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The Octopus Podcast · By FS Octopus

How product actually moves.

Real conversations with the operators, distributors, category buyers and founders behind foodservice and alternative channels. The deals, the door math and the moves grocery podcasts never cover. No fluff, real numbers.

Browse episodes

The show

The channels grocery podcasts ignore.

Hosted by Mike Levinson, The Octopus Podcast goes inside the world of micro-markets, vending, campus, c-stores, hospitality, military and GPOs — the doors where emerging brands actually win. Every episode trades theory for the real mechanics: how a deal got done, what it cost, and what moved volume.

Episodes

Recent conversations.

01

Episode

Skip the shelf: why alternative channels win

The case against grocery-first, and the channels where emerging brands actually move volume without slotting fees.

34 min

01

Episode

Skip the shelf: why alternative channels win

The case against grocery-first, and the channels where emerging brands actually move volume without slotting fees.

34 min

02

Episode

Inside the micro-market: how unattended retail buys

What operators stock, how they decide, and the math a brand needs to land a market network.

41 min

02

Episode

Inside the micro-market: how unattended retail buys

What operators stock, how they decide, and the math a brand needs to land a market network.

41 min

03

Episode

GPOs & Foodbuy, demystified

How group purchasing awards really work — and the submission moves that separate a yes from a no.

38 min

03

Episode

GPOs & Foodbuy, demystified

How group purchasing awards really work — and the submission moves that separate a yes from a no.

38 min

04

Episode

The distributor conversation founders get wrong

Vistar, broadliners and DSDs — what to ask for, what to never promise, and how to get set up right.

29 min

04

Episode

The distributor conversation founders get wrong

Vistar, broadliners and DSDs — what to ask for, what to never promise, and how to get set up right.

29 min

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Move product through unusual doors?

If you're an operator, distributor or founder with a real story about how something got sold in foodservice or alternative channels, come on the show. We want the specifics — the deal, the numbers, the lesson.

No pitch decks. Just how it actually happened.