Planet Money · Podcast summary
Who decides what big box sells? Our GAME got us answers
Planet Money co-host Erika Beras recounts her experience pitching the Planet Money board game, "Sell Me a Sasquatch," to two of the biggest big box retailers in the country.
Listen on the show ↗Key takeaways
- 😬Erika Beras felt extreme nervousness before pitching the Planet Money board game, highlighting the high stakes of entering the big box retail world.00:28
- 📊Big box buyers conduct "line review" meetings, where only a tiny fraction of new games make it to the shelves, emphasizing the competitive nature of the industry.01:14
- 💡The Planet Money board game, "Sell Me a Sasquatch," was inspired by a Nobel Prize-winning economics paper on asymmetric information in markets.01:31
- 💰During the pitch, buyers were more concerned with the game's price point than its content or the Planet Money brand, indicating their focus on market viability.01:47
- 📈Ilan Lee, co-founder of Exploding Kittens, saw the buyers' price inquiry as a positive sign, indicating they were interested in how to sell the game, not if to sell it.01:48
- 🐎The game served as Planet Money's "Trojan horse" to gain access and report from inside the secretive world of big box retail.02:22
Chapters
- 0:28Erika's Nervousness Before the Pitch
- 1:42The Game: Sell Me a Sasquatch
- 3:39The Trojan Horse Strategy
- 4:00The Pitch Meeting in Los Angeles
- 5:30The Big Box Buyer's Perspective
- 23:13The Pitch Itself: Unexpected Focus
- 25:18Ilan's Interpretation of the Price Question
- 28:45The Waiting Game and the Big Reveal
- 45:32The Final Sprint: Production Decisions
- 59:15The Purple Meter and Factory Production
- 1:01:30Game on Shelves: A Dream Realized
- 1:02:21Listener Contributions and Future Engagement
The digest
Planet Money co-host Erika Beras found herself in an unusual position: pitching a board game to two of the biggest big box retailers in the country. This wasn't just any board game; it was "Sell Me a Sasquatch," a game inspired by the Nobel Prize-winning economics paper, "The Market for Lemons," which explores asymmetric information in the market for used cars. The goal was to get the game on the shelves of major retailers, a world typically inaccessible to a podcast like Planet Money.
The Nerve-Wracking Pitch
Erika Beras described feeling incredibly nervous before the pitch meeting. She had essentially dropped everything to fly to Los Angeles, where the headquarters of Exploding Kittens, the game company partnering with Planet Money, was located. This was her chance to get inside the room, inside the system, and potentially even participate in how a relatively tiny group of people decide what products millions of consumers get to see and choose from. The stakes were high, as this was Planet Money's Trojan horse to report inside a world no other Planet Money project had entered: the real shelves at real big box retail stores.
Erika's co-host, Kenny Malone, emphasized the significance of the moment, noting that Erika wasn't just going to be in the room; she was going to have to do the pitch. This was a pretty big deal, and Erika admitted to trying not to think about how much of a big deal it was and how much work had gone into it. She had practiced her pitch multiple times, even mumbling to herself on an airplane, preparing her arm movements and key talking points.
Keep reading in The Digest
The full 5-minute article, 5 more sections, and every new episode from Planet Money and the creators you follow.
- The Big Box Buyers: A Secretive World
- The Pitch Meeting: Unexpected Reactions
- The Waiting Game and the Big News
- The Final Sprint: From Concept to Shelf
- On the Shelves: A Dream Realized
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