Gerry’s Insights: Gerry’s Positive Jam

Over the years, one of my favorite live albums has been Social Distortion’s Live at the Roxy, recorded in LA in 1998. Why Social D? Well, musically, the idea of rockabilly mated to punk rock seemed genius to me. And, sad to say, this band also matches up well with my fundamentally pessimistic outlook. Lots in this record to scratch that itch! The album starts with “Story of My Life” (about expectations thwarted) and proceeds through “Bad Luck,” the Stones’ “Under My Thumb,” “Prison Bound” and “Mommy’s Little Monster,” all morbid classics. Ten dreary (but great!) songs in, frontman Mike Ness asks the audience, “You guys want to hear a happy song?” The crowd roars its approval. “Sorry, homie,” Ness informs them. “We don’t do no happy songs.” Then they launch into “Cold Feelings.” Another great song! To paraphrase a Modest Mouse album title, it brings “good news for people who love bad news.” Bliss!

It’s occurred to me that readers of this column over the years might be excused for thinking, “That Khermouch guy, he don’t do no happy songs.” (Ness and I have so much in common!) My ruminations tend to be full of accounts of strategies that misfired, acquisitions that didn’t work out and brilliant concepts that were fundamentally compromised, seeded with warnings about all the ways you’re about to drive your brand off the rails. (Via “landgrab” expansions, in my last column.) So I often envy my old friend and BevNET Magazine publisher Barry Nathanson, with his eternally sunny and optimistic column each month, full of appreciation for entrepreneurs’ outsize dreams and wishes for their great success. Who wouldn’t want to buy an ad from that guy?

So coming back from Natural Products Expo West (held in Orange County, California, the birthplace of Social D – coincidence?), I’ve decided this time to try to do a happy song. This is probably my best shot at accomplishing it this year because the Expo vibe is so energizing. Sure, as the older hands than even me are happy to remind me, the natural products business is much more corporatized these days, and the show has lost much of the relaxed camaraderie of its early days. Still, through economic downturns and pandemic pauses, New Hope has managed to retain the show’s incredible sense of forward-thinking momentum, even as it’s taken a few needed steps to make itself more accessible to the smaller brands that are the lifeblood of innovation in this sector.

Indeed, it’s managed to retain a remnant of its old hippy roots, from the live bands playing the plaza (though not as ambitious a slate this year, I have to say – hey, how about Social Distortion next year?) to the funky/cool booths many of the cool kids muster, especially down in that innovation basement. It can be hard to traverse the crowded aisles because of all the people hugging each other in greeting – not so much an issue at the NACS c-store expo, by way of comparison, for all the vibrancy that show musters flogging all the bad-for-you stuff like soda and energy drinks. There remains this sense of close community that comes from believing we’re all working together to put Americans on the road to better and more sustainable nutrition. Along the same lines, rivals who’re trying to build new categories quickly learn that, at least at their category’s awareness-building stage, they are as much allies as competitors in trying to get retailers to establish the cohesive shelf sets that signal legitimacy to shoppers. I’m pleasantly surprised at how much they’re willing to share with each other (though not to the point of being naïve) about good retail ers and distributors, economical workarounds to logistics issues, and how to handle the broadliners’ more egregious billbacks.

What about what was actually on exhibit at the show? By now, whether you attended or not, you’ll be aware that it brought a deluge of gut pops, protein sodas, collagen beverages, protein coffees, focus-enhancing energy drinks, mushroom elixirs and mocktails and other alcohol-alternatives. The honest truth is that I spotted little of what might be called breakthrough innovation among this endless array. (Disclosure: I barely got to one-third of the 400 or so beverage brands on display. Sorry, you other 250 or so!) Still, was that a bad thing? As readers of this column will recognize, it’s not clear that breakthrough innovation is the ticket to success, as it engenders a consumer education burden that in turn requires a degree of patience that the realities of beverage financing and retailer velocity hurdles may not allow for many brands these days. More likely to make it are brands that offer incremental upgrades that, by definition, carry a lower educational burden. Sometimes it’s enough just to disrupt established megabrands with a cleaner formula (natural, of course – the raison d’etre for Expo West – but also increasingly less processed), a newer format (especially cans, though Milkadamia’s dehydrated oatmilk sheets are kind of amazing) or bubbles (with sparkling protein having a moment now).

Thanks to the startup ecosystem out there, the degree of sophistication of even the earliest-stage brands at Expo was kind of remarkable, in the same way that the judges repeatedly note during BevNET Live’s Showdown competitions in recent years. There seem to be fewer compromises on flavor as ingredients like stevia get better and better, and the arrival of clear protein may or may not prove to be a game-changer in that segment.

Of course, being the guy who don’t do no happy columns, this essay wouldn’t be complete if it didn’t end on a somewhat downbeat note. On the ice sheet that was Manhattan before I departed for Anaheim, I slipped while trying to slalom around a bunch of phone-absorbed pedestrians who weren’t budging when the light they were waiting for turned green. I managed to crack, or at least badly bruise, a rib or two. What better place to head off to, then, than a trade show where all your old friends want to give you a bear hug when they spot you? Ah, well. I guess that’s just the story of my life. Me and Mike.

Longtime beverage-watcher Gerry Khermouch is executive editor of Beverage Business Insights, a twice-weekly e-newsletter covering the nonalcoholic beverage sector.