Grocery Run is a national event series connecting relevant retailers to emerging brands. Join us to meet buyers, sample, and network!

LA: we're running it back with Gelson's!

Join us for brand sampling (apply below, tables are granted by application only), networking with your favorite CPG community, and VIP guests galore.

There will be buyer introductions and networking – come meet the buyer on your list! Even if you aren’t sampling, bring product with you to show buyers! Sample packets/trial sizes and backpack sampling highly encouraged.

We’ll have food and refreshments available!

Featured Guests from Gelson's:

1. Sam Vasquez, Director of Center Store
2. Nick Sokolovskiy, Director of Merch Operations
3. Rich Gillmore, Vice President of Center Store
4. Kristin Alas, Category Manager
5. Colin Thompson, Category Manager
6. Gretchen Johnson, Category Manager
7. Eddie Rojas, Category Manager
8. Matthew Reis, Category Manager

Other Featured Guests:

1. Prim Ramirez - Senior Account Manager @ KEHE
2. Jeffrey Pedro - KeHE
3. Melissa Traverse - Director of Community @ BevNet

Here are the brands sampling at this event:

1. Basicare makes single-use mouthwash that fits modern lifestyle and your style.
2. Birdie Bakes Co is the first easy-to-bake muffin mix with real fruits, veggies and clean ingredients made for busy families.
3. Food with Roots is an ethnic food brand celebrating Pimento Cheese spread
4. Ikeuchi is a woman-owned line of pantry products that give home cooks a simple way to add chef-quality flavor without complicated recipes or extra effort.
5. Kruda brings you premium, oven-ready Argentine empanadas made with 100% natural ingredients—crafted to be a satisfying, real-meal portion, not just an appetizer.
6. Mojave Mallows are snackable organic marshmallows created by former girlscouts
7. O’Kra is the world’s first sparkling okra water where ancestral wellness, modern science, and luxury hydration meet to nourish beauty from within.
8. OH MY! Dessert Butters® are the first of their kind, spoonable dessert butter, they are indulgent, snackable, unapologetically indulgent, with clean ingredients, no junk ever, and guaranteed to shock everyone who tries them, nothing like this exists on shelves.
9. Paro makes bold, flavorful South Asian food and snacks.
10. Party Of, founded by 4 Thai-American sisters, puts a chef-crafted, better, and bolder spin on snacks—like Pad Thai & Thai Chili Lime popcorn
11. Pikora makes instant bone broth inspired in Latin American flavors
12. Pistakio is reimagining pistachios beyond snacking by creating products that are flavor-first, fun, and easy-to-use.
13. Shooka Sauce is a Mediterranean-spiced tomato sauce inspired by shakshuka, built for today’s pantry.
14. Sweety Mochi is a family-owned, AAPI-owned ice cream brand crafting truly authentic mochi with unmatched texture, balanced sweetness, and flavors rooted in lived cultural experience.

Want to sample at this event? Apply here! [CLOSED]

Space is limited! You must apply to sample. A ticket to the event does NOT grant you a sampling table.

Sponsors:

About Cin7

Cin7 is a StartupCPG partner and the leading provider of inventory management software (IMS) to CPG brands. Designed for SMBs, Cin7 provides the benefits you typically see in an ERP but in an easy to implement and use, cost-effective IMS solution. Our mission is to make it cheaper, faster, and easier for businesses to get their products into their customer’s hands.

Table Sponsors:

TriNet: TriNet provides SMBs with full-service HR solutions tailored by industry. They offer access to human capital expertise, benefits, risk mitigation and compliance, payroll, all enabled by industry leading technology. They empower SMBs to focus on what matters most – growing their business and enabling their people. For more information, please contact michaela.toohey@trinet.com.

If you're a service provider / non-CPG brand interested to sponsor & participate in the event, please email partnerships@startupcpg.com

About Gelson's:

Gelson’s has been SoCal's premium grocer since 1951, operating nearly 30 premium food markets in Southern California. Each Gelson's Market features the amenities of full-service fresh Produce, Meat, Seafood, Prepared Foods, Bakery, and Floral departments, along with Grocery departments stocked with the best local, specialty, and organic products alongside national brand favorites. Gelson's high standards for freshness and quality, unsurpassed service, and exceptionally clean and convenient stores define the ultimate food experience. With a 70-plus-year legacy, Gelson's in-house experts know Southern California's lifestyle and how to deliver the curated offerings their customers want — could it be your brand?!

About Startup CPG

Startup CPG is the biggest community in the world for emerging brands. We have 30k+ Slack members, produce the #1 podcast in CPG, host 100+ events per year, and are the #1 education hub for brands trying to improve our CPG ecosystem. It’s free — join today!