This Commerce Life

Retail veteran Peter Chapman has spent 20 years teaching brands what buyers actually want to hear — and it's rarely another pitch about how great your product is.

After 19 years at Loblaw running fresh merchandising across Atlantic Canada, Peter went out on his own in 2008 to help suppliers build real relationships with retailers. On this episode he sits down with Phil and Kenny to unpack what separates the brands that get on shelf from the ones that get shown the door.

The conversation digs into why "walking the store" is a non-negotiable part of the job, how store staff are the industry's most underused source of intel, and why understanding a retailer's economics beats fighting them. Peter also shares why frozen and refrigerated have quietly become the categories to watch, and how a wave of Canadian-first sentiment is reshaping what brands should be leading with — at home and in export markets.

Find Peter at SKUfood.com, where he's published a weekly industry newsletter for 347 straight Fridays, and connect with him on LinkedIn.

In this episode:

From a 1983 grocery job to 19 years at Loblaw to going solo in 2008

Why buyers want a plan, not a "look what I've got" pitch

Walking the whole store (not your own set) to find where you really fit

Store staff and cashiers as underrated sources of real-world sales insight

The shift toward frozen, refrigerated, and Canadian-made products

Elbows up — but make it strategic. Phil and Kenny break down what the latest US tariff escalation actually means for Canadian food, beverage, and CPG brands.

This one's raw and unscripted. The guys air out the frustration, then get clinical: how founders should be stress-testing their US ambitions, why "buy Canadian" is more than a slogan right now, and how to hunt for opportunity instead of just moaning about the mess.

They dig into the case for looking beyond the border — Mexico, Europe, Asia, and the I-5 corridor as its own set of regional markets — and why parking your US plan doesn't mean blowing it up. Plus a rundown of the food & beverage associations and buy-local programs across BC, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, and Atlantic Canada that brands can tap for peanuts.

If you're a Canadian brand, tell the world you're Canadian — people are asking, and not just here at home.

In this episode:

Why the guys are angry — and why they're choosing to move past it

"Buy Canadian" when you can, and being real about when you can't

Rethinking the US: sizing, packaging, COGS, and market viability

Looking past the border — Mexico, Europe, Asia, and regional plays

The provincial food & bev associations and buy-local programs worth joining

This Commerce Life is Canada's longest-running commerce podcast, hosted by Phil Chang and Kenny Vannucci.

Meet Colin Christensen, the entrepreneur who turned "mushrooms and chocolate" into a fast-growing Canadian functional food brand — and made it taste like chocolate, not sand.

MyCAO (a mashup of mycelia + cacao) started almost by accident. Hired as CEO of a psilocybin company waiting on regulation, Colin needed a revenue stream and stumbled into the functional mushroom space. A conversation with a high-end Edmonton chocolatier flipped his original "Canadian MUD/WTR" idea on its head — and four months later, MyCAO was making revenue.

In this episode, Colin walks Phil and Kenny through the real formulation challenge behind the brand: getting a full, effective gram of a single mushroom species into every button without the gritty, sandy texture that plagues most mushroom products. The team leaned on renowned herbalist Robert Rogers, sourced full-spectrum mushrooms from a GMP-grade Canadian grower, and paired everything with Valrhona dark chocolate. The result is a functional dose you'd actually want to eat.

It's a sharp look at building a differentiated CPG brand in a crowded wellness category — where dose, quality, and format are the whole game.

Find Colin Christensen (CEO) on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinchristensen/

MyCAO: https://mycao.ca/

Getting on a show floor was never the hard part — being ready to do business once you're there is. In this episode, Phil and Kenny sit down with Aaron Skelton, President & CEO of the Canadian Health Food Association, to unpack how the CHFA show is evolving from an exposure play into a readiness engine for Canada's next wave of natural, health, and CPG brands.

Aaron walks through Greenhouse — CHFA's new curated program that gives emerging brands seed and scale stages, a dedicated show-floor section, and a retailer breakfast that puts founders in front of buyers before the doors open. It's built around a simple truth Phil and Kenny hear constantly from brokers and distributors: "Are they ready?" That one question decides everything.

The conversation gets into why brands should sometimes say no to a listing, how 1,000 doors can sink a company that isn't prepared for the cost of growth, the financial-literacy gap founders don't see coming, and why the merchandising space on the floor is a free education most brands walk right past. Plus a look at red-tape reduction for the natural health sector and what it really means on the ground.

If you're building a food, beverage, or CPG brand in Canada — or you're a buyer hunting for the next thing before everyone else finds it — this one's for you.

In this episode:

Why "exposure" isn't enough anymore — the shift to retail readiness

Inside Greenhouse: seed vs. scale stages and the curated show floor

The one question every broker and distributor asks: "Are they ready?"

When saying no to a listing is the smartest move

The real cost of growth — and why 1,500% growth was the biggest challenge

Using the Hive merchandising space to learn what buyers actually see

Connect with Aaron Skelton and the team at CHFA and see what's coming on the show floor this September.

Find Aaron here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronskelton/

Make sure you register for CHFA Now: https://www.chfanow.ca/toronto/

The real scoop on getting into distribution — straight from the person who reviews the applications. Amanda Coish of Purity Life breaks down what actually earns a "yes."

We've had the big-picture conversation about distribution before. This time we wanted the unfiltered version, so we sat down with Amanda Coish, who leads brand selection and onboarding at Purity Life — one of Canada's major natural-channel distributors. She reviews hundreds of brands a year while managing a portfolio of 400-plus, and she tells us exactly what separates the brands that get picked up from the ones that never hear back.

If you're a founder eyeing distribution, this is the conversation to listen to twice. Amanda walks through the review process, the compliance and readiness gaps that get an application quietly declined, why "I'll do Instagram and Facebook" isn't the promotional support retailers are asking for, and the realistic timeline from application to product actually shipping out of the warehouse. Phil and Kenny pull on their buyer and CPG experience to translate what she's really signalling — including the two-word tells that make a buyer think "no."

It's a candid look at the mechanics of Canadian retail: finite warehouse space, the fight for shelf, hip-pocket deals, brokers, national vs. regional compliance, and why that first year of a partnership demands real work from the brand, not autopilot.

Want the big-picture view first? Catch our earlier conversation with Matthew from Purity Life: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1JHvuuWIQNhnMPqRTm1o7b?si=0d057c5cc302413c

In this episode:

How Purity reviews new brands — and the first things they check

The readiness and compliance gaps that get you a quiet "no"

Why promotional support (not social media spend) is what retailers want

The real application-to-launch timeline and why it takes months

What a healthy distributor relationship looks like after you're in

A big thank you to CHFA for sponsoring the podcast. If you're a brand thinking about the natural channel, this is where you need to be — learn more and register: https://www.chfanow.ca/toronto/