A gourmet pickle retailer who opened for business in Los Angeles just a month before the start of the pandemic has not only survived, but is expanding and has big plans for the year ahead.
Kaylin + Kaylin, which made its debut as a retail store and tasting bar (under the name Kaylin + Hobbs USA) in February 2020, recently added sauerkraut to its offerings and is gearing up to launch a subscription service in 2022, said Scott Kaylin, owner. The company, which recently changed its name to Kaylin + Kaylin after Kaylin bought out his original partner, is also expanding its online capabilities and considering more locations to sell its branded snack bags of pickle chips.
Kaylin’s first foray into pickle retailing began in 2017 in Vancouver, British Columbia, but he relocated to Los Angeles and decided to open in The Original Farmers Market, which is essentially an outdoor mall of restaurants and gourmet food stores. Although most of the businesses in the mall closed in March of 2020 at the start of the pandemic, Kaylin’s month-old pickle tasting bar and retail store remained open, and survived thanks to the support of devoted pickle fans, he said.
“I think staying open was the smartest decision I made,” said Kaylin. “It got me a huge amount of cache with the local consumers. I literally had people that were calling me up at the beginning of the week saying, ‘How many pickles do I have to buy this week to make sure you don't close?’ That was very humbling.”
The company developed a following for its gourmet varieties and also found customers among several Los Angeles restaurants and bars that put its pickles on the menu and use the brine for cocktails.
Having a tasting bar has been key to the success of the store, Kaylin said, because it creates an experience and helps convert consumers who might otherwise be reluctant to make a purchase. Its pickles are made by a pickler to Kaylin’s specifications in 10 varieties — from the traditional Classic Dill to more uncommon flavors such as Blazing Sour, Jalapeno, and Honey Mustard.
“One of our top flavors is Honey Mustard, and if you try to sell it in the store it doesn't do well because it just looks like a jar of yellow liquid,” said Kaylin. “But what we always say is that tasting the product coverts 98 percent of people who say they hate pickles.”
In 2022 the company is planning to move more aggressively into ecommerce and is launching a subscription service, among other expansion plans. It recently added three varieties of sauerkraut to its assortment, in original, mustard, and sriracha flavors, which have done well in tests, Kaylin said.
The company also will seek to make its branded snack bags of pickle chips available in more locations, after successful launches at Los Angeles International Airport and other locations.
“I think there are some great places where we can do the bags as a grab-and-go item,” Kaylin said.
The success of Kaylin + Kaylin comes as Innovative Food Holdings, a specialty food ecommerce platform that includes Igourmet.com and Mouth.com, reported that pickles were the top-selling specialty food item during the past year. Pickle sales volume, including pickle subscription services such as Mouth.com’s Pickle Every Month, more than doubled between the second quarter of 2020 and the third quarter of 2021.
Other popular specialty items during that time frame, according to the Innovative Food Holdings report, included experiential offerings such as its Cheese O’Clock pairing series, and international collections. Igourmet’s International Cheese Subscription service grew by 112 percent during the pandemic, for example.
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