Expo, education and events
As veteran natural products retailers know, thereās a certain finesse to approaching sampling at Expo West. For some, this translates to a flat-out refusal to eat on the show floor. For others, successful sampling requires a well-honed strategy: āIāve suffered through one too many cases of Expo Belly in my time; now I just start downing kimchi at 6 a.m. to build up the good bacteria before I hit the show floor,ā says longtime natural retailer Maya Gutishurting. My personal strategy comes down to training, a process that kicks off every year in late January when I sample my way through hundreds of NEXTY Awards nominations. This year, there were nearly a record-breaking 1,500(!) products, a number that was painstakingly narrowed down to 154 finalists in 35 categoriesāincluding 15 brand new ones this year! |