The niche snack products many convenience-store chains overlook are The Goods Mart’s bread and butter, or organic nut butter in this case.
They’re carefully curated to support Founder and CEO Rachel Krupa’s mission of giving emerging brands a start on retail shelves. They also helped the company survive the COVID-19 pandemic.
What The Goods Mart's three New York City locations’ tiny square footage lack in size is made up for with Krupa’s outsized merchandising and marketing acumen. When foot traffic was light and other retailers closed their doors, The Goods Mart branched into e-commerce. It accounts for 20% of the urban market’s sales today.
She developed the e-commerce site herself during COVID, she says, to give loyal customers as far away as California a way to continue purchasing from her store. The site is organized into merchandise groups based on their founders, such as “Black founded,” “female founded” and “Latinx founded.”
Back to Work Rates
With return-to-work rates in New York City up to about 75% in June, among the highest in the nation, according to data from Placer.ai, The Goods Mart’s brick-and-mortar sales are returning. The foot traffic data fluctuates by day, as many workers are still on hybrid schedules, working two or more days per week from their homes, said RJ Hottovy, head of analytical research at Los Altos-based Placer.ai.
In New York, “a lot of businesses there, particularly finance businesses, want people coming back into the office at least four days a week, so that’s been one of the highest return-to-work markets,” Hottovy said.
The Goods Mart’s two newest locations, at 30 Rockefeller Center and 11 West 42nd St., are just over 200 square feet, about half the size of its 400-square-foot Soho store at 189 Lafayette St., Krupa said.
- Krupa and The Goods Mart were featured among the 2018 CSP Indie Innovators.
Now that office workers have returned, Krupa has returned to stocking more quick snacks. The office-building locations have a different merchandise selection from the Soho location.
“When people are in the office, what they need more of are gum, mints, toothbrushes. When you’re talking to people constantly, you need more of the refreshing side of convenience,” she said. But many of the shop’s items are distinct.
High-Profile Customers
At Rockefeller Center, the store is located in the lobby across from the elevator entrance for NBC’s Tonight Show. In the fashion district, the store at 11 West 42nd serves those who work for designers Michael Kors, Valentino and Burberry and New York University students.
One advantage to occupying office buildings’ lobby space is the banker’s hours her stores keep: 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. The Soho location has more residents as customers and is open from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week. The retail company employs three corporate employees and seven in-store team members.
To keep her inventory cutting edge, Krupa stays active on social media and networks with investors and other founders. “Brands are coming to us. Brands know we’re a launchpad for them if they’re just starting,” she said. “But you also have to do your homework and bring in the brands that don’t know about you yet."
She doesn’t worry about direct competitors because The Goods Mart’s mission is different from other convenience retailers. “I don’t really find main competitors anywhere because I think there is room for everyone to play. We’re all doing a lot of different things in the same sandbox. Our mission is to help these emerging brands grow and be a platform for them,” she said.
Corporate Curations
With no plans to open another location at this time, Krupa is expanding through “corporate curations,” and mini bar curations for hospitality groups. “We’re trying to expand the reach of the brands more than to just our stores but to other partners.”
Steady beverage sellers are Nguyen Vietnamese coffee, Pop & Bottle bottled coffee and tea lattes, Liquid Death canned waters, flavored sparkling waters and iced teas, and Brooklyn Cannery new-age soda, she said.
As for snack favorites, she says, consumers come in for Bjorn Qorn, Pipcorn Popcorn, Seaweed snacks, gigantic candy bars, Hey Yum organic gummie treats and vegan Happy Candy from Germany.
She sticks to about 200 stock-keeping-units (SKUs) in her office marts and is careful about product placements. She likens product arranging on the shelf to playing the block puzzle video game Tetris and rotates products to the prime eye location on the shelf.
Products also rotate out of the store entirely to make way for new items. “We’re one of the first stores the brands go into to get their feet wet,” she said. “From there, it’s go and grow.”
Get Golden organic, gluten-free bars have moved on, but Krupa isn’t worried about running out of merchandise, with 15,000 or 18,000 brands launching every year. About 80% will fail, she says, but she’s there to help some succeed. “That’s our biggest testament: a brand that launches with us and then leaves us because they’re too big.”
Among the brands Krupa says Goods Marts has helped to launch include Mid Day Squares brownie snacks, Gigantic candy bars, Sanzo flavored sparkling water and Olipop soda.
Krupa, who also runs a public relations company, seizes the opportunity to spread word of her products across her social platforms and through newsletters and word of mouth introductions to investors, distributors, other founders, brand agencies and p.r. firms. “We really want to be a helpful retailer to the brands,” she said.