands, I didn't see anything that really popped to me like, wow, I really want to invest or buy it.

But again, that's the entire point is because a lot of times the major brands, you just know them, it's brand recognition. It's what they spend billions of dollars on each year just so you think of them top of mind. And I kind of went with the idea of, me see if there's something a little bit different. I didn't happen to see anything that I wanted to.

Michael Maher: Yeah. Al Schuster: experiment with and just try on a whim. just went with something. I figured, okay, well, I know this will work.

But again, that's exactly. Yeah, exactly. Michael Maher: Yeah, that's a benefit of brand awareness and recognition. Whereas smaller brands have to do things to stand out.

Creating the experience is what can give them a leg up. And that's something that I don't think big brands, big brands can rely upon brand recognition. Little brands cannot or new and emerging brands cannot, and they need to create that experience. Al Schuster: Exactly.

Even big brands that are launching new products, like a ⁓ big brand, you can think of one of the major ones, offering like a watermelon flavor or something. Yeah, you do want to have that recognition for the new product and people might be hesitant because, well, I know the main brand, but I don't know if this will offshoot if I'm going to like it. They still need to get that exposure, but you're 100 % right. mean, know, Heather, who's our marketing director and co-founder Michael Maher: Yeah.

Sure. Al Schuster: founder of the Sample Finder app, she and I go to Expo West every year. there's so, I mean, there's literally like 3000 exhibitors or something crazy like that. And they're all just, you know, they have little variations, which they really want to help them stand apart from the other major players.

And it's tough, it's really tough. So, you you need to invest in getting your brand out there and creating that buzz and that word of mouth where you recommend it to a friend. to help give you little bit of that oomph, that push to kind of get you to become mainstream. Michael Maher: Well, if this hasn't encouraged people, to think about, especially brands, what the in-store experience could look like and even get people excited about the future of retail, then I don't know what will.

Al, we you being on here, man. If people want to know more about what you're doing, great. I'm glad to hear that. Because even if it wasn't awesome, it's over now.

But if people to know more about what you're doing, where should they look? Behind a sample table or maybe there's somewhere better? Al Schuster: It was awesome. A little bit better.

So you can find us at Polarisbrandpromotions.com. That's any brands or suppliers that want to hire us to do their ⁓ sampling For any who are interested in learning more about Sample Finder, you can go to samplefinder.com.

⁓ You can look for us on socials that I believe it's Sample Finder app. Michael Maher: Love it. You heard it here first people. That's all we got for you.

Until next time.