Chad Franzen 14:14
Nice Yeah, that’s amazing. So how did you guys come up with all of the menu items and the concepts and everything like that? Had they been percolating for a while?
Jonah Goldman 14:23
Most definitely, yeah, we looked at the competitive set as far as QSR ours in our general space and in our region. So we analyze the menus of Shake Shack, Wendy’s, Five Guys, you know, McDonald’s, Burger King, you name it. We really looked at every other competitor and what they were offering and what they were charging for those items. And we crafted our menu to really be in the center of all of that competition. And we went so far as to Uh, you know, price price our burgers, a little under where we were seeing the vast majority of our competition, we want to make plant based food accessible to the masses. And in order to do that, you really you have to be under the cost of the burger Fae, and the Five Guys and the Shake Shack, so the world. So I’m proud to say that we still offer extremely competitive pricing, even through all of these challenges around supply chain and increases in the cost of goods. We are right in the middle of the pack, we still can’t offer the same prices as McDonald’s. Because we haven’t scaled to that point yet. But it’s worth noting that, you know, McDonald’s has been around for a very long time and has developed a tremendous scale that enables them to offer products that are also very cheaply produced and have other negative downsides. So we hope to ultimately scale to that size and cut our prices to the point where we’d be able to provide, you know, a burger to a consumer at the same price as McDonald’s. And it comes with so many health benefits and environmental benefits to boot.
Chad Franzen 16:18
So you opened in a in a Whole Foods almost four years, three and a half four years ago. What was the initial response like?
Jonah Goldman 16:28
Well, we were really lucky to open in the Whole Foods in Silver Spring, which is just happens to be one of the most uplifting environments to open a business. Whole Foods and Silver Spring is an incredibly diverse and joyful environment. So so we got really lucky. And I’ll also just note that the day that I came back from Israel, I had arrived at around 9 a.m. on my flight. And at 11 a.m., we were pitching to the whole foods executives. And we had a sampling. And they loved their idea, they thought the concept of Chef crafted planet friendly burgers was was was great. And they said we’ll give you a shot at this venue in the silver spring Whole Foods. The venue itself is 110 square feet. So it’s a little shoe box. And we just have enough space for a register our flat top our fryer and an ice cream machine. That’s it. It’s just that and then our assembly line. And we were really well received. And so from our timeline, you probably, you know, realize that we opened around six months before the beginning of COVID. So we had a grand opening that was very well attended, we had a line that wrapped around the dairy section and all the way around the entire Whole Foods store, all the way over to the produce section. So we had around 200 people in a line that just came to celebrate the opening of our new concept with us, we very quickly became the number one top performing friend of Whole Foods in the region, they have a program that we were part of, of course, the friends of Whole Foods program. And so through a really aggressive sampling program, we would greet shoppers as they came into the whole foods with a sweet potato fry or with a little sample of our chili. And give them a sticker and tell them you know, you can use this sticker for 10% off your order for lunch today at that PLNT Burger were new to the whole foods. And that was really able to drum up a ton of momentum and sales and build our community. In addition to that we had a really great approach to community engagement that involved fundraising with local nonprofits, schools and PSAs. And that was really responsible for this groundswell of support. That enabled us to become the number one best performing friend in that region. And then, you know, we were proud of that accomplishment and Whole Foods was excited by our initial success. And so, when the pandemic hit, we had to face this choice of, do we shrink and we close this and wait it out? Or should we be opportunistic and take take on more growth opportunities and venues became available, of course, in the prepared foods section of these whole foods in the region, due to the fact that they had shut down they’re prepared, in most cases shut down most of the prepared foods sections. And so we decided to go in that direction of continuing to provide jobs to more people and continuing to grow our sales through the pandemic.
Chad Franzen 19:48
So Are most of your look, you now have 10 locations. Isn’t that right? I have kind of counted on your 13 Well, 13 locations are they all in Whole Foods?
Jonah Goldman 19:58
11 of our 13 are in Whole Foods. In January of 2022, we opened our flagship location in New York in Union Square. This is outside of Whole Foods. And then we followed that up with another flagship location in the Nomad neighborhood of New York. So two locations in Manhattan are not inside of Whole Foods. They’re standalone, the other. Those are standalone. That’s right. And every other location, which now spans almost the entire east coast, are inside of Whole Foods. So we have two locations in the greater Boston area. And we have two locations right outside of Philly. We have three in Maryland, two in DC, two in Virginia. So
Chad Franzen 20:48
What are the tell me what it’s like for a customer? Like? What’s the experience like for a customer to go into one of those standalone locations? Like, like, what’s the vibe? Does it have like a burger joint smell? I mean, can you tell me about the tell me about all of that?
Jonah Goldman 21:03
Sure. Yeah, it’s, it’s a really great aesthetic. We have some of the best designers on our team as well, who have developed this really great combination of some nostalgia from the burger joints in the 1970s. And this retro feel of the booths and the way that our kiosk is framed by these big bold turquoise rims with this futuristic aesthetic, that’s, that’s clean and has, I think just evokes openness and happiness. That’s really what we aim to achieve. You’ll also notice when you were if you walk into either of these locations, that we have a sign on the door that lists our hours of operation, of course, but it also lists our brand attributes. So we’re 100%, kosher, or halal. We have gluten-free options, soy-free options. And we really take pride and we put this on the sign on creating a safe space for everyone. So that’s, that’s the experience that I want anyone to feel when they walk into a PLNT Burger. This is an inclusive space where you are welcome no matter who you are, or what you’ve done this, this is a place where we elevate and empower people to enjoy new beginnings. And we invite everyone to eat the change with us, as we say, which is to really to say that your dietary choices matter not only to your personal health and to the food system that you’re creating, but also to the planet that we leave behind for for the next generation. So eat the change is a is a call to action. Let’s be conscious as consumers of what we’re supporting, because our dollars ultimately are our vote for for the world we live in.
Chad Franzen 22:51
Yeah, I was gonna ask you do you kind of have to take steps to overcome maybe skepticism regarding, you know, tastes, people who are used to eating regular burgers, now they have to come and eat a plant burgers, you have to overcome that. Maybe they’ve accepted that they might enjoy plant burgers, but now they’re going to be judged because they had burgers last night or something like that. How do you overcome all that stuff?
Jonah Goldman 23:10
Great question. And this is something that I struggle with daily because I work you know, in marketing, and I’m always thinking about how we expand our audience. How do we reach omnivores? That’s our that’s our target audience that also comprises 95% of the market. So if we’re only serving vegans and vegetarians, we’re not really doing a good job of creating systemic change, we need to bring more people into into our business into our stores. Yeah, there seems to be a lot of resistance, especially in the last year. And it’s not a coincidence, the meat and dairy industries have a really aggressive propaganda campaign to sow confusion and misinformation in the market, around the health and environmental benefits of plant based alternatives. So what was really clear, and what I believe is still very clear, is that these products that we’re serving, have clear health benefits for a consumer, there’s no cholesterol, there’s significantly less saturated fat. So immediately, we take out the first two most important health red flags that are present in red and processed meats, and then the burgers of all of our competition. But people I think, are now questioning that because, again, there’s just a lot of misinformation out there. I will share that, you know, we do sampling a lot still because it’s a really important marketing strategy. And there’s a lot of pushback food, and especially meat is a really delicate issue for consumers. It’s intrinsically tied to our identities, our physiologies Even but our culture and our history is informed by the foods that we were fed and raised on and taught the There’s nothing wrong with. And so helping people to really just not even give up those foods. But try an alternative can be really challenging exercise. And it’s one that we we face with flavor as our leading tool, we sample out our chili, and we won’t really even mentioned unless someone asks that it’s plant based. And then we tell them it’s plant based. People are often blinded by the placebo effect. So they have a preconceived notion around what a plant based burgers going to be like. And so when they try a burger that they know is plant based, they’re not going to like it as much as if they just tried that burger. Without that without that knowledge. And we saw this time and again, we actually did a campaign called the plant belief challenge, where we fed our burgers to influencers and the we had the influencers film, their friends eating these burgers, without prior knowledge of the fact that it was plant based. And of the 10 videos we received, not a single person was able to identify that this was a plant based burger. And at the end of the video, all these friends and influencers that we worked with revealed, did you know that this was a plant based burger, and everyone is shocked and delighted. I’ll just say like that was so uplifting to see, you know, on flavor, we really are right there. With the shake shacks and the burger fries the world. There’s a lot of contextual factors that, that inhibit people from enjoying this product and embracing it. But we really think that as far as flavor is concerned, we can stand right there with with our meat based alternatives. Some of our best customers in the early days of silver spring, they would come come to us around four times a week, and they would enjoy, you know, a double cheeseburger, this one woman in particular was an incredibly frequent customer. And I introduced myself to her and I asked her, you know, we’re so glad to serve you every day. Is there any reason that you choose to come here? Are you a vegetarian? And she looked at me with confusion, she she asked, Well, no, I’m not, you know, I’m not vegetarian. Why do you ask? And that was when I said, Well, we’re a plant based Burger Joint. She did not believe me. coming to us for months without knowing that we were serving plant based burgers. All these other customers backing me up and saying no, he’s not. He’s not it’s not a prank, like they are serving plant based burgers, for her to finally accept that it’s a plant based burger. And then she was happy. And she was like, Oh, well, I thought plant based burgers tasted like crap, right? So we have these ideas in our head as consumers around what this new thing is going to be like, we’re just resistant to change as people, we’re creatures of habit. So we’re not going to go out of our way to try a new product. If you’ve been going to, you know, Wendy’s your whole life, you’re not going to go to a PLNT Burger, if you see it, you’re gonna go to a Wendy’s. So it does take a little bit of provocation and stirring the pot, to get people to try something new, and ultimately, embrace something that that can be really beneficial for them.
Chad Franzen 28:26
Wow, that’s, that’s an amazing story about that customer. So what are your you know, PLNT Burger is a restaurant, like all the other guys that I talked to? He’s so you guys have goals regarding your restaurant, but it’s also kind of a mission? What are your what are your goals kind of moving forward now with 13 locations? And you know, what do you what do you want to do beyond this?
Jonah Goldman 28:46
Yeah, so I spoke a little bit about this earlier, but we want to continue to grow and continue to scale. And ultimately, to get to a point where we have as many locations as McDonald’s, which is incredibly ambitious, and somewhat outrageous to say, given that, you know, we’re very early in our business trajectory. But simply put, we cannot go about operating our food businesses and our fast food system, the way that it’s been going. Our environment can’t sustain it. We know that it’s having terrible, destructive impacts on human health, especially in America. And it’s an outdated mode of delivering sustenance to, to the human race. So we have to pivot we have to shift. We feel that our business is perfectly positioned to capture market share from these massive corporate entities, which have really been profiting at the expense of humans and animals and the environmental well being for so long. So with a shifting tide of consumers who increasingly consider those factors when And then make a purchase. That combined with the the way that the meat industry is starting to crumble. And simultaneously, the plant based industry is beginning to scale, we feel confident that we’ll be poised for continued growth and success. In the years to come, we do have great plans this year for the opening of some more brick and mortar locations in the New York region. So I’m looking forward to opening more PLNT Burgers. And I especially look forward to growing the performance of our pre existing locations, as well. That’s an ongoing, ongoing battle to really win over people.
Chad Franzen 30:44
How have you, like what’s the most effective way to get people to try it without telling them that it’s a plant burger.
Jonah Goldman 30:51
Um, people respond well to free samples, you know, so we have a strong field marketing approach to growing our sales, we have, in addition, that we have a great location inside of Whole Foods. So we have a stream of people who are conscious consumers coming into the store already. And we positioned our demo tables there, we offer them a fry, we give them a mini menu, we offer them some chili. And that’s just the best way that we’ve seen to grow our sales is meeting people face to face, explaining who we are, what we do. Answering questions. You know, the other way I’ll say that we really want to lean into is, is through breaching these difficult conversations. It shouldn’t be the job of a fast food joint to talk about the environmental benefits of the product or the health benefits of the product. But as I said, there’s this massive propaganda push from the meat and dairy industries to confuse consumers about the benefits of plant based alternatives. So we as a brand, do need to talk about this, as a movement of as a plant based business, we need to do a better job explaining our value proposition because it is so clear. And as, as a food industry professional, it’s an issue that I think needs to be addressed by by every food business, you know, to paint a clear picture in the mind of a consumer around what it is, that is happening when you when you support a product. Because through supply and demand, you really are directly contributing to the future or downfall, or lack lack of support for any brands. So, so we do publish, you can see this on our social media, or on our website, we do talk a lot about environmental impact. And the sheer reality of our product is that comparing, you know, the burger we serve to a beef patty, we’re saving 99% Less water 93% less land generating 90% fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and that should be celebrated. So we reward our customers. When they purchase, we tell them, you know, you’ve saved this much water, you’ve saved this much land and this these much emissions from going out into the world. That’s exciting. And we never accuse others or or criticize people for the choices that they’re making. We would never, you know, be negative as a brand. But we do need to say that, you know, choosing plant based is really an important and great decision for people who want to actuate their values. We all want we all want to act in the best interest for the planet, we all want to act in the best interest for the animals, we all want to act in the best interest for our own body. But often our choices as consumers don’t align with that. So we seek to make it an upgrade rather than a sacrifice to actually come into alignment with your pre existing values. It can probably be best summarized by our beliefs, which are also on our website we have these five deep seated beliefs at PLNT Burger which are really our moral compass and how we perceive ourselves and how we prioritize our business. It’s really number one, it’s about bringing people joy. That’s what our food does. It brings comfort and joy and love to the world. Number two we can we say respect and celebrate all life. And it’s exciting that we’re able to offer people burgers and cheeseburgers and mushroom making barbecue burgers, chicken, chili, chili cheese fries like all of your Favorite classics in a way that doesn’t require the loss, the intentional loss of animal life. Third, act with intention, treat each other with love. Treat the stakeholders with love reinvest in those stakeholders. Fourth is to connect to the source and understand the people we’re serving. Understand the teams that work in our stores, what did they need? How can we support them better, and also connect to the sources a call to action to consumers to really think about, where’s your food coming from? And what is meat comprised of, because at its base, there are really four main components of meat. It’s primarily water, there are trace minerals, and there are lipids, that’s the fats and their amino acids. That’s the protein. So proteins, fats, trace minerals, and water. And those are all inherently present and abundant in the plant kingdom. And so what we’re doing is going directly to the source, we’re connecting to the source, and deriving meat, straight from plants, instead of this really wasteful and unnecessary and cruel practice of funneling all of those plants into an animal, which has to burn those calories and poop and pee and fart, and then ultimately produce a product, which is a very, very small percentage of their overall weight. So it’s just a really inefficient and outdated mode of, of producing protein and calories from for humans. So we’re able to skirt around that. And then finally, the deep seated belief that we stick to is create positive change together. And that is all about inclusivity. And recognizing that we need to make these foods accessible to everyone. And, and welcoming more people need to change with us.
Chad Franzen 36:51
Okay, great. Hey, well, congratulations on your success so far. And of course, best wishes on your efforts. You’re obviously very passionate and enthusiastic about your mission. Hey, can you tell me how people can not only find out more information about PLNT Burger, you mentioned that you have a website? Tell me about that. And then if there, if you can think of some right off the top of your head, maybe other resources that might be beneficial for people to, you know, find out more about what you’ve been talking about?
Jonah Goldman 37:18
Most definitely. Yeah. Well, I encourage anyone who, who hears this to check us out on all social media platforms, Instagram, whether that be Facebook, Twitter, tick tock, we put out a ton of resources there. Fun content, uplifting content, and ultimately helpful content to help people navigate these these difficult questions and consumer choices. There is a really amazing project called Project drawdown that has categorized and listed 100 solutions in more than 100. But the top 100 solutions to reversing climate change. And top among those are plant based diets and reducing food waste. This is effectively a roadmap for how we as humanity can save ourselves in the face of climate change and climate chaos. The reality is we have all the solutions at our fingertips, the technology, renewable energy, shifting towards a more sustainable food system is one of the most important things that we can do to preserve our civilization over the next 100 years. So it’s a really great resource. And again, one that can help people no matter where you are in life, if you’re a business owner, how can you shift your business to being more sustainable? If you’re an individual? How can you shift your consumption? How can you, you know, maybe conserve energy or adopt more sustainable practices in your own personal life. So I really recommend people look at that. And then there’s a number of important policies and policy changes that need to happen in America to support a regenerative and more just an equitable food system, things in the Farm Bill need to change we can no longer support these commodity crops and massive multinational corporations with billions of dollars in subsidies that go to supporting as I said, these commodity crops primarily corn, wheat, and soy, which are actually used as feed and not food. They go to supporting animal to feeding animals who are in confined animal feeding operations rather than what our government should be doing, which is supporting small farmers who grow produce and grow food that actually nourish humans. That is a common sense change in our policy that will have cascading benefits, economic and health benefits and environmental benefits for Americans. So there’s, there’s policies that need to be supported and that will also To help drive plant based innovation and access. But I really encourage everyone to come in to our locations and meet our teams and taste the food because it is remarkably delicious. And that’s what we stand by, like we wouldn’t be in business after all this time if we weren’t serving Delicious, delicious food for people. And so I encouraged and would invite every everyone who listens to this to come and visit us in our locations in Maryland, DC, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, and Boston. That’s the that’s the the best way to get in and eat the change. And once you taste it, I think it becomes so much easier. There’s a perceived barrier to entry that does not at all align with the reality of the situation. I think a lot of the time we get in our own way when we think you know this is going to be the experience or I don’t want to try something that’s new and different. Once you once you come in and meet our team, and hopefully we’re sampling at that location at that time. You get to try for free and then fall in love with with something that is going to benefit you and all the other stakeholders
Chad Franzen 41:16
Sounds good. That’s that’s, that’s awesome. Hey, I last question for you. When you go to PLNT Burger then as a customer, obviously you quite enjoy the taste of the food. What is your go to item of choice?
Jonah Goldman 41:28
It’s a tough question. And it really just depends on the day and the mood. But I will say that the mushroom bacon BBQ Burger is a strong go to it is a really bold flavor. very smoky barbecue burger has roasted portobellos with our homemade barbecue chipotle sauce on it. It’s got crispy onions. So the reason we call it the mushroom bacon BBQ Burger is because it imitates bacon but without any fake and bacon. It’s just the crispy onion combined with the chewy portobellos. So together, they deliver the crunchy, Chewy, fatty and a little bit savory umami of bacon, but without actually having any you know, imitation bacon. And then of course we have caramelized onions underneath that. This savory delicious salty patty on a potato bun. I’m just salivating thinking about it. But that’s that’s a go to. The other thing I’ll say is really good is our chili cheese fries, which is a better fries, chili, dumped on top and cheese sprinkled on top of that all plant based all kosher. And that is a really hearty, delicious offering. That’s another standby for us. Yeah.
Chad Franzen 42:50
Wow. Sounds fantastic. I’m starving now. Well, we’ll we will encourage everybody to check out PLNT Burger. That’s PLNT Burger. And Jonah. I really appreciate your time today. It’s been great to talk to you.
Jonah Goldman 43:01
Chad, my pleasure. Thank you so much for hosting me and hope you have a wonderful day. I hope to open a location in Colorado and come to you soon.
Chad Franzen 43:07
I hope to be there soon. Thanks so much, Jonah. Have a good one.
Jonah Goldman 43:11
Thank you, you too.
Chad Franzen 43:12
So long everybody.
Outro 43:13
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