Nude Foods: Nurturing a Sustainable Shopping Revolution - S04E04

In this enlightening episode, the founders of Nude Foods, Verity Noble, Matt Arnold, and Rachel Irons, share their journey in creating a truly sustainable and zero-waste grocery shopping experience. Nude Foods is a unique grocery store with locations in Boulder and Denver, Colorado, focusing on eliminating single-use packaging and promoting eco-conscious consumer choices.

Verity, Matt, and Rachel discuss their commitment to reducing waste by offering a wide range of products that can be purchased in reusable containers. The conversation touches on the immense environmental impact of single-use packaging and the need for individuals to take a more sustainable approach to shopping. Nude Foods' mission is to demonstrate to customers the positive impact they can make by changing their shopping habits, and they actively collaborate with local producers and farmers to rescue "imperfect" products that might otherwise go to waste.

The founders highlight the importance of community involvement, with Nude Foods serving as a hub for eco-conscious customers who value a shopping experience that aligns with their values. They also discuss the challenges of starting a new brick-and-mortar store, emphasizing the significance of location, transparency, and education in creating an environmentally friendly, community-focused grocery shopping experience. Nude Foods extends a generous 20% discount to first-time customers who mention the podcast, further encouraging individuals to join the zero-waste movement and support sustainable living.

This podcast provides valuable insights into the journey of Nude Foods, inspiring listeners to consider their own impact on the environment and how small changes in shopping habits can lead to substantial reductions in waste and a more sustainable future.

https://nudefoodsmarket.com/

USE THE CODE "PODCAST" when shopping at Nude Foods online to get a 20% discount!

Transcript

0:24

What's up, y'all? I am Ian Jimeno from The Big Locals Podcast. I am super stoked for this episode. I am here with the Nude Foods crew. I'm not a rapper, but that seems to be rhyming. I love this aspect already. We got Verity Noble, Matt Arnold, Rachel Irons from Nude Foods. How are y'all doing? How's it going? Happy to be here. great. Thanks. Excited to be here. Wonderful. Smiling faces all the way around. I truly appreciate the time and efforts. I know y'all are really busy these days, especially with The grand opening of a brand new store. But before I get into that, I know that's already like, I'm already teasing things out there for the future conversation, but I want to sort of go around the horn here, talk about a little bit about yourselves, introduce y'all selves. Um, we'll start with you, Verity. Um, I know you're the one that's been in main communication with me in particular. So. If you don't mind, maybe just a quick synopsis. It doesn't have to be too in depth, but I'd love to hear a little bit about you prior to, uh, Nude Foods. Absolutely. So, um, as you can tell by my accent, I'm not from around these parts, but I have now been here for 11 wonderful years, uh, in sunny Colorado. The weather is definitely better here. Um, this is my third business. So I'm, I think I'm probably a little bit addicted to the entrepreneurial lifestyle, even though it is. Um, generally very stressful. It is a lot of fun. Um, I came over to the U S to, uh, work for an accelerator called the Unreasonable Institute, which helped entrepreneurs affecting at least a million lives for the positive, grow their businesses, get investment and scale. Um, and so it's great to now be on the other side of that, growing an impact business, um, scaling it and, and hopefully having an impact on a million lives. Love it already. And Mats, we'll go over to you next and then I'll ask some questions individually about y'all afterwards. But Mats, if you don't mind introducing yourself, that would be Thank you. Yeah. My name is Matt Arnold and like Verity, I am a serial entrepreneur, mostly looking to start businesses in the impact space. Um, recently I was, uh, my roast, most recent venture before nude foods market is still operating. It's a food production. business where I host a number of different food manufacturers and other food producers at our commercial kitchens in Boulder County. And, um, within one of those kitchens was where Nude Foods was born. We had an adjacent space and Rachel and I were working together at the kitchens discussing what could be, um, what could we fill this space with. And we knew we already had all these food companies looking for outlets for their products and we thought how about we sell them out of this space right here and so began Nude Foods Market. Wonderful. I love this, uh, tease into Nude Foods already. So awesome already. Rachel, if you don't mind introducing yourself, that'd be awesome. Yeah, for sure. Um, I'm Rachel. Uh, I've, I'm from Alaskan. I've been in Colorado for 12 years. I went to school here and then decided to start a food business and Boulder's a really good place for that, so just made a lot of sense. Um, but I got into food in college mostly. Started cooking for people a lot. Started cooking professionally. And then, um, I learned about invasive species in one of my study abroad programs and got hooked on that and the idea of eating invasive species as a way to control them and just, it's an incredibly sustainable meat source because we actually want to get rid of them and it's a really healthy way to eat too. Um, so I actually started another business before this making wild boar jerky because wild boar is an invasive species. And, um, kind of thought, like, you know, what could that turn into, and it was basically a zero waste grocery store because if you have a grocery store, you can control how everything is sourced and make sure that it's all sourced sustainably, that it's all really healthy food, and people can come in and do all their shopping and not have to think about it and just know that they're making good choices. So, kind of when I was working with Matt and the, with the commissary kitchens, all the pieces just started to fall into place and we made new foods happen. Wonderful. Thank you all so much already. And, uh, Rachel, I want to stick it with you just, uh, real quick, uh, since you have the mic right now. We all have the mics, but you know what I mean. But eating invasive species, that is not a typical answer that I would have expected with solving the invasive species aspect of it. Is there any other way to, or any other invasive species that you might deem as edible as a way to get rid of them? Oh, yes. So, I started with lionfish, which are in the Caribbean. Um, they're a venomous fish, but, um, they're not poisonous. So, they are safe to eat and delicious, and there's been a very Very successful effort of getting divers to spear them when they're out and about and Getting people to eat them and creating a market for that. So there's a huge demand for now It's actually hard to find lionfish meat It's been very successful and you go diving You don't really see them anymore. They're really only in places that divers can't get to. Um, so that's a big one. Wild boar is another big one. And it's absolutely delicious. It's my favorite type of meat. Um, and it's much, much healthier than farm raised meat because they truly are wild, they're running around, they get to eat whatever they want. Um, so it's very lean. Very nutritious. Those are kind of the easiest ones to get. But there's some weirder ones too. Like iguana is invasive in Florida, surprisingly good. I have had it um, I've captured it myself, actually. um, not as much of a market for that one. And they're, they're pretty small, so you don't, don't get a lot of meat off of them. Um, and then there's a lot of more local ones, like Hawaii has a ton access. Deer is a big one. They also have wild boar over there. Um, there's some random. Um, islands in Alaska that have feral cows that are trampling all the native vegetation and they're very remote and hard to get to, but yeah, there's tons of little ones all over the place and I would like to develop more of a market for them. What a concept. Luckily, some of these invasive species are edible and yummy, especially with the wild boar, Yeah, of cool. Verity onto you. Um, I know that when I was doing some internet research on you and I know you gave me your, a little bit of your bio, you don't jam with the word impossible, and maybe this comes from the fact that you've already started a couple of businesses beforehand and you just love that risk. All in aspect of it. It sounds like, um, did you have a run in with that word with other people in the industry? And that's what made you like, no, this is not impossible. You just have a limiting belief. And what really got you into really saying that you don't jam with the word impossible? That's a great question. Um, I think that In my experience, I've just gone for things and when people have said, no, that's not going to work, I have always found some kind of way. I'm like, yeah, but if we did it this way, or how about if we tried this, or if this person said, yes, could we do it? So I think that's where that comes from. Just knowing that it is. There is generally a way. Very few things in life are impossible. No one has done them yet, that's the only issue. Um, and the same with nude foods, but I was lucky enough to, you know, meet Matt and Rachel and Jimmy and... Realize that between us, it really was possible. I think, you know, I've wanted to do this for so long, the zero waste grocery store idea, but most people think it's too hard. Like how do we get things without packaging? How do we get them to people without packaging? It seems like a lot of effort, but between us with our different areas of expertise, we really found what is possible and we're making it happen. And what were those other two businesses that you alluded to? Uh, were they food related or sustainability related? No, not at all. The first one was, um, an events. Company and members club in London in my twenties, which was a lot of fun. Uh, and then the second one is here in Boulder. Um, and there's a finance and accounting firm, fractional CFO. Gotcha. I know, um, even though those aren't so sustainability focused or food focused, I mean, now you're heavy into it, especially with nude foods, but you're also a volunteer at Techstars Sustainability Accelerator. Is that still the case? Uh, I haven't done anything there for a while since the pandemic actually. But, um, yeah, I'm involved in, in anything that is helping entrepreneurs create sustainable businesses, as I really believe that's the only way we're going to change things. If entrepreneurs create viable alternatives for customers to choose right now. Choosing sustainability is difficult, it's often expensive, it's more work. So only by creating easy options for people are we going to move the needle. Love it. I mean, all together, we all gotta go all in. It's really tough to only have bits and pieces, choosing your battles. It's an all out war, if you ask me, uh, either with plastic, uh, making sure that food doesn't go to waste and things like that. So, I feel like it's finally coming into fruition, especially with nude food. So, I love it already. And, uh, Matt, going over to you now, I noticed that a little bit of background on you and hopefully I got the right Matt Arnold when I was searching on LinkedIn. Uh, working with indigenous artisans in Guatemala, which led to the development of Aldia, is that Yeah, I think, uh, Okay, cool. I got the right Matt Arnold. Um, to going to business school, I had been in the Peace Corps in Guatemala and, um, After working with a lot, in a number of villages in the high plains in the northwestern part of that country and working with a lot of non profit organizations and non governmental organizations that were attempting to, you know, inspire community development through ongoing projects or through isolated projects, a lot of which weren't seeming to have the success rate that they had been looking for when they created these Jimeno, and The more, just like Verity said, that I looked into having an impact, it seems like there was a trend moving away from reliance on non profits and aid organizations to, um, a term I think coined by John Mackey with Whole Foods called conscious capitalism, where entrepreneurs with the impact in mind that they want to achieve can create viable products and services that are, you know, competitive in the market as long as, um, And then with the, the additional benefit of not just achieving profits, but also having an impact. And so my first business out of business school was to go back to Guatemala and work with the, the artisans who I'd known in the region of Guatemala, Guatemala I'd been working, and start to, you know, work with designers from the United States and artisans from Guatemala to fashion. Um, products, specifically fashion accessories that we were selling around, around the United States. So in that way, connecting the market, the consumers to the origin of their products, which is, you know, kind of blended nicely into what we're doing with Noon Foods and trying to, you know, really tell the story behind each of the products that we sell and stand behind the values that we've, you know, kind of implemented into our operations from day one. Got it. I love that you had that mindset already prior to coming into Nude Foods. And it seems like you have these financial models and you work more on the business side of things. Do you consider yourself more on the numbers side of things in whatever project that I think, uh, my title within the organization has been for a while, businessman, pretty general title, pretty boring title. And I think, you know, that's kind of the skill set that I bring to the company is capability of handling these, uh, these tasks and, and issues that, Maybe considered, uh, boring for lack of another term, but definitely, yeah, my nose is in spreadsheets all day and, you know, working on the, the, the finance and the legal and the accounting part of, of what we do so that, you know, my two partners who are such visionaries can really, you know, push the organization forward while I'm helping juggle everything that's left behind. In casting that vision. We always need the anchor to have that foundation set up for each business. So the Matt Arnold's of the world, we need you That feels good. So yeah, I think you're, you're doing well, man. Um, well, awesome. I feel like maybe the first thing that we should talk about, especially with how timely it is, was Nude Foods Fest. I know that was not too long ago, maybe a couple of weeks ago. So if you don't mind telling me about what that was like, I know it was over in Boulder. I was so sad that I couldn't make it out to Boulder this time to go check out nude food, nude, nude foods fest. But Verity, if you don't mind, maybe you can talk about your experience with it and how it all came together. Absolutely. So this year was our third Nude Foods Fest. It is quite a tongue twister. Um, and basically it is like a. Mini farmer's market, although not that many anymore. We had 35 to 40 vendors this year. We take over the entire parking lot outside nude foods. All our vendors who are local come and share their products. They let people test them. They sell certain ones that people could say for dinner. They sell them in jars. Um, we have live music from a local musician. We have. Eco cycle and other nonprofits come along and share information about how to live a more eco friendly life. And I think I'm correct in saying it is the only truly zero waste event. In Colorado, I mean, maybe in the US, I don't know, but I'm going to definitely say Colorado because we don't even use compostable products. We only use reusable items. So people get samples in jars, they get their food on reusable plates that are washed up. They get proper silverware that gets, um, washed up and Um, yeah, people have a great time. They come along and they get inspired by what we're doing. They get to meet the people who are growing and making their food. It really just provides a great link, um, to the source of, of what they're consuming. Wonderful. It sounds like you had a bunch of vendors that even were, um, already selling their products over a nude foods. Is that the case? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we have, um, I mean, Rachel, correct me if I'm wrong here, but I would say 80 to a hundred local vendors at least. Um, yeah. so we had a lot of them there who, who could sample their products. Awesome. And, uh, Rachel, it sounds like you, you know, a little bit more about the details behind it. Um, how long does this take to set up? I mean, this is your third annual, so maybe you've been through the ringer a little bit, what has worked, what hasn't worked, what's been very beneficial and worked on from the previous one, um, what did you improve on from the second annual nude foods fest that, uh, you've implemented in this one? Verity's the one that sets it all up, I just do the sourcing. Uh, I'm happy to answer that. Yeah, we actually, we made a few changes this year. Um, uh, we, we sadly didn't get to have Jeff and Paige this year, which we usually do have, so we're going to have them back next year and we changed the date a little bit earlier, so the weather was warmer, although actually we did miss the kind of the chilly fall weather where, because we sold so much hot chocolate last year and hot apple cider, it was crazy. So we might go to a little later again, cause the, the. The crisp fall feeling was wonderful. Um, but we got a lot of new people to come along this year to learn about it. Um, we saw new faces cause you know, we have so many diehard customers who love what we're doing. If we ever want to feel good or we're feeling exhausted by the work we do, we just look at our Google reviews and we have a hundred and. 46, I think, five star reviews and our customers say wonderful things. So it's a great opportunity for us to see them, connect with them, um, and just, you know, chill out and have a good time and celebrate the fact that we are still going after three years, which is pretty unusual for a startup, Yes, especially in something as challenging as, as retail. I know. Yeah. Retail foods and even sustainability. I feel like you got the triple threat right here and you're Oh, we did. Love it. And so going now into nude foods itself and Matt, maybe you could take this question. Um, how did you all come together? I mean, with all of your different backgrounds, it seems like this is just a puzzle piece fitting into a masterpiece, you that's the answer. Um, you know, the, the, the collection of people involved were, um, the right people, as I think Verity mentioned. And the time was right for something like this. You know, I think as we descended into the pandemic, You know, ordering online and the addition of, of more and more packaging from, um, food delivering companies or Instacart, you know, you always got that extra layer of packaging which was supposed to be helping us feel safer, but the, the long term effect of that additional packaging I don't think had been adequately, you know, uh, thought through, so. You know, we were sitting there with a lot of time on our hands because, uh, the pandemic had really grinded things to a halt and it seemed like, okay, let's, let's do something. We don't all need to go and sit in our homes, you know. Let's, Let's, assemble this team with each of our different skill sets. We have a connection to food production facilities. We have connection to people who have been, you know, Rachel specifically, who's been already figuring out the supply chains in Colorado. And then Verity as the evangelist already had this connect, you know, connection to customers, a large customer group who was asking for a service like this. So. So, you know, while we had initially wanted to open up a small little retail store, the pandemic forced us to rethink that idea and move things online. Start to collect orders from our customers at the beginning of the week, giving us time to source everything and make the deliveries by Wednesday or Thursday of that same week. Mmm. And, you know, you did ask how we came together. Rachel and I, as we mentioned, we're working together, and, you know, she brought us Jimmy, who had all of this, this, uh, great energy, and ton, like, uh, tons of different skills that could be from washing dishes to filling jars to building racks to just keeping everything going. And then, you know, one of our mutual friends introduced us to Verity, and she seemed to be the missing piece for us to, to to finally launch this thing. Wonderful. Sounds like the delivery service wasn't exactly thought of at first when you first opened Nude Foods. It came out of necessity, thanks to COVID, the pandemic, and the world coming to a quick close, a screeching halt, if you will. How was that developed so quickly, because it seems like it's almost a part of the business ever since day one now. Uh, maybe, uh, Rachel sounds like you're the supply chain person on this. So if you don't mind answering that, if you're the right person, Yeah, for sure. So like Matt said, we started with this idea to, to start a store and we started remodeling the space for it. And then COVID hit, um, which was a little jarring for everyone. And, um, I was actually talking to my brother and he was like, you got to do delivery. And I was like, you're right. That's what we got to do. as Um, yeah. And it, I mean, the pandemic hit it kind of just the right time for us because we hadn't. gotten very far. We'd gotten the space ready and that was it. So we just pivoted and started building a website instead of building out a store. And, uh, we were able to grow super organically. Like all of us just put in a couple thousand dollars to get started and then Matt had the space, which was really nice. We all put in our time for free, of course, at the beginning. And, um, we didn't have to put in any more money until we opened the store, which is, like, unheard of. Yeah. Fascinating. Honestly. And, um, feel free to chime in Verity. It's not like you wanted to, uh, uh, augment that. I mean, other than I can really clearly remember the meeting where we were like, should we just wait till this thing blows over or do you think we should pivot and do a delivery? And I'm just so grateful that we didn't wait until it blew over, um, because I think the delivery was really where the pre fill model was born. Before that, you know, we were planning a traditional refill store. Um, and I think the pre fill model, um, and if anyone doesn't know what we do, we in, in terms of the pre fill model, we Pre-filled jars that people then return once they're done with them. Um, and that I think, has enabled us to attract a much wider audience because instead of it being a ton of work to come in and refill all your jars and wave them and yada, yada yada, people can just come in and shop like a traditional grocery store. You know, they come in, they see what's on the shelves, they grab it, they pay for it, they leave, and then the only difference is. You return the jars when you're done with them. But the big bonus is you get a beautiful pantry full of gorgeous glass jars instead of marketing filled packaging. Totally. And I got a little taste of it, uh, just from the little bit of research that I've done. And there's a ton of jars. And I, I think there was this Instagram post that I thought was really fascinating. Like, hey, come bake pumpkin bread with us. And all you did was just go through the store and you had everything from like vanilla extract. To pumpkin spice, to yeast, everything was there to, for you to just bake a pumpkin bread and to me, like with everything being in jars, it's so far fetched that there's like no packaging required for all of these individual ingredients. So highly sustainable and just imagining even just the vanilla extract where you're just getting like, what. Two ounces jars of it, and all of a sudden you're no longer having to create that glass, have that jar, things like that. I think that's just fascinating to me. So, um, in a perfect world, do you mind maybe explaining, I'll, I'll keep this on you, verity, of what the sustainable Jar system looks like. So it looks like you buy the product in a jar, but what happens after that? Absolutely. So you buy the product in a jar and you actually pay what we call a jar rental fee. Um, you pay a dollar 50 for each jar. Um, and then when you bring the jar back, you get a dollar back to spend in store. So you can keep the jars as long as you want. I probably have a hundred jars in my pantry right now. Um, so when they're empty, people bring them back and they pop them in our jar return bins. Then our wonderful dishwasher Chewy Sanitizes them and then our team in the back of house, refill them. Um, using, we just started using machinery, which is speeding things up a lot. Um, until now it's been done by hand, which takes a long time. And you know, this, this cost is. Is something that has been an educational piece for people. You know, you usually don't have to pay for the packaging of a product. With doing this sustainably, there is an extra cost to that. You know, most grocery stores receive a pallet of plastic packaged items that's then usually wrapped in more plastic wrap and they just unpack it and put it on the shelves. Whereas we have a whole industry back there that they don't have to deal with which is the washing, sanitizing, refilling, and then... One of the surprisingly hard pieces is finding the appropriate lid, because we actually also try to reuse the labels that are on the lids. So we have a library of lids in the back that are filed, um, in the appropriate places. So there's a lot that goes into it. There is a small extra cost for the sustainability aspect. Um, we're looking to at some point remove that, or at least put it onto the back end so that you only get charged if you don't bring the jar back in, say, three to six months. Um. But the great thing is, because we don't have to cover the cost of fancy packaging and we reuse our packaging, often certain items are cheaper than you'd find them elsewhere. And you can also refill your own, which then takes any of that labor cost off. So at the end of the day, um, you know, we're, we're pretty similar price to other places, um, and it's a really nice reward when you bring your jars back to get that dollar back. For sure. And plus people feel good bringing them back to, you know, seeing your smiling faces at the same time. It's a win win for everyone. Exactly. And we've, I mean, we've already saved, I think, Matt, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm, I think it's about 300, 000 pieces of packaging now. Wow. That's awesome. I love to see it. And, uh, Matt, I think there's a future in acting for you. When I saw the homepage for nude, uh, nude foods, um, he was like, I'm a happy register guy. right. I just thought that was hilarious. And, uh, yeah, you got a future in acting one day. So just wanted to shout out to you. Um, and maybe I'll keep the mic on you as far as the partnership with the other businesses. Cause it sounds like you grew up with these other, um, food products, the people that make the foods and having that implemented into nude foods seems like, you know, a pretty easy transition, but that's just to me as a third person looking in, were there any challenges that you were initially trying to get over to make this whole nude foods? Sustainable, keeping the jars, maybe just holding the product in house or something like that. What troubles were you going through just to start it You know, having started Nude Foods adjacent to one of our commercial kitchens, sourcing from the producers in that kitchen was often as easy as walking across the room. You know, and buying their product, but we actually operate a number of commercial kitchens in the area and there are You know as testament to what Rachel was saying earlier You know countless other small food producers in the front range who have come to this area specifically because it's a You know Mecca for food Sourcing from our From the, the members of the commercial kitchens was a no brainer because we knew that it had a number of different benefits. For one, we were often the first retailer for a lot of these, you know, brand new products. And so there was a lot of loyalty that, that was felt towards us being the, the one willing to take a chance on their product and carry it. In our stores, um, a lot of these manufacturers start off just selling in the farmer's market, so only, uh, their products are only available to their customers once a week. But with Nood Foods open seven days a week, you know, they were able to push their customers to come to us, which, you know, also benefited our business. Um, but I think the most exciting thing, and, you know, Rachel can talk more to this as a supply chain person, was, Having that connection allowed us to say, Hey, will you use our containers? You know, so instead of putting your stuff in, in a box or into plastic bags as you normally would to take it to your customers, will you bring it in this bin or will you fill your candy bars in in this jar? And that way we go all the way back to the source of the product and have enabled the entire supply chain to be, to be zero way. Yeah. It sounds like there's less hands involved with that transaction going from the source of where the food is made all the way into nude foods, which is. Great. And you just don't have that middleman in between distribution, all that good stuff, you just go directly to the source, which is great. Do you mind, uh, speaking on that a little bit, Rachel sounds like you have some more insight on that. Yeah, for sure. So, with the nature of our business, it's, we mostly can't use distributors anyway because we're sourcing things differently from how every other store is. So, we've had to work out specific agreements with so many different suppliers and we source directly from the majority of our suppliers. So, That that definitely puts more work on it. There's a lot more setup and it's a lot more complicated. We're basically just like hey What's the most complicated business we could possibly do and then that's what we did Like let's make it as hard as we can. It sounds like a good challenge So the way most business or most grocery stores work is they buy everything through distributors. So there's a catalog, you just like go down the list and say what you want, and then it shows up for us. No, like every single product, almost. Um, we have to work out with the, with the manufacturer, how is it going to get to us in the most sustainable way? So if it's coming from far away, it'll be in bulk, in, in recyclable packaging. And then if it's coming locally, we either have The supplier jar it for us in our jars or we supply them with reusable plastic tubs or whatever it might be that they can come so it comes all the way from the source in reusable packaging and depending on the product that can be more or less tricky and there's definitely a lot of products that we haven't taken on because there just simply isn't a zero waste solution for them so we are pretty strict and a lot of people don't get it they're like well Maybe you could just do this or like, what if it's in a paper bag, but then you just dump it into your jar. And we're like, no, that's, that's not what we're going for here. Um, so there's definitely a lot of education too, with our vendors. Um, because it's just such a different way of doing things and people don't always understand, but we feel it's really important to stick to our guns. And, um. The transparency is huge for us. We, we want to make sure that, you know, if one of our customers saw what we were doing at any point in time, they'd be like, yeah, you guys are doing it right. And it's, it's huge to have that trust with our customers. And so we want to make sure we take the extra step. Yeah, I feel like you guys are setting the bar really high already, not just with you as nude foods, but other grocery stores and setting that bar super high. Other people see your values and they have that trust already built into nude foods, which makes them repeat customers, which makes them want to buy from you more. Which makes them want to involve or be more involved in the community of nude foods as well, which makes nude foods fest be an even bigger situation as well. So it all compounds on itself as long as you maintain that quality. So I'm glad you guys are putting that extra effort into it. And, um. With that, I kind of want to talk about the location in Denver. So congratulations on it. I feel like you guys are making some really big moves here and, uh, it's a little bit more attainable for me. I'm all the way in Parker. So even going into Denver is like 40 minutes away, right? So that's kind of the reason why I couldn't go to Boulder. But now that it's in Denver and especially at a corner lot, right off 44th, you guys are sitting pretty at this point. So maybe Verity, maybe if you can start off with this. What were some excitement, some challenges, especially starting with a brand new brick and mortar here in the Denver area? Well, I think one of the challenges was that none of us lived in Denver, so we were... Asking a lot of people, like, where should we be? What's a good location? And the really nice thing is every time we tell a Denverite where we have chosen, they're like, oh, that's perfect. So we're really excited about the location. Um, we're right opposite of Safeway, which is I think a big advantage because people are already grocery shopping in the area and hopefully they'll look over from the parking lot there and see there's a much better option opposite. Uh, what else? Um, It was really important to us to have a values aligned landlord who is excited about what we're doing. Um, and our landlord has been really supportive of of the work we do, and it's open for us holding some events in the parking lot, which is exciting. Uh, the space is gorgeous, um, the corner lot, as you mentioned, is a real advantage, and The last store we had used to be a bathroom store for I think 30 to 40 years or something crazy like that. So the, the remodel was huge, um, whereas the store in Denver was already, you know, had beautiful flooring, had a great brick wall, had amazing light. So it's been a much easier transition to a grocery store. And we're excited about, you know, our neighbors. We've got Tocabe next to us, um, we've got a lot of exciting companies that, that we hope to have great relationships with. Yeah. And not to put a damper on the opening of a new brick and mortar, but I'm just curious why maybe not double down on, let's say more delivery or maybe having more cars and cause you now you have rents, you have more overhead and it's a whole new place. So why open up a new brick and mortar versus maybe doubling down on the delivery situation? realized that Nude Foods is built on community. Our customers love coming into the store. They say, compared to other grocery stores, it makes them feel calm. They feel part of a movement. They feel, you know, part of the family. So we, you know, we were doing really well with delivery in Boulder. And when we opened the store. Delivery dropped off a little bit and we've talked to a lot of our customers and they've all said, we just love coming into the store. You know, they can ask questions, they can see new things because we also focus on rescued products, which is things that. Um, perhaps another store was going to, you know, maybe it's a discontinued product and someone's like, we're not going to sell these anymore. We're just going to put them in the trash. And so we don't want that to happen. So we're like, no, no, we'll take them if it's a good product and we'll sell them to our customers. We do that with Meaty, for example, the incredible mushroom based. Vegan meat product that started here in Boulder and is now going gangbusters across the U. S. We actually take their cutlets that are either a little smaller or a little larger than they're supposed to be to go in their standard packaging to standard stores and we now sell that at a lower price in our store. So it's things like that that can kind of turn on a dime. Um, That enable us to, to have something without, you know, featuring online and having that lag time, it can just be in the store that day. You know, we do this amazing produce sale every month, which is bring any kind of container you like and fill it with as much produce as you want for 10. We had someone bring in a plastic snowman and fill that, um, which was awesome. But literally we're like. Um, and, and that, that relationship and that fun, um, you know, when, when you come visit us, you'll, you'll see, you'll see why we want to have a brick and mortar store. Yeah. It feels like, uh, like a neighborhood rather than, uh, you're a part of a bigger city. It's like you have your own little community just within a storefront and it feels much more natural, organic. And, um, yeah, I can already tell that this is going to be a pretty big success for you guys. Especially when you got a physical location, you know, people can come in and understand the feel of the store rather than, hey. I'm just going to drop off your groceries, so I get it now. I get it. Exactly. And people like to, you know, see, touch, taste. They like to actually look at their food, you know, see what they're, they're buying we've noticed. Yeah. So with the new location, Matt, if you don't mind, um, have there been, I mean, obviously you go through different challenges, but, uh, are there other commercial, commercial kitchens that are nearby that new Denver location that are you're working with, or maybe different products that are in Denver versus Boulder? Um, what's different at this location, if anything, versus the Boulder location? Well, you will, the store will look similar in that the aisles will be full of jars just as it is in Boulder. The square footage is roughly the same. The checkout system will be the same. The customer will walk in, return their jars that they're bringing back from their previous visit and then, you know, peruse the aisles for what they need to buy for that day before checking out. As far as connecting with more local manufacturers in the Denver area, we've been, uh, Verity's team, the marketing team, has been setting up a booth every week at the Highlands Farmer's Market on Sundays, um, to not only meet other small local manufacturers in the area, and to let them know that we could potentially become a new sales outlet for their product, but also just to be pitching to the community because it does seem like a very neighborhood focused farmers market that our doors will soon be open. So, you know, challenges as far as the market, the sourcing, those haven't really been major obstacles for us because we've already, you know, foreseen those issues and picked the location based on the demographics and picked, you know, and decided to enter the market in order to kind of, uh, Um, the real challenge has been just, you know, working with a different city and county government with regards to, you know, the, the requirements that they have for us. And we are a bit unconventional, you know, we're a business model. That's not very common. And so, you know, walking, even, even our supporters, you know, walking them through what we're doing, you know, oftentimes looks like. Uh, a process that's not the same as more, more straightforward business models. So, you know, the challenges have been less on the, how do we do this? Because I think we've, we've started to develop a level of expertise. You know, even if it is crazy Oompa Loompas in the, in the background, like things look polished when you come into the store. And that's, you know, by design, I think the real obstacles have been, okay, how do we take what we've been doing successfully there? And fit it into a new neighborhood with new rules and new governance and, you know, and still get open on time. Awesome. Love it. And, uh, moving on to you, Rachel, I know with, uh, imperfect foods, like imperfect, is it perfect foods? Like with those ones that are like oddly shaped, different colors, but they're still completely edible and still very good, right? Um, what was that relationship like at least starting it, even working with farmers, um, I myself love to shop with those, uh, imperfect foods myself. So, um. Obviously it's a little bit unconventional to request those types of foods. So was there anything weird that you had to go through in order to keep those? And maybe you got them at a discount from the farmers? Yeah, we do get them at a discount. Um, we basically just ask everyone, like it's mostly with produce. Cause that's where you're going to see the most waste happening. Um, but literally every supplier we have, we just say like, and we actually started out doing only imperfect produce. Um, when we were doing the delivery, we had it. We still do have an imperfect produce box, so it wasn't until we opened the store that we started selling perfect produce to, um, so literally just every farm, call them up, be like, hey, do you have anything you're throwing away? Any seconds? Any extras? We have some awesome relationships. Um, Rough and Ready is this great farm in Longmont and we're very Whatever they don't have, whatever they don't sell at the farmer's market, we just buy everything from them because it's still 100 percent good, but you know, they don't have a market until the next week, so it's not going to hold that long, but we can sell it immediately. So it's great for them because they're recouping costs that they would have lost otherwise. It's great for us because we're saving food and it's great for our customers because they're getting that food at a discount. Um, we also have an awesome relationship with our produce supplier. Um, where we get, our distributor that we get, you know, the not local things from like mangoes and bananas and whatnot. Um, produce just has such a short life span, like it's going bad all the time, and there's usually not an outlet for that, so, um, like Verity mentioned with the produce sales, we buy whatever we can, we cook with it, we, we sell it at a discount, um, it's still totally good, it's just maybe has a slightly shorter life. We make sure that it's marked so customers know that, of course, uh, and then now a lot of companies are starting to know that we will take these products, so like Meaty approached us and was like, Hey, we have these over and undersized cutlets. Do you want them? Absolutely. We do not want perfectly good food going in the trash. Um, or sometimes there's just a, there's a labeling issue or packaging issue, and this is one of the only times that we'll accept things in packaging is if It's a rescued product and it was literally going to go in the trash otherwise. Like, we would much rather take it and sell it and have that food be eaten than let it go to waste. Love it. I love the sustainability inside and out from the back of house to the front of house. It's all something that would be super attractive, especially here in the Boulder and Denver areas. So I'm sure there's wide open welcome arms for the nude foods, uh, culture coming in. So I truly. Appreciate it and stoked for you guys. Uh, last couple of things before I let you guys go. Verity, uh, maybe we'll start with you and I'll go around the horn. Um, what's the best piece of advice you've received growing nude foods? I know with some of you serial entrepreneurs, you might've picked some things up from previous businesses, but I'm interested to hear what you've learned in this specific journey that, um, maybe pieces of advice or things you've learned, uh, to grow nude foods. Heh heh advisors. Um, the founder of, uh, Wild Oats Market, um. Uh, the Will Paradise, who was the head of, um, Rocky Mountain region for Whole Foods for about 30 years or something. Uh, we have former marketing people from Whole Foods and Lucky's, all these wonderful people giving us a ton of advice. So picking one piece is really hard, but, um, I think maybe the piece of advice came from Ben Friedland and he talked about demonstrating. To our customers, the impact that they're having. So showing them every step of the way that they're making a great decision and that their actions actually have awesome consequences. So, you know, sometimes when you look out at our Well, you can get a little disheartened by, you know, the amount of trash and the, just everything that's, that's going badly, I guess. And we want people to come into Nude Foods and realize that simply by changing their shopping habits, they're making a real difference. You know, an individual shop each week, just think about the number of products you get when you go to the grocery store and think of all the plastic film and the plastic packaging and the cardboard and everything else. And while a lot of people say, great, I recycle, recycling is not ideal. Recycling takes energy. It take, and not many things are truly recyclable are, are recycling rate here in Colorado is super low. I mean, I think 12%, um, of all the recycling, yes, it's not good. So there are a lot of things that, that aren't recyclable. So if you just think of. Every week, all that trash going from a ton to zero, that's a huge difference over a year. And we, yeah, the advice is to show our customers how well they're doing, because we really appreciate them. Just to, uh, harp on that a little bit, um, they don't know what you do until you actually say it, you know, especially you coming from the marketing side. It's like, uh, they'll probably just go into a store, especially if they're brand new to it. And if they don't know the mission of nude foods and they're like, Whoa, why is everything in jars? They might not see the whole cycle of how the whole, uh, business operates. And so maybe just letting them know what they're buying into and what Part, what community you're being a part of now, uh, just gets them a little bit more kick in the pants to be a part of it, you know? So I And I, I also think that people don't realize You know, because in, in this country, I think in a lot of the world, trash is kind of dealt with behind the scenes. You know, you put your trash in the trash can and it disappears and you pay your weekly fee and no one has to worry about it. And I was just thinking the other day, wouldn't it be awesome? Uh, I don't think anyone would agree with me, but awesome for awareness. If. The trash wasn't picked up for a month and people could see how much stuff that they are just throwing into the earth. I think that would really change habits. You know, it's a bit like factory farming, you know, you get your chicken at the grocery store and you don't think about what's gone into it. But if, if people could see inside an abattoir, you know, if they had glass walls, people wouldn't eat meat because it's horrific. Um, so I think the same thing where we're hidden and maybe slightly modely coddled from so many of life's, know, negative aspects. Um, but it'd be interesting to, to truly see our impact, Yeah. Um, ignorance is bliss at this point. right? Matt, what about you? What's the best piece of advice you've received along the way, or maybe a good lesson learned in growing nude foods? Especially on the eve of opening the Denver store, the best advice is don't get a crappy location. You know, I think that, um, uh, the psychology of grocery shopping is, is... It's passed down to us, it seems like, from generation to generation. We all hold our mom's hand or dad's hand when we go grocery shopping and see how they do it. And a lot of people get stuck in those ways of just shopping the same way their parents did. Um, by putting our store in Denver at a highly visible corner, what we're going to get is people, uh, are going to get a reminder of who we are and what we do day in and day out. And we're not trying to make them feel guilty. We're trying to give them an opportunity to alleviate that guilt, you know, and pursue a new way of shopping that may differ drastically from what they're used to growing up. So, you know, our advisor, um, Will, who Verity mentioned, definitely discussed, he's now a retailer himself in his retirement and, you know, he got a really awesome location for his retail shop. And, you know, bragged a little bit to us about it, suggesting that, Hey, why don't we get a really good location and see how successful we become. So, you know, um, I was the one scouting new locations and would come back to the team and it was unanimous once we found this spot that this was going to be the best place to broadcast our message and our mission to as many people in the Denver Highlands as we can. Yeah, I like to say, I mean, I'm a real estate agent myself and the three rules of real estate is location, location, location. There's really not much else you can always improve on the, on the facility, the property, whatever it might be, but if it's anywhere else you have doubts, but if it's in a specific good location, you're going to be successful. So I can harp on that for sure. And what about you, Rachel? Uh, was there anything you've learned or best piece of advice as you've grown, uh, nude foods? I think more of a reminder, like it's really easy to Just have your head in the weeds and just you're grinding day in and day out and then sometimes you meet someone and they're like super stoked on what you're doing and they kind of remind you why you're doing it and that there's this whole big picture out there so just to, you know, pick your head up and look around sometimes. What did they say? Uh, stop looking at the trees and look at the forest. So once you start to get that zoomed out view of like, Hey, what I'm doing, it's pretty cool. You know, and a lot of people, other, or a lot of other people are, uh, feeling the same way going forward. So I can truly appreciate that. Um, Awesome. Thank you so much for your time y'all. Uh, Verity, if you don't mind, how do you, or, uh, how can people reach out to, uh, Nude Foods and, uh, where's the new location? The new location is 3538 West street in Denver. I was just checking, I got the numbers right. Cause we, we use it as a, as a lock code in various formats. Um, so tell people that. I just told everyone our lock code, didn't I? Um, They'll never guess the format, uh, or know the door. Um, so yeah, so 3538 West 44th Street in, on the Denver Highlands Berkeley border, opposite Safeway, come to us instead. Um, and they can find out more about it at www. nudefoodsmarket. com. And if you put a little forward slash Denver, it'll take you right to the page that will give you all the updates on what we're doing. Awesome. Super stoked for you guys's new location. And obviously if you're in the Boulder area, go check out nude foods and I'm excited for the nude food fest. I'll make sure to go out to the next one, wherever it might be Boulder, Denver, even outside of the state, I'll make an appearance. So I appreciate you guys's time we able to offer your listeners a little incentive for coming in to visit us? by all means. Let's hear it. Well, how about, uh, for their first visit, they could get 20 percent off if they mentioned that they heard us on the podcast. I saw Matt's eyebrows raised at the same time. It's like, did we agree to this? That's Matt's job. That is Matt's job. He has to always be like, no, no, don't let any money go. Don't, that's his role. how, uh, so how does someone, uh, take advantage of this coupon code? Is it online through delivery or in person? They can use it online, um, using the code podcast, or they can come in person. Um, and, uh, again, mentioned they heard us on the podcast and we'll just take their name and make sure they get that discount. Wonderful. Again, thank you guys so much for, uh, spending your very important time with me. Uh, my lowly podcast. Uh, I'm sure my audience would find this very thrilling. Um, but nonetheless, thank you so much and I'll see you guys later. Appreciate it. you so much. Bye.