Opening Retail Stores vs. Going Wholesale: What the Numbers Say

Should you open your own stores, or let the big retailers do the heavy lifting? Curtis Matsko (CEO, Portland Leather Goods), Matt Bertulli (CEO, Pela Case & Lomi), and Mike Beckham (CEO, Simple Modern) go head to head on one of the biggest channel decisions a consumer brand will face. Curtis went from a spite-signed lease to 16 owned stores, while Mike turned a $9 million Sam’s Club bet into 10,000 wholesale doors. This episode breaks down these two different paths and what each model actually costs you in competency, capital, and control, why the wrong channel for your product category is almost impossible to recover from, and what private equity is really looking for when they come knocking on an omnichannel brand. Powered By Fulfil https://9ops.co/fulfil Saras Analytics https://bit.ly/9OP-Ytdesc Postscript https://9ops.co/postscript Richpanel https://9ops.co/richpanel Northbeam https://www.northbeam.io/ Aftersell https://9ops.co/4i3bb5 Operators Newsletter https://9operators.com/ Chapters 00:00:00 Mike’s Case Against Stores 00:07:49 Lease Signed Out of Spite 00:10:06 The $3.5M Outlet Store 00:16:00 Store 3 & First Mistake 00:22:46 Letting Go to Level Up 00:27:01 The $9M Sam’s Club Deal 00:36:36 Sell In vs Sell Through 00:47:48 Reading the Data Fast 00:54:59 Buyer Loyalty Is Not Real 01:00:29 Product Channel Fit 01:07:02 Skipping Wholesale