Saturday, January 17, 2015

Barsy's Almonds is all over the map!

We're proud to announce that Barsy's Almonds is now in 21 states! Check out our Where To Buy page on our website to find our complete list.
We're especially proud of this accomplishment because we don't work with a distributor. Nope. So every single one of those Co-ops, grocery stores and specialty stores was added one by one over the last six years. It's not the most efficient way to get our product on the shelves, but it does have some invaluable advantages:
1. We build a personal relationship with every store, which means we get really good at anticipating orders. This lets us fine tune our baking schedule, so stock is never more than a week old when it ships and 90% of it ships within two days.
2. It helps us keep prices as low as possible. Since we are a very small-scale operation we don't have the economies of scale the big food manufacturers have, which means every bit of savings is a help - and that includes distributor fees.
3. We get to know the unique story of every store, even the ones we only reach through email or the phone. We've heard some truly fascinating histories. This has been a particular joy for us. And the perfect antidote to the sometimes exhausting tedium of running a small business.
4. We make great friendships! Turns out the folks we deal with are some of the nicest, brightest and most interesting folks around. No kidding! You want to meet great, committed people? Start chatting up the clerks at your local co-op. Trust us.
5. We get great feedback. We've made a lot of changes to our business operations and a big percentage of them have been in direct response to suggestions from our various store contacts.
Did you know Barsy's Almonds has been professionally paired with local beer? And no, we don't just mean in your den. Heavy Table had a great article about us a couple of years ago. They did the hard work of tasting and testing a number of local brews to see which ones went best with each of our almonds. That kind of selfless dedication is hard to fathom.
Anyhoo, go to the article in Heavy Table to see the results. We're especially amused by the surprise pairing with Smokies.