I'm proud and excited to announce that you can now get Outlaw Soaps handmade soap, lotion, and lip balms (because HECK YEAH WHISKEY LIP BALM) in the Whole Foods in Folsom (yes, the Folsom where Johnny Cash was allegedly being held for killing a man in Reno, despite that being totally out of Folsom's jurisdiction), the Whole Foods in Campbell (which I don't think has anything to do with soup), and the Whole Foods in Monterey (which incidentally is the model of my first classic car, the Mercury Monterey).
And very soon, we're shipping an order to the Whole Foods in Palo Alto!
So, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS OUTLAW, go obtain our soaps from those locations, and use any kind of pressure necessary (peer, Pierre, pier, Perrier, etc) to convince your friends to as well.
(ok, maybe not Perrier pressure, since that's pretty much the opposite of Outlaw)
When Whole Foods sells out of Outlaw Soaps, they order more. And that's really awesome.
IN CASE YOU'RE CURIOUS about how the whole Whole Foods thing works...
Whole Foods is, as I'm sure you're aware, a national grocery chain.
Side note: I have personally been to many national grocery stores (as you have, I'm sure), and I assure you, there are no happier workers than those at Whole Foods. So yeah, their food is more expensive, but it's wholesome and their workers are happy. Being a vendor for Whole Foods has totally sold me on the integrity of Whole Foods. They even pay their invoices early, which is amazing.
Despite being a national chain, each store has its own buyer. Our section's buyers are called "whole body" buyers (because as delicious as soap smells, it's not food), and it's up to the buyer to decide what products are right for the local market. What sells in San Francisco might not sell well somewhere else.
The whole body buyer for the Castro Whole Foods store found us at the Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco last summer, and, well, it was kind of love at first sight. From Blazing Saddles to Unicorn Poop, we were totally right for the Whole Foods in Castro.
And yes, it took from last year to this year to get into the Whole Foods Market system... which is, happily, where my Disney corporate training had come in handy. Yes, there was an ocean of paperwork. But yes, I was not only up to the challenge, I knew the kinds of things that might hold up the process.
Thank goodness for all those years of corporate experience, otherwise I would have taken delays and paperwork as a personal affront and gotten nowhere. It's not personal, it is a necessary system to stop the incredible and inevitable level of complexity that comes from managing a massive and diverse entity.
So... now we're in the Northern California system, which means any store in Northern California can just pop in and order from us. No, seriously, I think it's that easy.
Is it that easy for the rest of the country? Eh, who knows? But I doubt we'll have to go through the same level of scrutiny for the next region.
The bottom line is... we're in the system. And that means that Outlaw Soaps can be about a 10 or 20 minute drive from your house if you want it.
And if you do (no pressure), you can just let your local Whole Foods know. If enough people do, well, that will probably tip the scale and we'll go further. Because that's how this all works.
As I always say, this company is a group effort. Thank you.
