Ron Shaich

I ran it through an earn out.

I began traveling the country with a guy named Scott Davis, another guy named Dwight Juson.

These were people that worked with me, colleagues who I thought, you know, I learned from.

And we began seeing these consumers who wanted something more.

And it was very clear that there was this very distinct consumer niche out there that wanted something better.

And we began to try to make sense of it.

And again, you asked me how we did it.

It was traveling into the West Coast, the East Coast, went up to Vancouver in Canada.

Mike Lasky and Tara Breads, amazing bread he was doing up there.

And we're trying to find out who are the best people that were meeting customer needs and why were people smiling when they came out of there.

And it was from that that we essentially began to get it.

And I can remember sitting in a bar with these two guys, Scott Davis and Dwight Juson.

And Dwight was my researcher.

And Dwight said, you know, you really want to understand today's consumer.

Look at their beer bottle.

That label on it is a mirror for who people perceive themselves to be.

And our opportunity is for our food to do the same thing, to give people a sense of who they were and what they are.

And I began to make sense of it.

And again, for me, the powerful theme here, Shane, is trying to search for what is the signal versus the noise.

You know, what really matters?