Hello everyone.

This is Omnitalk Retail.

I'm Chris Walton.

And I'm Anne Mazinga.

And we are coming to you once again from the simbi booth at FMI in Marco Island, Florida, booth number 108.

And standing between us is Katie Welts.

Katie is the vice president of category management and market insights at Topco.

Katie, welcome to omnitalk.

Thanks, thanks for having us.

Yeah, it's great to have you here at fmi.

Yeah, thank you.

And Katie, let's start out by giving our listeners a little bit of your background, your role, and for those who might not be familiar, what Topco is about.

Topco.

All right, well, why don't I start with Topco first because then my role will make a ton more sense.

Perfect.

So Topco is a cooperative made up of 48 members across the total US and really what we're here to do is help our members aggregate their purchases.

So typically in center store, that means their own brand purchases, but that can be items not for resale, pharmacy, and even in fresh and branded meat.

So we really cross the entire portfolio of what a retailer does.

And we not only do that, but we also offer that for regional grocers and wholesalers that enables them to compete on the size and scale of some of the larger national chains.

Amazing.

My role at Taco is I am the vice president of center store category management and also insights.

And so for center store category management, it's basically anything with a UPC code that's not meat.

Okay.

And really what we're here to do is help our members sell more of what they've got, more of what we've got, and innovate.

And then we measure that.

So explain that because like, so all of our loyal fans in like the apparel industry, they don't necessarily know what category management is and what it means on a day to day basis.

So double click into that for us and tell us, tell us what it is that you're doing on a daily basis.

Like what exactly it is that I do every day.

No, absolutely.

And the insights you're providing.

Absolutely.

So from a category management standpoint, it's really about understanding the shopper and what their needs are and then fulfilling those needs, be it with the right assortment.

Right.

So you're really sort of anchoring on the five or six Ps of marketing.

So having the product on shelf, having it at the right price to demonstrate a value.

And again for own brands, that has a very unique position because you've got to offer value to national brand but then also there's this whole migration to premium that we can talk about.

Yes.

And then it's promotions.

Right.

So what sort of promotional behavior do you need to see in order to enable shoppers to buy and then making sure that it's merchandised in the right way.

Right.

And then that measurement is how do all of those things come together and work to enable sort of a strong and productive P and L ultimately for the members?

Right, Right.

Well, let's talk a little bit more about some maybe market trends or insights.

You mentioned premium.

Maybe tell us a little bit more about that.

So again, from an own brand perspective, what we see is this really interesting bifurcation in the marketplace.

Right.

So inflation was at an all time high that is tempered out a little bit.

But with that tempering, it's actually really shoppers have had to make some really tough decisions.

And it's not just shoppers that have a limited income, it's even your higher income shopper.

And what we see them doing is migrating to own brands.

But they're not necessarily looking for the lowest price on shelf, they're looking for an experience in their basket.

Right.

So be it something I'm going to cook at home or how I'm going to treat my family or even gift giving, but I want to do that at a value, but very high quality.

And that's really what we've started to see.

The other half of that is the definition of value continues to evolve.

So it's also about sort of these large packs, sizes and that club channel and being able to compete in that space as well.

Okay, so folks are looking for value in very different ways, not the traditional definition of it.

Right.

So if I'm hearing you correctly, you're saying like this might take place in a different flavor profile that they are used to getting in maybe a more premium environment, but they want that for the own brand or with the own brand.

Absolutely.

And oftentimes what we find is if you are entering into a new sort of unknown or more sort of exotic food type.

So I mean I'm thinking about mochis and things of that nature.

People first will enter with a familiar flavor and then they'll become adventurous where if it's something familiar like coffee or tea, then they're more adventurous on that flavor exploration, if they're familiar.

So then you can start to sort of go into botanicals or really spicy and hot things like that's sort of some of the emerging, not necessarily emerging, those have been really formal trends that we've Seen for a while now.

I've never thought about that before.

That's interesting.

It's Safe Zone and then.

Yeah, right, right.

It's kind of like, kind of like how men shop for apparel in a lot of ways.

All right, so from the chair atop which you sit, if you were to guess or pontificate, we always like to get a little prognostication when we can.

Sure.

How do you think grocery retailing is going to change in the next, you know, three to five years, Even five to ten years?

Yeah, absolutely.

So I think there's certainly going to continue to be this evolution of satisfying needs digitally or with home delivery, things of that nature, really sort of maybe changing the way you engage with the retailer.

I do believe that there are still going to be people that enjoy that treasure hunt and that walking the store and the shopping.

So I don't necessarily think that that's going to go away, but perhaps the way you do that and the way you engage with the products may continue to evolve as shoppers have access to more and more information and they have access to sort of a broader variety of retailers through their phones or their devices.

And what are you envisioning there?

Like, take us in the head of Katie.

Like, what are you envisioning in terms.

Of, like, what that could look like?

Not that it will look like, but like, what do you think it could look like?

So it could.

For me, my perspective is it could look like all of the things that I know I'm gonna buy on the regular show up at my house.

Yeah, yeah.

But when I've got.

Everyone always talks about that.

Yeah, right.

When I got, when I want to try something, that's where I've got this opportunity to engage in a store.

And I believe that stores could actually potentially even reconfigure their layouts to accommodate that.

Right.

Again, so enabling sort of this more adventurous, more experiential type of retail experience.

As you're shopping the store, you're really engaging with the products or it becomes sort of more of an event, more social, more community based, as opposed to necessarily me just going to fill a shopping cart.

And how do you have conversations with some of your brand partners too, as you're helping them understand like this new way of shopping or how to present their product or even like, I'm thinking, you talk about the repeat things that I order, like, I get the same brand of milk every single time.

How do you help them think about, like, how do I break through then in that category when somebody's already pre ordered their milk and now like, how do I get them to think about that in a different way or even get more experiential with their product?

So I think that's where you've got to first drive trial.

So you have to make it accessible to me and you have to make it meaningful to me.

And so that's one of the pieces that we always engage with some of our suppliers on is really what is the shopper looking for in terms of that access?

And then quite honestly, driving trial, there's nothing better than either having people advocate for you that I'm familiar with and know and trust.

We see that a lot with mom and baby.

Mom seeks out sort of those trusted advisors and those trusted advisors are like on TikTok and Instagram.

Right.

So it's a whole new dimension there.

So there's definitely some partnership and engagement at that level as well.

So I imagine that'll be something.

You'll be talking to your CBG partners here at fmi.

But what else brings you here?

What else are you excited to do while you're at the show?

Well, a big part of our role at FMI is also engaging with our members.

Right.

So Again, we've got 48 members across.

The U.S.

good way to get to see them all.

Yeah, we absolutely will have strategic conversations with them.

We will partner with some of our CPG partners that also do own brands and as well as technology providers to continue to evolve and stay on the cutting edge.

Excellent.

Yes, absolutely.

Well, thank you, Katie.

Thanks for stopping by.

Absolutely.

I want to make this happen too.

Katie and I would, for those that want to understand how the sausage is made, Katie and I went back and forth a few times.

We were able to nail it down.

Absolutely.

Great.

You're our first person we've ever had from Top Coats.

Oh, well, thanks.

So thanks for spending time with us.

Thank you very much, guys.

Appreciate it.

And we hope you have a great rest of the show.

And thanks to Simbi for sponsoring our coverage.

And until next time, be careful out there.