From Chobani to Pop-Up Grocer: How Emily Schildt Built a New Kind of Grocery Store
Emily Schildt is the founder of Pop-Up Grocer, a grocery store designed to help emerging, better-for-you brands reach customers. What started as a 10-day experiment in New York City has grown into a permanent store in Greenwich Village with national pop-ups and major retail partnerships.
Before launching Pop-Up Grocer, Emily built her career in food and beverage marketing, starting at Chobani in its earliest days. She saw how a small brand could reshape an entire category and how many promising brands struggled not with product but with access to shelf space and consumer trial.
In 2019, Emily rented a downtown NYC space for just 10 days, spent roughly $15K on rent and launched the first Pop-Up Grocer with nearly 100 brands on shelf. From there, Pop-Up Grocer expanded into 30-day pop-ups across multiple cities and raised just over $2M to pursue a permanent location. Emily opened Pop-Up Grocer’s flagship store in 2023.
In this episode, Emily shares the realities of building Pop-Up Grocer. From writing her first terrifying rent check to learning how to run a seven-day-a-week retail operation and finding confidence as a founder over time.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Starting a career at Chobani
- Why emerging brands struggle with trial but not product quality
- Spending~$15K to launch a 10-day pop-up with no retail experience
- How Pop-Up Grocer made money from day one
- Turning pop-ups into a scalable business model
- Raising $2M to open a permanent NYC store
- Paying $30K/month in rent and why it made sense
- Transitioning from pop-ups to full-time retail
If you are interested in the intersection of CPG and retail, this episode is for you.
Resources & Links
Pop-Up Grocer Website: https://popupgrocer.com/
Pop-Up Grocer Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/popup.grocer/
Emily Schildt: https://www.instagram.com/emilyschildt
Sponsored by Signs and Mirrors, the leading sign and furniture shop for events and retail stores.
Opening Soon Links & Resources
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→ Follow us on Instagram: @openingsoonpodcast
→ More episodes and guest info: https://www.openingsoonpodcast.com
→ Your Host Alan Li: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alan-li-711a8629/
Alan Li (00:01)
Today's guest, Emily Schilt, is the founder of Pop-Up Grocer, which is a curated, experience-focused grocery store that focuses on better-for-you products from emerging brands. And they have a permanent brick-and-mortar location in Greenwich Village in New York. Emily, thanks so much for joining the Opening Soon podcast.
Emily Schildt (00:20)
Hi, thank you for having me.
Alan Li (00:22)
Awesome. Well, before we dive into pop-up grocer, I would love to just get a little bit more about your background and what you were doing before you started.
Emily Schildt (00:30)
Sure. So I have been in this space for the entirety of my career. ⁓ I got my first job at a tiny yogurt company that everyone knows as Chobani now. But I used to have to explain many times over what Greek yogurt was, not actually made in Greece. And ⁓ that is really what sparked my interest in supporting small brands, helping get them off the ground, ⁓ supporting underrepresented founders.
And so I went on to start my own marketing consultancy and worked with a lot of small brands to do just that. And that is what pretty easily and quickly evolved into creating Pop-Up Grocer. So I've been a marketer in the food space for all of my career.
Alan Li (01:19)
Yeah. Well, tell me a little bit about your time at Chobani. What did you do there? When did you join? And how did you see it evolve from, you know, an unknown product to what it is today?
Emily Schildt (01:32)
Yeah, I mean, it feels like a million years ago. I think in reality, it was probably like over 10 years ago. So really at like the beginning stages. ⁓ And what I noticed was the impact that a small brand doing something different could have on an entire category. And now as we see on an entire industry, I mean, I really think that that brand is responsible for all of the innovation and creativity and small brands that we see.
in food and beverage today really gave them the inspiration and ⁓ I think the justification for ⁓ starting something new and creating a product in pretty much every category now that is ⁓ better made. so yeah, I think the impact was tremendous.
Alan Li (02:26)
Great. And what did you do specifically at Chobani?
Emily Schildt (02:30)
I in marketing, so really was responsible for creating the social media community, ⁓ the online presence at large, working with influencers, which really were not, were very much an early thing, it more like bloggers, just to date me. ⁓ So we were pretty early in tapping into the power of creators before they were such a, the powerful force that they are today.
Alan Li (02:47)
Hmm.
I see. And then ⁓ afterwards you said you left to start your own consultancy and that was also focused on the sort of better for you food space, is that correct?
Emily Schildt (03:10)
Yeah, so I started working with brands to help them establish their online presence, their website, their social media. ⁓ Also would tap designers from my network to help them with their packaging, just overall like how they were going to introduce themselves to the world. ⁓ And I worked predominantly with small food companies, ⁓ but know, dabbled in some beauty and some other things.
Alan Li (03:40)
Mm-hmm. And what were some of the lessons that you learned after working with, you know, so many different brands?
Emily Schildt (03:46)
that they need help. Lots of help. No one knows what they're doing. I mean, I'm not really sure you ever figure out what you're doing. I've been running a grocery store, a unique one or whatever, for six years now. And I definitely still don't know what I'm doing. I really saw, I mean, this is what led to the creation of Pop-Up Grocer was that I really understood that they can have all of the right
Alan Li (03:48)
Hahaha ⁓
Yeah.
Emily Schildt (04:14)
ingredients in terms of the product and the packaging and the story and thus the beginnings of a really strong brand, but they had nowhere to be sold. They really had no access to consumers. Of course they could sell online, but who wants to buy a case of a premium product at a premium price that they've never tried before? So I really saw an opportunity, obviously, to create a space
Alan Li (04:30)
Mm-hmm.
Emily Schildt (04:44)
for that initial trial for consumers and that initial trial for brands, a space where they can test different flavors, ⁓ test different copy architecture on their packaging, just get their product out there and learn from it so that they can iterate upon it.
Alan Li (05:01)
Yeah, ⁓ I want to double click on that in a bit, but I also want to jump back to you starting the marketing consultancy. ⁓ Did you always have an entrepreneurial itch or what led you to actually want to leave Chobani?
Emily Schildt (05:21)
My experience there definitely created my entrepreneurial edge. I mean, had the opportunity to work with, I think, one of the most interesting and remarkable founders of our time, at least in my opinion, and really got to be impacted by
his core belief that business was the real way to do good and effect change. And so I took that on as my own belief ⁓ and felt that I could do that in the biggest and best way if I created my own path and created my own business with that intent.
Alan Li (06:11)
Yeah, that makes sense. Were there any other interesting lessons that you learned while at Chobani similar to that, that, you know, business is the best force for good or are there other nuggets like that?
Emily Schildt (06:24)
Yes, the other quote that I ⁓ remember many times ⁓ a day is that it's not first to market, it's best to market. So I always remind myself when I'm in moments of competitiveness ⁓ or when my ambition is really driving an accelerated timeline, it's just about doing things right.
Alan Li (06:36)
Mmm.
Emily Schildt (06:53)
and doing things with excellence and not necessarily speed.
Alan Li (06:59)
Makes sense. ⁓ Okay, so you're noticing a lot of brands need help. They need help with trial especially, ⁓ and that is the genesis of the idea for Pop-Up Grocer. But what happens next? What are the steps you take to actually launch Pop-Up Grocer?
Emily Schildt (07:21)
Well, I didn't know at the time. I had no ⁓ plan other than to just get my idea out there, which is I think a core belief of my own that I've established now is that you just have to start. And I talk to founders all the time. I have like office hours on Fridays where I specifically speak with women who have business ideas or who are struggling in the early stages of their business. But really,
a lot with people who have ideas ⁓ and I just warn them that being too careful ⁓ and being too... ⁓ what is word I'm looking for? Like just being too planned overall can impede your ability to just beginning. So I just had this idea that if brands don't have
Alan Li (08:07)
Mm-hmm.
Emily Schildt (08:17)
shelf to be on and they don't have a quick to market opportunity that I would naively create that and so we did that in the form of a pop-up store which was open for only 10 days. This was back in 2009 to yeah 2019 and it was in downtown New York and honestly it's hard to go back to like what my mindset was at that time because it seems absolutely crazy to me that I would like put forth
⁓ the amount of money that I did in rent before I really knew that it was gonna work out. But I think that that's just my personality too, that sometimes ⁓ getting a little bit ahead and being committed to something then motivates me to complete it. And so that's what we did. I rented a space and ⁓ I started sending, I don't know, 300 emails.
to brands asking if they would be a part of this concept. And I got my first yes and I got my first check and we were off to the races.
Alan Li (09:17)
Hmm.
Wow, where was the space that you rented and ⁓ how were you able to rent for only 10 days? Was this through like one of the online space aggregators or something or a negotiated deal?
Emily Schildt (09:38)
I can't remember the name of the, no, I do remember. I think it might've been through a peer here or Parasol projects or maybe two were working together, but there are a number of these ⁓ agencies and brokers that are specific to coordinating pop-up activations and helping landlords ⁓ utilize their otherwise vacant space for a short period of time. And so, ⁓
Alan Li (09:47)
Mm.
Emily Schildt (10:06)
I don't remember how I got connected with them, probably just Google, ⁓ but was able to find a space that was open to such a fractional ⁓ tendency.
Alan Li (10:22)
Sure. Do you remember how much you paid for the space and how large it was?
Emily Schildt (10:28)
I don't remember exactly, but I want to say it was somewhere between $25,000 or $30,000. I think there's this misconception that a short period of time is equivalent to that fraction of the rent. But actually, these places can ⁓ upcharge. And obviously, the 10 days that we were open, you need a few days on each side to set up and break down. ⁓
Alan Li (10:37)
Wow.
Emily Schildt (10:55)
the total rent period is longer. But yeah, I mean, that's what I'm saying. Like I can't remember what I was thinking. think I probably wasn't. And I don't have, just to be clear, like it's not like I had 30, whatever it was, 20 or $30,000 in the bank and savings. ⁓ I had to come up with a business plan that would support the costs of putting this pop-up on. And so that's what I did.
Alan Li (11:04)
my gosh.
$30,000 for 10 days, effectively almost $3,000 per day. That's a big risk to take. Wow, that's very bold.
Emily Schildt (11:28)
Yeah.
Yeah,
I remember and I mean, maybe that number is wrong, but it's certainly we've paid that amount for 30 day pop ups since in different cities and pay that amount, not just in New York, where obviously everything is exorbitantly expensive. But I remember that I remember cutting a check for $14,000 for our for a refrigerator rental. And that was biggest that was the biggest check I had I had ever written.
and
Alan Li (12:02)
$14,000
for the refrigerator for the space.
Emily Schildt (12:06)
or the 10 days, yeah.
Alan Li (12:08)
⁓ my gosh. I think I'm in the wrong business.
Emily Schildt (12:13)
Right? Yeah, totally, totally. Or they just took advantage of me because I so clearly had no idea what I was doing. I mean, that, you know, there's so many stories from that pop-up, but ⁓ one nugget of total ignorance and ⁓ ridiculousness that I remember is I thought, okay, we'll be open for 10 days. We have a hundred brands on shelf. ⁓ Let's say that
Alan Li (12:19)
Hahaha.
Emily Schildt (12:41)
every single one of them sells 100 units. ⁓ You know, we'll just order all of that upfront ⁓ and we'll sell through it. Meanwhile, we had no storage. ⁓ So, and we had frozen and refrigerated products. So I was actually ordering ⁓ dry ice daily to be delivered so that I could keep the frozen product in the back, which we'd stuffed in like the bathroom and.
every nook and cranny that we could find. ⁓ But you know, think the point is like, we made it work and enough to test the concept. And once you're like in the momentum of trying to achieve something and there's really no other way out, like you'll figure out a way to get it done.
Alan Li (13:30)
Yeah, well, this is the perfect story of being bold and just going for it and assembling the plane while you're falling down. ⁓ on the counter side, you also said, OK, we know that there's these exorbitant costs, but there's a business plan to support it. talk to us a little bit about what that business plan was and ⁓ how it turned out.
Emily Schildt (13:53)
Yeah, so the way I approached it with my marketing background and with my understanding of the challenges that these brands face and having a ⁓ fast and effective shelf on which to be was that our real value was ⁓ exposure and visibility and that we could charge against that. And I came up with the amount that I...
would charge the brand based on my work with influencers. If a brand is paying at that time, which maybe seems outrageous now, but if a brand is paying $1,000 for a post to reach an audience of 10,000 people, ⁓ if that's what I plan to reach or let me calculate according to the audience size that I plan to reach, I can come up with a similar sort of cost per view approach to pricing. ⁓
our pop-up and participation in our pop-up. So with that approach, I was able to secure what we call showcase fees from each participating brand. And that gave me the cash ahead of opening to cover my operating costs.
Alan Li (15:06)
got it. And then ⁓ if you actually sell the product, do you also get a percent or margin on that as well?
Emily Schildt (15:14)
Yeah, it's incredibly favorable to the brand, but there's a revenue split on the sales as well.
Alan Li (15:20)
Okay, so how many brands did you have in that first 10 day pop-up? Did you say it was 100?
Emily Schildt (15:26)
I think
about 100, yeah.
Alan Li (15:28)
A hundred. Well, I guess, yeah, if, know, based on the math that you just walked me through, if you know, you're having dozens or thousands of, you know, creators or influencers come in and post about the product and they each pay you a thousand dollars to participate that, that more than covers the cost.
Emily Schildt (15:48)
Yeah, I we were able to profit from that first pop-up, which I think is counterintuitive to how most people approach pop-ups. They're like, this is a marketing activation, so it's a cost. ⁓ But for us, it's a marketing activation for the brands. ⁓ So it's a service that we're providing.
Alan Li (15:51)
⁓ okay.
Okay, well we were too fixated on the cost but that wasn't even the main point. The main point was that it was that high but you were still profitable. Congrats, that's great.
Emily Schildt (16:09)
Yeah.
Right, well the main point
was we didn't necessarily know we were going to meet the sales objectives that we needed to cover our operating costs when we made the commitment. yeah, the plan ⁓ was to be able to achieve that.
Alan Li (16:27)
Okay.
Got it. So I would say, you know, the first pop-up was a success. ⁓ and after that finished and the 10 days came up, is the mindset to keep on opening these in different cities or as many as possible, or is it, you know, open the physical location that's more permanent? How did you think about that?
Emily Schildt (16:53)
Well, at that time, I mean, I was just completely shell shocked that it worked. ⁓ You know, it was ⁓ a theory and an idea. And then when we put it into play and saw the response, I was really overwhelmed. I mean, we had ⁓ hotel ⁓ operators from the neighborhood coming over and saying, you know, we need this in our hotel lobby. I had calls from Target and Walmart, and by calls, I mean emails. ⁓
Alan Li (16:57)
Mm-hmm.
Emily Schildt (17:22)
⁓ like I had number of investors coming to our opening. Like I didn't even know. This was just something that I felt so compelled to do and was excited to do. I wasn't, and I figured out how to fund it, how to fund it by nature of that enthusiasm. I wasn't thinking about the next move. So I was, and how to turn it into a real business. In fact, I thought it, that, that it was just going to support my consultancy. I thought, Hey, here's a.
Alan Li (17:42)
Mmm, okay.
Mmm.
Emily Schildt (17:50)
way to demonstrate my skill set and a way to create a pipeline of brand interest because they'll be working with me on this pop-up. ⁓ I wasn't thinking about turning the pop-up into a business really. ⁓ So when we got that response, then I just, you I took
I think a couple weeks to digest it and then decided that ⁓ at a minimum I was going to need to open another one and change some things, iterate upon our model based on everything we'd learned, get some back of house space and some freezers. And so we opened our second one in September of 2019. So not that long after the first one.
Emily Schildt (22:45)
Hey. Sorry you froze. I don't know if that was...
Alan Li (22:46)
Hamley.
yeah, I'm not sure. I thought your battery cut out.
Emily Schildt (23:00)
No, I don't know, all of a sudden you just froze. Sorry.
Alan Li (23:03)
⁓ OK. Sometimes it might lag for a couple seconds, and then it buffers over it. So all good. ⁓ Cool. So just jumping back to where we were, you were saying ⁓ you didn't expect this response, but you got the response. And then ⁓ thinking about next steps.
Emily Schildt (23:09)
Mm. Okay.
Yeah, so the first pop-up that we opened was in April 2019, and we opened one shortly thereafter, I think September of 2019.
Alan Li (23:36)
Okay, so you did another one shortly thereafter. ⁓ Was that one also a similar success as the first one?
Emily Schildt (23:45)
Yeah, that one was 30 days long, is what started our 30 day pop-up model and was. ⁓
exponentially more talked about and we had, I think, maybe 150 brands or something like that in participation. ⁓ we had much greater ease in signing on brands to having been able to demonstrate the success of the first one. And so I think at that point I might have had a lunch or a coffee or whatever with an investor. And he was like, you know, I think for me to be interested in this
Alan Li (24:23)
Mm-hmm.
Emily Schildt (24:27)
⁓ I would need to see more and in more cities. And I took that as like fact and rule. And I was like, okay, great. Let's go. That's the plan then. So thereafter, ⁓ we opened, I think in LA ⁓ in March or no, in February of 2020. like right before ⁓ COVID hit, we were able to sort of
get in there and open with some normalcy before the world turned. But we operated, I think, maybe two or three pop-ups thereafter, very much during the force of COVID. And it's many woes and operating challenges, yeah.
Alan Li (25:21)
Sure.
Who is doing all the pop-ups and the work behind it? Is it just you or do you have a team helping out?
Emily Schildt (25:30)
think at this point I'd hired people, ⁓ 100 % was not doing it all by myself, and I had hired people fractionally, ⁓ specifically to help me do the outreach to brands, to participate, ⁓ onboard them, help facilitate the delivery of their product. I mean, it's a very complex operation, especially when you're dealing with perishable ⁓ products with a short shelf life, which... ⁓
Alan Li (25:48)
Yep. Yeah.
Emily Schildt (25:59)
were some of our assortment anyway, or a significant piece of the assortment. ⁓ Not to mention the equipment that we require, fridges, freezers in front of house, fridges, freezers in back of house. So we're really like a traveling service of grocery. ⁓ But yeah, and then we would hire a team for a seasonal contractual gig in any city that we went to to actually ⁓
Alan Li (26:10)
Yeah.
Emily Schildt (26:28)
be at the register and restock and ⁓ chat and share the stories of the brands with the people that visit. So we certainly had a tremendous amount of help and we were able to hire those people having established the business model that we did.
Alan Li (26:46)
Got it. So is it safe to say towards the of 2019 or early 2020, you realize this is what you want your focus to be on rather than your consultancy? Or is it, I'm still trying to balance the two.
Emily Schildt (27:00)
Yeah, 100%. I mean, I had never had such positive feedback. I had never brought in that much money. So I really felt in many, I never had felt that good about something that I was doing. Like I really felt like we were doing something different that a lot of, was being valued by a lot of people. And so I've,
I felt with pretty strong conviction that this was something I wanted to pursue for how long I didn't necessarily know. But I consulted for a little while while I was doing the pop-ups. ⁓ But in pretty short time, I devoted all of my time to Pop-Up Grocer.
Alan Li (27:48)
Okay. Um, I know that you raised, I believe around, was that in 2021, your first round of funding?
Emily Schildt (27:58)
Yeah, so after operating the pop-ups ⁓ through 2021, ⁓ I... Yeah.
Alan Li (28:08)
And how many cities
did you do up until that fundraise to sort of prove that investor?
Emily Schildt (28:12)
That's what
I'm trying to remember. I can't speak with 100 % accuracy, but I want to say like at least five or six. ⁓ And each was profitable and each was ⁓ a greater success than the former. ⁓ Give or take, COVID was certainly a challenge ⁓ and it was a challenge in some cities more than others.
⁓ but yeah, I mean, we had a really strong proof of concept and, and so I think, you know, in, 2021, I, I had somewhat of a come to Jesus moment of like, okay, what are you going to do with this though? Like it's, ⁓ in the longterm, like this is a really successful seasonal marketing activation business. Is that, do you want to continue doing that? Do you think it can evolve into something greater? ⁓ and so ultimately I decided that.
You know, there seems to be really strong demand in many cities across the country for this experience first, discovery first grocery store. Um, and it doesn't, it doesn't seem to be dwindling. You know, it's not like we reach day 20 of the pop-up and nobody's showing up anymore. Um, and we had a lot of local traffic who, um, repeatedly told us like, we want you to stick around, you know, we need you in our neighborhood. Um, and so all signs were pointing to.
Alan Li (29:29)
Hmm.
Emily Schildt (29:41)
creating permanent stores and satisfying the demand both on the brands looking to launch and the consumer side on a more permanent long-term basis. So we started in New York with opening our first permanent store and to do that I knew that I need a lot more cash than we were generating from the pop-ups just given the cost of building a retail store and security deposit and all of that. So that's when I decided to
to raise some money.
Alan Li (30:12)
Okay. Can you talk to me briefly about the fundraise? How much did you raise? How many people did you talk to? What was the pushback or excitement about what you were pitching?
Emily Schildt (30:25)
Yeah, we raised just over two million and now I've forgotten your other questions but ⁓ you know the
Alan Li (30:38)
Basically,
What was the excitement or pushback? How did investors respond to this concept? Because this is quite different.
Emily Schildt (30:46)
Yeah, the
excitement was definitely around the concept and the reputation that we've been able to build for ourselves over the last two years. mean, at this time, there really wasn't anyone doing what we were doing. ⁓ We were exposing people to these brands that they'd never seen before. We were giving these brands ⁓ a place to exist and launch. And there was a lot of
press ⁓ and word of mouth that was coming from their experience with us, particularly like within the industry. So people were really stoked on Pop-Up Grocer. I think ⁓ what was challenging about that fundraise was you never want, now I know, you never want to go to investors and say, here's this great thing we have going, ⁓ we're going to change it.
Emily Schildt (31:46)
great thing going, we're going to keep it going, we're going to expand it in X, and Z ways, we're going to accelerate in X, and Z ways, give us the money to do that. So I definitely received resistance ⁓ around that hesitation to invest in something that was actually not a proof of concept in their minds because I was going to be doing something different than what I had already done before.
Alan Li (32:15)
Different meaning you want to open up permanent locations versus traveling pop-up locations. Okay. But you were still able to win over investors, raise over $2 million. ⁓ What happens next? Is that opening the New York location?
Emily Schildt (32:21)
Right, exactly.
Yeah, so not quite all that simple, in, so we raised the money in 2021. We didn't open our store until 2023. So it actually took us 18 months to be able to land the location that we have now. Some of that was due to a great location.
Alan Li (32:39)
Hahaha
Okay.
is a great location. It's like
corner units on a very busy avenue and ⁓ hot area for those who don't live in New York.
Emily Schildt (33:03)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, so I mean, some of that time was created by me because I'm picky just as a person and I wanted a corner location, but I couldn't afford a corner location, you know, a bit of a like champagne, champagne taste on a beer budget. Some of that was created by landlord hesitancy and reservation to commit to a startup that they also felt didn't have a proof of concept, you know, like I always hear.
Okay, you know, I did at the time always hear, okay, cool, you did a pop-up, you've never run a permanent store. And so they just didn't have a lot of faith in my ability to pay rent every month for the next 10 years. ⁓ Especially when you're sitting next, when your competition who also wants to rent the same space, ⁓ you know, has five other locations, has been in business for 25 years. So it's very competitive for the desirable spaces and we just weren't really competitively ⁓
set up, you we weren't set up well competitively. ⁓ But yeah, we were eventually able to land that space and ⁓ from there, you know, after the construction period, we were able to open in March of 2023.
Alan Li (34:24)
⁓ huh. When did you land the space and how long did you have for construction or how long did that take?
Emily Schildt (34:31)
I think I got the keys in August of 2022. It's a landmark building, so I don't know how much you or your audience is interested in all of the logistical and ridiculous elements of commercial real estate in New York City specifically, but there's a lot of permitting and filing that we had to do.
Alan Li (34:37)
Okay.
Emily Schildt (34:57)
before we were actually able to enter the construction period. I think the construction period itself only took like six to eight weeks. So it was pretty fast. It was really just all of the ⁓ hoops. We had to jump through and we also took the space as is. So we had to kind of white box it and like undo the Le Pen quotidien that it was before, before we could actually start building our space on top of it.
Alan Li (35:05)
wow.
Mm.
Got it. And how big is the space that you rented? And can you share roughly what you're paying on a monthly rent?
Emily Schildt (35:33)
It's 1500 square feet. And I think our starting rent was about $30,000, maybe $29,000. whatever that is, it's worth it. Yeah, exactly. I know, now I'm like, maybe that number's just stuck in my head because that's what I pay now. But yeah, definitely. But I mean, you know, super high rent, like, you know.
Alan Li (35:46)
Better you get 30 days than 10 days.
Yeah.
Yes.
Emily Schildt (36:02)
I say it with ease because I've been paying it for three years and we're about to rent our ⁓ second store. And so I'm just very familiar with what market rate is in New York City, but I'm sure anyone in any other city or anyone who's not looking in Manhattan and is renting in other parts of, know, parts of Brooklyn or the Lower East Side, like that's that's that's a ridiculously high rent. And I totally agree. ⁓ But in New York, you know, you really, you have to pay for the traffic.
and ultimately we found it to be worth it.
Alan Li (36:32)
Yes.
Well, I had on a guest, I think a month ago, she rents a night at 19 square foot space for $5,000 a month in the West Village. So it's.
Emily Schildt (36:49)
a
1900 square foot space? Oh.
Alan Li (36:51)
No, 19 square feet. It's
literally, it's literally a triangle. She, she runs a photo booth business, but it's on the West village on, I believe it's seventh Ave, ⁓ really high foot traffic. But I was like, that's, I think that's the highest I've ever heard on a per square foot basis. ⁓
Emily Schildt (36:58)
Yeah.
That's crazy.
Yeah, well, they say that those are actually, they're worse on a per square foot basis. Yeah.
Alan Li (37:19)
Yeah, yeah, because it's so small. ⁓
okay, so you finally are able to open ⁓ and this is in 2023. ⁓ What is the response like from people in New York? And I'm curious to know the response in the beginning and also, you know, after a few years as well.
Emily Schildt (37:40)
The response was great. mean, I've had a lifelong goal as a reader of the New York Times ⁓ physical paper every Sunday. That's my ritual, you know, to be in the New York Times and we were. And we had a tremendous amount of traffic and just overall, yeah, it was really well received. ⁓ So those first few months were ⁓ thrilling. mean,
Alan Li (37:52)
⁓ congrats.
Emily Schildt (38:09)
full of highs and lows, of course, because the high was what I just said, but the lows were like, have no fucking idea of what we're doing. And it took us like a year or maybe two years to figure it out.
Alan Li (38:24)
Okay, what does that mean specifically? How did I guess the business or the plan evolve over the last few years?
Emily Schildt (38:33)
Well, I guess what I mean about those early few months is just I'd never operated a coffee shop before. The store has a cafe inside of it. So I didn't know how to run an espresso machine. didn't know how to train my staff on running an espresso machine. Our customers were very different. Like with the pop-ups, they were coming to Pop-Up Grocer intentionally to experience this.
Alan Li (38:41)
Mm-hmm.
Emily Schildt (39:01)
concept that they'd heard about and they were very actively interested in new brands and new products. Now we're getting people off the street who don't know what pop-up grocer is and I don't know, just aren't as happy and are more disgruntled. Like it was just, it was like we had to really ⁓ figure out how to
Alan Li (39:15)
Mm-hmm.
Emily Schildt (39:30)
how to make people happy instead of like how to ⁓ accommodate their happiness. I don't know if that makes sense or if I'm saying it the right way. It's just like, would just, think everything was, everything was new and we were just really figuring it out as we go. And I had never operated a store ⁓ seven days a week, 12 hours a day ⁓ with a team also ⁓ that's there seven days a week, 12 hours a day. ⁓
Alan Li (39:50)
Mm-hmm.
Emily Schildt (40:00)
365 days a year. So yeah, everything was just difficult.
Alan Li (40:08)
I see. So were those a lot of changes, I guess, from like just an experience standpoint of getting operationally up to speed with running permanent brick and mortar or were there fundamental business changes? But I know that you mentioned there's a coffee shop in there as well. Did you have to change, ⁓ I guess, know, payments with brands or pricing or the business model at all?
Emily Schildt (40:35)
Yeah, we definitely structured. We kept the same value proposition in general structure of the business in place or of the the model in place. But, you know, as far as like actually what the fees are and ⁓ what the duration of the term is and all of that, ⁓ we tweaked those to make sense for the permanent space. But yeah, I mean, I think over time, the biggest change is that
Alan Li (40:56)
Mm-hmm.
Emily Schildt (41:04)
With a pop-up, were introducing people to new things every 30 days, ⁓ or with, you know, for 30 days and every pop-up was new with 150 new brands. In the flagship, in our permanent store, ⁓ we evolved over time to just turning over every three months about half the store. So that way we could cultivate ⁓ loyalty and a relationship with the local community by
Alan Li (41:16)
I see.
Mm.
Emily Schildt (41:34)
having products always on shelf that they want to buy habitually. so ⁓ learning what they want to buy and specifically what's going to drive them to store is something that is still ongoing and was very much a learning process for us in the first year, year and a half.
Alan Li (41:56)
Got it. And are you still also operating pop-ups in different cities or is the focus on this permanent brick and mortar location?
Emily Schildt (42:08)
So the focus is absolutely on growing our permanent store footprint. ⁓ So we will take advantage of pop-up opportunities when they make sense for us and for the brands that we serve. Like we opened in Austin last year around South by Southwest and we just rolled out in 70 Nordstrom stores across the country. So sort of like a pop-up within a store.
⁓ in November of last year. So.
Alan Li (42:39)
Wow.
Emily Schildt (42:45)
Our ability to operate pop-ups, our ⁓ flexibility and ⁓ I think just the offering and the value proposition of pop-up grocer lends itself still to traveling around the country and to being within other spaces. So we'll do that when it makes sense.
Alan Li (43:10)
I see. And then you had also mentioned you're in the midst or planning to open your second location. Are you able to share where that is going to be?
Emily Schildt (43:20)
yes, maybe. Maybe I'll reserve where, but it's going to be in New York City,
Alan Li (43:29)
New York City. ⁓ Also, ⁓ thinking about future growth and this one, did you have to raise additional money from investors or was this financed through the existing store?
Emily Schildt (43:49)
Yeah, we'll finance it through retained earnings, ⁓ some debt, but we're profitable as a company. So ⁓ our focus is ⁓ on opening the second store and then seeing what our strategy is from there.
Alan Li (44:09)
Okay. Well, that's great. I think most venture backed startups are highly unprofitable for a long time in the beginning, but that's great to see that you have that flexibility of just doing it off your balance sheet. think that's, that's awesome.
Emily Schildt (44:23)
Yeah, I mean, in full disclosure, like, ⁓ I don't know why I would react to being like a venture backed startup, but, you know, we raised, we raised, we raised some money, but ⁓ $2 million goes quickly when you're, when you're building a brick and mortar in New York City. ⁓ When it takes you 18 months to land your location and support your team over those 18 months, you know, not, not lay anyone off. ⁓
Alan Li (44:41)
Yeah.
Emily Schildt (44:53)
So we really needed to be profitable. ⁓ And that has been at our core from day one, like I said, because I just didn't know any other way to be. ⁓ I don't come from money. I wasn't familiar with how venture worked. So my mindset was always that everything we do ⁓
needs to make sense financially. There's no like grow at all costs, acquire customers at all costs mentality. Also like doesn't make sense. We're not a tech startup. ⁓ So each store, each business unit needs to have really strong unit economics. And we've been really ⁓ serious about that since the start.
Alan Li (45:27)
Hmm.
Yeah, I also want to touch quickly on ⁓ how you think about marketing pop-up grocer, given your background, ⁓ having your own marketing firm in Atchabani. ⁓ How do you think about getting the word out for pop-up grocer now that you have a permanent location?
Emily Schildt (46:11)
We really haven't done much marketing since we've opened. Our primary vehicle for getting the word out is through the brands. So every three months in the permanent store, we have between 85 and 100 new brands and they're all really excited to be on shelf. So each of them activate their audience to help drive traffic and just
Alan Li (46:34)
Hmm.
Emily Schildt (46:41)
stimulate awareness around pop-up grocer at that time. That's really our strongest marketing force. I wish we had the budget to do something else, you know, other than like our organic efforts on social media or email, that's really it.
Alan Li (47:00)
Gotcha.
Yeah. Well, I mean, you're also paying for a great location. just by virtue of the foot traffic, you're sure there's thousands that walk by daily that get to see, you know, a glimpse of what pop up grocery is.
Emily Schildt (47:15)
Yeah, like signage, like exterior signage, I mean, it cannot be understated how significant that can contribute to, significantly that can contribute to getting people to come inside, getting people to convert with signage in store. ⁓ I feel like that's something that maybe seems obvious, but took me a while to learn ⁓ just how impactful it is. mean, if we put something on our sandwich board outside, it's the number one seller.
Alan Li (47:37)
Hmm.
Emily Schildt (47:45)
inside. People have to be told, they have to be told what to buy. Yeah. I think they like to be told what to buy, especially within the context of our concept, because everything's new. So they're like, I don't know, you know, what tastes good or what's going to be worth my money since you know, everything's at a bit more of a premium price point. So, so yeah.
Alan Li (47:47)
really?
Huh, interesting.
Yeah.
I'm curious, have you done, cause I think you have, correct me if I'm mistaken, but you have, do you have multiple A frames outside or multiple signage pieces? I think I remember seeing that. Yeah. I was like, oh wow. There's, there's multiple of these. Did you do any, guess like, you can't really, well, you, do any AB tests or testing on, you know, what type of messaging works or like this drives this or with your signage, the outdoor signage?
Emily Schildt (48:19)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah, mean, loosely, like we put a lot of things out there and we know what works and what doesn't. More specifically than that, I'm not sure I could say, but ⁓ it kind of goes against the grain of like me personally, like I'm much more of a minimalist and I don't want like, I hate clutter and like, you everything's just distracting to me. ⁓ So like two A-frames is like, ew, gross, but they work. Yeah.
Alan Li (49:05)
It works? Good.
No, I mean, it literally stops people and they're like, this is interesting. And I think you have like bright colors on some of your A-frames. ⁓ I remember them. ⁓
Emily Schildt (49:19)
Yeah. Well, and
it's an, it's an, everyone says it's an iconic location and it is, but it is also challenging in that it's kind of on like an island of its own. ⁓ And there's a really crazy intersection in front of it. So I have the belief that like, when you come off that intersection, we're in like the digestion zone. ⁓ People are like, whoo, you know, like I didn't get killed while I was crossing the street.
Alan Li (49:36)
Mm.
That's
Emily Schildt (49:48)
They're not like, ooh, what's this cute place I should go inside? So
Alan Li (49:49)
accurate.
Emily Schildt (49:51)
we really try to disrupt that, I guess, and get their attention. Yeah.
Alan Li (49:56)
I see. Okay. Awesome. Well, Emily, ⁓ you know, looking back on your journey building Pop-Up Grocer over the last seven or so years, ⁓ and knowing what you know now, is there anything that you would have changed or done differently?
Emily Schildt (50:16)
would have done, I don't know how to answer that question, would have done everything differently. ⁓ Every single thing I would have said differently.
Alan Li (50:24)
Really?
Emily Schildt (50:27)
No, not every single thing. ⁓
What is a good answer to that question? ⁓
I don't know. I think...
I guess my actual answer is I wouldn't have done everything differently because I am here today. ⁓ And everything I've done has led me to this point. And I feel really confident and excited about where we are, but more importantly, I think where we're going and really reassured that we are able to get there and get there by ⁓ the fruits of our hard work. ⁓
But with that said, ⁓ guess I would have had, I wish I could, and I could have never had this, but I wish I had more confidence, I wish I had that same amount of confidence and conviction ⁓ over the last few years. Obviously I had a hell of a lot of gumption, ⁓ but I think when talking to people who I ⁓ deem as more experienced and more successful and, ⁓
Alan Li (51:31)
Hmm.
Emily Schildt (51:52)
you know, richer than I am. sort of like quake in my boots a bit and feel like, what is this like silly ⁓ traveling grocery store? What is this silly rotational grocery store that I'm building? And so I wish that I had all the experience that I've had over the three years, which has given me the confidence I do now from day one, though that would have, you know, that's impossible.
Alan Li (52:16)
Yeah. Well, no, that's a great answer. Yeah. I'm excited for what PropUpGrosse is going to be and eventually expanding, you know, I'm sure to other states as you continue growing ⁓ both profitably and maybe you'll choose to raise some funds down the line, but always great to be able to decide whether you do that or not. So.
Emily Schildt (52:40)
Yeah, we'll see. mean, ultimately our mission is realized at scale, like the more brands that we can support in more cities across the country. And of course, consumers gain access to these products and can support small businesses. And it's also just like fun and joyful. But, you know, the more the better. So I definitely am interested in
growing this thing as fast as it makes sense to as well, you know, while being really thoughtful about where we go and when we open and ensuring that we really learn from each location, each neighborhood, each customer base before we expand. I think we've all seen stories of too much too soon. So it would be silly not to pay attention to them.
Alan Li (53:39)
Make sense. ⁓ Emily, if people want to follow along your journey and maybe get in contact, what's the best way for them to do so?
Emily Schildt (53:49)
popupgrocer.com on Instagram. are at popup.grocer. I'm at Emily Schilt and yeah, you can find us and reach out to me there.
Alan Li (54:03)
Awesome. All right, well, I'll include those in the show notes, but ⁓ really enjoyed having you on, Emily, and looking forward to ⁓ going to your second location as well.
Emily Schildt (54:14)
Yeah, thank you so much. See you soon.
Alan Li (54:17)
awesome.