Jordan Buckner’s Post

The news about Foxtrot and Dom's Kitchen & Market closing reminds us we are in a new consumer era where getting back to basics will outperform niche and grandiose concepts for the foreseeable future. Consumers remain conscious of pricing (I can attest) and are more focused on brands, products and groceries that serve a functional need vs. nice-to-haves. This is an unfortunate example of how growth can be a nail in the coffin and even while it was riding high on the hog, I was concerned (and confused) about how these two entities, and eventually Outfox, its joint venture, could sustain the level of scale we saw play out before our eyes. As the CEO and founder of a high-growth company: I can attest first hand that growth is a double-edged sword and you have to be very careful when you get to the point of going gangbusters. As a born-and-raised Chicagoan who's built my career in the food, CPG, retail space: I am super sad and disappointed about this news. I loved the innovation and disruption fueled by Foxtrot and Dom's and how much opportunity it created for fellow emerging brands in our city and beyond. As a people-first employer and empathetic human: I am here and eager to help those who are now out of work and looking for new opportunities. Please shoot me a DM and we can set up time to chat and I promise I'll do all I can to help as you navigate what comes next. As an investor who doesn't mind bright and shiny objects: a good reminder to be weary of darlings and to be prudent, diligent and to make sure growth doesn't collapse a company's foundation. 

This makes me sad.... ...I've been doing this long enough to know that I never have a complete perspective. It's impossible to know everything here, and I fully admit that. I know current and former employees and leaders for Foxtrot, and have been a customer myself as well. Building and scaling a business is hard. Raising money to support that vision is hard. Balancing competing interests and pressures is hard. But front-line employees learning they don't have a job by showing up to work to find locks on the door and an IG post with comments disabled is WRONG. There is so much damage done here, the least of which is the capital lost. I'm disappointed that hard-working hourly workers took a train and a couple buses to work today to find out their corporate leadership didn't have enough courage to tell them before they bought their tickets... As an industry, we MUST do better than this. Ten percent of America works here, and we cannot pretend to wonder why they are giving us the side-eye. #hospitality #goodjobs #beyondthestraw

Sad day for CPG brands - Foxtrot and Dom's are closing. What does this mean for vendors and brands? I spoke with a founder friend about this, and it is notable that Outfox (the parent entity for Foxtrot and Doms) declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy. This means there is no intent to continue operations, and indeed Foxtrot has ceased operations effective today. Under reorganization (Chapter 11), essential vendors are still paid, as the organization expects to continue operations after restructuring. However, in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the firm is being liquidated, and therefore all vendors essentially become unsecured creditors. The obvious next steps for brands impacted are: First, stop any shipments in transit and figure out where they need to be rerouted. Next, Talk to a lawyer—you need to register your claim with the trustee if it is recoverable. I believe any delivered/accepted product at Dom's or Foxtrot will be part of the assets under trustee control for liquidation purposes, and likely not recoverable. Sadly, small creditors (small brands who are expecting payments for delivered products) are unlikely to be made whole. In order of preference, small brands/vendors will be at the end of the repayment priority. I'm sure more details will come out in the next few days. I hope my local founder friends are going to be ok. If any of you need to vent, or just chat, give me a call. We're all in this together. #foxtrot #domsmarket #bankruptcy #riskmanagement

I frequented both Foxtrot and Dom's Kitchen & Market. Spending time in the Chicago and Washington D.C. areas the past few days, it is shocking to see these stores rapidly shutter. Foxtrot was a creative convenience store concept that raised over $150 million in capital from such well-reputed venture capital and growth equity fund managers as D1 Capital Partners L.P. Monogram Capital Partners, Imaginary, Almanac, Wittington Ventures, Fifth Wall and Beliade, Lerer Hippeau and Revolution. The fallout seems to be in the early innings with the sudden massive layoffs across the companies and staff in the Chicago, Dallas and DC areas. What were the specific reasons? What other retail entities brands close over the coming months as #inflation persists resulting in prolonged #interestrate and debt cost relief? #stores #retail #venturecapital #shutdown #chicago #washingtondc #dallas #texas #layoffs #privatemarkets #alternativeinvestments #capitalmarkets https://lnkd.in/g8w79dRy

It's a dog-eat-dog world when it comes to business storefronts. While retailer and restaurant bankruptcies make headlines with closures and layoffs, the stores left vacant in the dark of night by one business is scooped up by another just as quickly in the light of day. Like Cabbage Patch Kids and Michael Jordan sneakers, it's all about supply and demand. Right now, the general lack of available shop spaces means the leverage lies with landlords. One company's mess on Aisle 3 is another company's opportunity on Aisle 5. From Applebee's and Red Lobster to Macy's and Best Buy, rising costs are hitting commercial stores just as hard as consumers themselves. And for chains that are struggling financially, unprofitable stores are either being relocated to other locations or closed all together. Alas, not all retailers and restaurants are in the same boat. Some of the nation's largest retailers including Target and Walmart are actually in the hunt to buy property in order to expand their own big-box store empire while others are snapping up shuttered locations out of necessity. The scramble to lease or buy retail space is a 180-degree turn from the retail apocalypse that the industry has been facing since ecommerce entered the social vocabulary. It wasn't that long ago when industry pundits and talking heads were touting the demise of physical retail/brick-and-mortar stores. For a while, they seemed right. But now, the display tables have turned as online-only retailers realize their growth plans must include a physical store strategy. The reason is simple: the customer experience is ever important and a key differentiator. But if you're an online-only retailer, that can be difficult when everyone's websites look the same and checking out is as mundane as wearing white after Labor Day. Unlike retailers, restaurants are facing a significant change where consumers are ditching the fast and casual martini lunch and instead looking for quicker options. In other words, sit down restaurants are great for impressing a date or parents, but not so much for everyday grazing or hanging out. While physical locations are still important, they need to be able to provide quick service and convenience. And as fast food chains have seen, price also matters. The retail and restaurant industries have become a landscape of constant flux, mirroring the unpredictable nature of fortune itself. Success today can be fleeting, and the challenges of adapting to a rapidly evolving marketplace can lead to swift decline. For now, storefronts are one giant revolving door https://lnkd.in/g2Cc7NdF #retail #restaurant #realestate #fastfood #consumers

What if I was to tell you that a convenience store with a precious logo convinced a frothy marketplace that they deserved a fintech valuation amidst the drunken apex of total addressable market, where 'grow-or-die' and 'category disruption' were substitutes for profit and fundamentals. A mere neighborhood bodega reimagined? No, a logistics hub; a tech-enabled, app-supported EXPERIENCE(!!!) with squeaky clean signage. With Branding that beguiled the adoring masses, many mouth-agape retail fan boys and girls who would invoke their expansion as proof positive that retail is not dead, just evolving. Just their logo on a site plan ensured we need look no further- things are about to get cool. Come ye Boba, Putt-Putt, Jeni's and Cro-Nut, this intersection has arrived! Margins? Who cares if we can bamboozle the urban/urbane masses to buy a soggy breakfast taco and an $18 Yeti cup. Stay a while! Note the lighting fixtures, the hardwood floors, the marble counter that provides the same safe reminder of being like that one co-working space. Enjoy your $87 bottle of Angel's Envy. Rent is but a number! Unit economics are for 7-11 to worry about with their square primary colors and gasoline revenue. That it ended before the suburbs of America diminished it is perhaps for the best. https://lnkd.in/gyvF5rtT

We were just as shocked and disappointed as anyone after learning the news of Foxtrot/Dom's closing yesterday. Foxtrot was important to not only heywell, but the broader entrepreneurial community. Kerry Diamond asked the provocative question: "What does this say about modern CPG. Have we hit peak CPG? Has the bubble burst?" Our strong point of view is NO. Innovation is fundamental to commerce, for the simple reason that consumer needs evolve and the market will always look to solve them. And while innovation has seen a sharp decline across CPG since 2020 (influenced by a number of factors including supply chain issues, high interest rates, lack of funding etc) the truth is "the categories with innovation are the categories that are growing (SPINS)" This abrupt closure is a huge failure because there is a strong market need for this type of platform. Foxtrot was heywell's first retail account, and while we have grown well beyond those first few stores, it was an important launching pad for heywell and remained a notable destination for consumers, influencers, retailers and investors to find innovative emerging brands. The merchandising and marketing teams we worked with are exceptionally talented, hard working and creative people who have become close friends over the years. They worked tirelessly to put a spotlight on innovative brands. (who by the way, were not all launched flush with VC funding). We find how the Foxtrot/Dom's employees were treated and how this closure was executed quite appalling. In our opinion, this is not a conversation only about ‘market need’ or ‘consumer price sensitivity’. The Foxtrot brand was appealing and consumers flocked to the stores. More importantly, senior leadership must be accountable to basic business fundamentals like profitable growth, margin, and issues like over expansion, or cash runway. You don't raise 160 million dollars and run full speed into a brick wall. We're sad the community has lost a key path to market for emerging brands and a beloved brand providing consumers a source of discovery. We hope investors, brands and retailers are paying attention to the right things here and lean in, not out, to innovation and founders with experience building their brands the right way. Crain's Chicago Business BevNET.com, Inc. SPINS Audarshia Townsend Andrea Hernández Ashley Selman Britt Dougherty

🔴 Breaking News: Most of Carpetright shops to close with loss of almost 1,600 jobs - Financial Times The recent news of Carpetright closing most of its shops and the loss of almost 1,600 jobs is truly disheartening. Our thoughts go out to those affected by this news. This serves as a stark reminder of the challenging times facing the retail industry. As we navigate through these uncertainties, we must continue to support one another and stay resilient. Let’s hope for brighter days ahead. #Carpetright #RetailIndustry #SupportingEachOther https://ift.tt/gi7yKs0

I have received tons calls over the past few days relating to closure of Dom's Kitchen & Market and Foxtrot My heart goes out to every ** employee ** supplier ** partner ** and multiple friends and colleagues ……who worked with and for these dynamic/essential businesses. As a strategic partner to the Grocery industry who has lived and breathed its challenges , I can honestly say it is one of the single most difficult business models to execute at the highest level. ** Thousands of SKUs ** Labor challenges ** inflationary pressures ** increasing/recurring theft ** New to the world state , city and municipal regulations It’s hard to watch essential businesses go by the wayside. My advice to other operators in the industry : ** Simplify your offerings ( do more with less) ** Automate where possible ** Digitize and accelerate your online ordering systems for synergies ** Learn from the BIGs ** keep differentiating every day You still have big supporters that want local and small to win. Keep driving it. We need you. #grocery #foodsupply #essential

There’s a great long read in The Guardian about the late Nicholas Saunders, a visionary, hippy pioneer who in the late 1970s transformed a former banana warehouse in London’s Covent Garden into Neal’s Yard, a space that was home to a whole-foods store, a coffee house and dairy. It’s a great story with a lot of creative anarchism and weird and wacky detours along the way. The coffee house - Monmouth Coffee - and the dairy - Neal’s Yard Dairy - that Saunders ‘conjured out of nothing’ have been hugely influential and are still going strong today. The Guardian reports that the first commercially made flat white served in the UK was made with Monmouth beans, while if you walk into a cheese shop in the UK today, there’s a good chance the monger will proudly say they worked at ‘The Dairy.’ Saunders steered an alternative path, cultivating a community of businesses. I was struck by this list that he drew up when he launched the space in the late 1970s - 12 principles for how the businesses in Neal’s Yard should operate. I think many of these stand the test of time, 50 years later these look great operating principles for any independent brand or small business looking to keep their ‘indie’ or alternative spirit! I love No.12. If the business is growing, don’t expand to another branch, help your staff split off and start their own business. #indiebrands #independent https://lnkd.in/eBMgBwur