Breadcrumbs Volume 6.

Whole Foods Shelves are EMPTY! What's going on?!

This weekend I went into my local Whole Foods and was CONCERNED. I’d say 85% of the store was wiped out!! I came home and said to Ben, “something is up with our Whole Foods! I would say they’re restructuring… but a restructure wouldn’t even look like that. The store is completely wiped out.”

Little did I know, thousands of people across the United States were about to have the same experience.

What happened?

United Natural Foods (UNFI) was the victim of a cyberattack last week, limiting its ability to operate. UNFI is the largest supplier of foods to Whole Foods and the largest specialty food distributor in the United States & Canada! With the electronic ordering systems attacked, Whole Foods and specialty stores across North America have been unable to receive product.

UNFI stated they’ve been able to work around the attack, and revert to alternatives methods to ensure customers start to receive all of their product. The systems aren’t restored, but this is a start…

Food for Thought

» When I invest in a cpg company, one of the ‘green flags’ I hear if that the brand is working with UNFI. UNFI isn’t some start up, they are THE supplier. The effects of this could have been massive for all brands and stores.

» Walking through the aisles and seeing what products are very out of stock vs what products remain is one way to see which products consumers view as staples, and which products are more discretionary. At my local Whole Foods, the water aisle and dairy refrigerators were EMPTY. While other aisle like chips held a little bit more strong.

I look forward to UNFI and its clients recovering from this attack!!

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I am honored to be featured on The Skinny Confidential blog this week! I’ve looked up to Lauryn since the start of my blogging days. If I’m considered an “early” influencer, well she’s the original. She’s inspired myself and countless other influencers to not just create cool content, but to create empires. She has her own product line, wildly successful podcast, and along with her husband Michael, is an avid investor. We look at very similar deals in the cpg space, and are share a few brands in our portfolio.

The Skinny Confidential team interviewed me on all-things investing. We talked about my background, how you can become an angel investor, and the trends I predict will dominate the space. You can read more, here!