How To Get Into Food Town
Founded in 1994, Food Town is a locally owned company with thirty-two locations in the Houston and surrounding areas. The retail chain is rapidly growing and it is dedicated to offering a hassle-free shopping experience in a clean and welcoming environment with outstanding customer service. Every day you will find friendly team members happily willing to assist you with your shopping needs. Being a store who, when compared to other established stores, is still quite young, there is quite a welcoming approach given to customers.
The supermarket business in the United States is one that tries to connect with the individual customer. This means, the supermarkets try to address the needs and interests of individual customers. This is by offering local, international, and metropolitan products. You can get spices, meat, wine, food, and so many other food products from this type of store.
Customers have given several reviews on this store and they have been quite good. A customer noted on yelp.com that: “I love food town. DEALS, DEALS, DEALS! Lays, Cheetos, Doritos for $1.99, they alternate each week. Their meat is always really cheap. The link sausage (Chappell Hill and Kountry boy) is on sale almost every week. Beware of the drumsticks… super huge. Toilet paper and paper towels are cheap. I always buy this scented lavender toilet paper (purple bag) it’s similar to WalMarts white cloud and HEBs twice as soft. The only produce I usually buy from here are the oranges…which are sweet (4/$1 in season). I’m extremely picky with food, I won’t touch it if it looks spotty. Anyhow everyone should check out Food Town. If it’s not your cup of tea, just stop by to get a sales ad and take it to Walmart to price match.”
The Texas community is quite large and there is a lot of foot traffic for at the door of this retailer. This retailer offers so much varieties and fresh fruits that customers can’t stop coming. Several customers have particularly commented nicely on the succulent and sweet fruits this retailer sells.
For a distributor, this is an established store that can get your products to move as fast as possible. With the awesome varieties they offer and the established customer base, it can be easily deduced that there are customers already dedicated to what they sell. With a loyal customer base and new customers every day, it is highly profitable to get into business with this kind of store.
On the local sourcing of food products, Food Town has been on the forefront of selling locally sourced food products and imported food items. Their wine, spice, and produce selection make them a leader in the retail and grocery business niche. This store has been in the business for years and has its established sourcing angles. Its constant support of local products has helped it cement its brand in the community as people can easily resonate with it.
How to get your product into Food Town
- Understand you client: Before you spend a lot of time and money creating a product, you should know if anyone will want to buy it. Learn more about Market Research
- Learn if it’s protectable: Know if you can defend your product against cheap copies if it gets knocked off. Learn more about Copyright and Patent your product
- Test your product: Make sure that there’s a demand for your product and the customer understands what you are selling when it’s on the shelf and nobody is there to explain it. Learn more about Product Testing
- Perfect your pitch: Before you speak to decision makers, know your numbers, know your retailer and know your logistics in and out. Learn more about Pitching Your Product
- Don’t do it alone: If you haven’t been successful in retail before, a secret of success is that you can’t do it alone. Having great sales staff, customer support and marketing partners can take you from zero to success faster than if you tried on your own. Learn more about Retail Partnerships
Contact Food Town Buyer
Do not trust any “list” of buyers.
Typically retail buyers change either companies or positions every few years. This strategy helps retailers know that their buyers are not taking “kick-backs” and are selecting the very best product for the very best position each time.
Buyers are typically held to a very rigorous standard of sell-through volume that they must hit and because of this they are risk averse. Your job as a supplier or vendor is to convince them that the buyers going into the stores not only know about what you’re selling but are actively seeking the product in the store currently.
How to Submit a Product to Food Town
There are several ways to get a product placed in Food Town. However, most entrepreneurs only dream about getting their product distributed to major retailers, few actually do it. We have experienced a significant rise in interest since the show Shark Tank started airing on NBC. Mr. Checkout has had the pleasure of working with a few Shark Tank success stories such as KISStixx and 180 Party Cups which are now currently being distributed around the country to stores like Walmart, Target, Kroger, 7-Eleven and more.
If you envision your product would be a good fit for Food Town, we have a few steps to help you get your product on their shelves.
Here are the 6 steps you need to take to have your product placed in Food Town.
1. Start with the right questions.) Before you try distributing your product to Food Town, you need to ask yourself a few basic questions. Do you need to build demand for your product, or is there already a demand for it? Do you know that Food Town would be interested in selling your product? If you can strike a deal with Food Town, can you handle the production volume? Do you want to sell directly to Food Town, or do you want to license your product to a manufacturer that will handle distribution?
2. Be prepared to profit.) Does your product offer enough of a profit margin for Food Town? Can you sell your product at a reasonable enough profit to cover the packaging, shipping, commissions, marketing and wholesale distribution? Check Food Town guidelines for other fees that you will have to build into the cost of your product in order for you to be able to turn enough of a profit to make the effort worth your while. If you work with a discount retailer, they will try to strip your profits down to zero in order to keep their prices as low as possible.
The typical breakdown of margins are: If a products costs $1 to produce, that product will retail for $4. That product that retails for $4 will wholesale for $2 to distributors and stores that purchase direct. Big box retailers like Food Town may offer to pay $1.25 to the manufacturer if the product costs $1 to produce. That is the typical profit margin.
3. Determine if Food Town is the right store for your product.) The relationship between you and Food Town starts with you browsing their store for competing products. If Food Town already has a similar product, it is going to be very difficult to get your product picked up. Spend some time at your local Food Town to see what kind of products they are selling, speak to the manager and see if he thinks your product will sell well in their store. Picture in which zone your product would best fit on the shelf and keep in mind that the most precious asset that these big box stores value are their shelf space. Keep this information in mind when you are preparing your presentation to Food Town.
If your company is minority or women owned, check Food Town website and see if they offer specific opportunities for those designations.
4. Pitch your product to Food Town.) Decide whether it will be you or a representative to present your product to Food Town. Your presentation depends heavily on your strengths as a businessperson as they will most likely ask financial questions and logistics questions.
It’s common for companies to hire a broker to pitch their product to Food Town, as it will be more likely that your product will make it to the next stage if the individual pitching your product has industry knowledge or a personal relationship with Food Town. The percentage of commission verses, however generally a broker will take around 5% to represent your product to Food Town.
We at Mr. Checkout have experience dealing with brokers and know that there are several retail brokers that have poor business practices that can potentially damage your brand. If you are seeking a legitimate Food Town broker, please give us a call for a recommendation. It could save you a huge headache and a lot of money.
5. Complete the required Food Town paperwork.) Often Food Town will have you go through an application process. However, before submitting the paperwork required by Food Town, you should contact a buyer at Food Town and let them know your intentions. Having a contact inside of the company will potentially move your application more smoothly through the process.
6. Anticipate the need for increased volume.) Having Food Town agree to stock your product will most likely mean a significant increase in volume. You should be prepared to ramp up your production and informing your manufacturer of this opportunity.
Having production, logistics and distribution to sync is not only difficult, it requires a significant amount of time invested in customer relations. Also, Food Town may have stipulations in the contract that may penalize you for delays in shipping and production. Have an attorney explain all contracts to you if you don’t understand the terms.
If you’re looking to sell your product to Food Town, be sure to thoroughly assess the marketplace, carefully prepare for production growth, and take full advantage of resources available to help you grow your business.
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