On Wednesdays, we wear pink spotlight Retail Brew’s readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.
Annie Streit’s food and beverage industry résumé includes General Mills and Hershey-owned Amplify Snack Brands. Now, she’s chief commercial officer at frozen food company Daily Harvest.
How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? I help do everything possible to deliver sustainably sourced, convenient, and nourishing food built on organic fruits and vegetables to Americans’ kitchen tables. Were you walking down the aisle at Target, Kroger, or Wegmans and spotted our smoothies on the shelf? My team did that. Were our Harvest Bowls recommended to you while browsing on Amazon, Instacart, or Google Shopping? Did you fall in love with us and subscribe online? My team did that, too.
One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile? A big part of my job is listening to our consumers’ or retailers’ feedback and then working with our team to implement change to make our brand experience the best. We’ve recently made improvements to our retail packaging directly responding to shoppers’ requests. We use DTC customer feedback to tweak our recipes for maximum deliciousness. We partner with our retailers to match the strategies that mean the most to their shoppers. Listening is every bit as important in my job as any talking I may do.
What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on? Bringing Daily Harvest into retail after years of building the brand in DTC was pretty incredible! There are so many little things that I took for granted as a “given” in my prior CPG roles like UPCs on packages, retail-specific nutrition facts labels, or frozen logistics plumbing. The launch of this beloved brand into retail was such a powerful opportunity to apply all of my previous learning and work with an incredible cross-functional team to deliver on all of the unique grocery distribution requirements.
Retail news that keeps industry pros in the know
Retail Brew delivers the latest retail industry news and insights surrounding marketing, DTC, and e-commerce to keep leaders and decision-makers up to date.
Which emerging retail trend are you most excited about right now, and why? The “real food” trend happening in retail is giving a lot of hope right now! Customers are demanding quality choices in all price ranges for products with clean ingredient lists consisting largely of items that grow in nature. As I’ve learned more about the food system in the US, my own eating habits have really shifted to materially decrease my highly processed food intake.
What’s your go-to coffee order? It might be cheating a bit to give a seasonally dependent answer, but I live in Austin, Texas, where the swings in temperature are wild. From November to April, my go-to-coffee order is a French press piping hot black coffee, and from May to October, I prefer an iced coffee.
Worst piece of advice you’ve received? “Follow your passion.” Largely enjoying the work you do day-to-day is a wonderful goal! The idea that work has to be your passion to be successful feels so constraining and pressure-filled. I like turning that advice on its head. Find work you enjoy with people you enjoy, and then decide to be passionate about that work! Showing up enthusiastically every day is an active choice, not something that you can expect to achieve only when you find the singular thing you are passionate about doing as a career.
What was your favorite retail product when you were 15, and what’s your favorite retail product now? My favorite retail product when I was 15 was definitely Diet Coke consumed through a Red Vines straw. Not exactly healthy food! My favorite retail product today is our Daily Harvest Strawberry + Cashew smoothie. It is inspired by a strawberry milkshake, but I feel great after drinking one—and it still satiates my sweet tooth!