GT Dave

So a third party distributor is basically called a middleman, right?

Where you ship your product to them

They order it from you based on demand.

They put it in their warehouse, which can be dry refrigerator, frozen typically.

And then stores like Whole Foods order from them, but they'll order vitamins, milk, juice, like basically 80 to 90% of what's in their store.

And the benefit is, is they have a concentrated, systematized delivery program that can be almost daily.

It's really efficient for the store.

And so it's very simplified.

And so it shocked me initially in two ways.

One was like, I was like, wait, I'm gonna lose that touch.

Because again, to me, putting the product on the shelf

ourselves was like essential experience, right?

It's like tucking your baby in, so to speak.

So like losing that control really shook me.

And then from like a business standpoint, let's say I sold to Air One at $2 and 50 cents a bottle and they would turn around and sell it for 450, right?

Making it up.

Now if I'm using a distributor, I have to sell it to the distributor for like $1.50 so that they can sell it to the store for $2.50 and then the store can mark it up.

And I was like, you're eating into what I need to like make this high quality product.

So initially I said no.

But then I wrestled with it and ultimately I was like, okay, let me see the positive in this.