A Distributor Blocked Her For Years. She's Still Here. They Aren't. Here's How

Miriam built Delicious Without Gluten from her basement to coast-to-coast distribution, an 8-year Boston Pizza contract, and a Wegmans pretzel that their own buyers couldn't tell was gluten-free. In this episode: Why the word "gluten-free" killed her Costco demo sales (and what she said instead) How a distributor exclusivity blocked her from Metro for years, and why she's still standing while that competitor isn't The pivot from retail to food service that saved her business after COVID The Wegmans private-label deal that almost died when Trump's tariffs hit The one financial mistake she made on day one that cost her 13 years of clean data Miriam started in fashion, moved into packaging design for food importers, then opened a peanut-free bakery for her daughter. When her two kids were diagnosed with celiac, she rebuilt everything from scratch. The factory had to have drains in the floor and lockers outside the production room. The certification took six months. The pretzel that pulled her into retail came from a kitchen experiment her kids actually wanted to eat. If you're a CPG founder who has been told the same retail playbook for years, this episode is the other side of the argument. Guest links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miriampearl/ Website: https://www.deliciouswithout.com/

Shelf to Scale is a weekly podcast for CPG and FMCG founders navigating distribution, retail, and scaling.

Hosted by Devesh Tilokani.