Buyer Spotlight – Kayli Kunkel

Join Amy Loewenberg Relations & Partnership Development Manager for @ny_now and Kayli Kunkel Owner for @earthandme.nyc

As we should all be making smarter choices for the benefit of our plant and the human race, Kayli founded Earth & Me, a zero-waste home goods and self-care store located right on Steinway Street in Astoria, Queens. Earth & me is a store that holds sustainability and social justice at the heart of everything they do. Kayli provides us with ethical and environmentally friendly products, local artisan made goods, educational programs, and a community strong store all wrapped up in a zero-waste bow.   

RESOURCES   
Guest Websites:
https://www.earthandme.co/

| NY NOW:
https://nynow.com     

| NY NOW Podcast Page:
https://nynow.com/podcast     

| NY NOW Digital Market:
https://nynowdigitalmarket.com    

Thank you for podcasting with NY NOW! We look forward to connecting with you across all our platforms and seeing you in person!
Website: nynow.com
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Transcript

Dondrill Glover: 0:02

Welcome to The New York now podcast, a modern wholesale market for retailers and specialty buyers seeking diversity and discovery, gathering twice a year in America's design capital, New York City. It's where buyers and designers on Earth have refreshed and dedicated collection of eclectic lifestyle products.

Amy Loewenberg: 0:22

Welcome to The NY NOW buyer spotlight Podcast. I'm Amy Lowenberg relations and partnership development manager for New York net. And my focus is to bring you important information, conversations and perspectives from both sides of the aisle. Today I'm talking with Kayli Kunkel, founder of Earth & Me, Earth & Me is zero waste home goods and self care store offering essentials to Brooklyn and Queens in New York City. They prioritize partnerships with small batch makers, many based in the US, sustainability and social justice are at the heart of everything they do. Having worked as a marketing director in various roles. Kaley is no stranger to lead generation, digital marketing strategy and content development to grow brand presence. She's managed client teams in b2b, b2c, nonprofit publishing with an emphasis on tech. She's also a writer and designer covering mental health. So jumping in to opening her first store was nothing that she couldn't handle. It's actually in her DNA. Take a listen. Kaylee, thank you so much for joining us today. Ever since I met you and was introduced to your shop Earth and me. I've been looking forward to this conversation. So welcome.

Kayli Kunkel: 1:39

Thank you. Yeah, it's great to be hearing me.

Amy Loewenberg: 1:42

I'm super excited for this conversation. So let's just jump in and learn more about with you and your store. Okay. Um, let's just talk about why you started Earth & Me, what led you to this beautiful shop? And what were you looking to create?

Kayli Kunkel: 1:58

Yeah, so I was coming off of a very different career path. I was a marketing director at a company in technology very different than what I'm doing with her than me. And the middle of the pandemic, this is June 2020, I was let go for my job, due to the pandemic. And, you know, this perfect storm moment of I was going out and protesting and doing a lot of learning and working around social justice of racial justice. I was also responding to a lot of the things happening in the city, around sanitation and waste budget cuts around composting, and some other things were going on as well. And, yeah, it was a big moment, the middle the pandemic, and I took the opportunity, after losing my job, brush myself off for a couple days. And then I sat down and I said, What do I really care about? And what matters to me? And how can I realign my work to be about that thing? So I made a list of things I wrote, supporting women, supporting women owned businesses, and supporting people of color. being intentional about, you know, what I buy from a sustainability standpoint, and supporting local my community, you know, there were a lot of community, things happening around that time, we were looking at our neighbors in a different way. I mean, we were we were the people getting each other through this crisis, right. So all of those things kind of coalesced. And I also happen to be I received a book for my birthday in June, that was all about making your own sort of homemade recipes for things like cleaners and household items, lotions. So I was kind of experimenting with that thinking, wouldn't it be cool to turn that into more of, you know, a more polished official thing? And then realizing, no, there's people out there who do this much better than I and I, I support their work. And I think it would be great to instead kind of get to know them and curate their work for my community. So that's how I got started.

Amy Loewenberg: 3:58

Wow. Well, I mean, it's definitely a great progression there for you. And you very much sound like somebody who gets something in their mind, and they just go ahead and do their studying and their research and make it happen. I mean, bravo.

Kayli Kunkel: 4:12

Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. I, and it wasn't really thinking about opening a business before that. So I think it probably took some people, including my partner by surprise, but yeah, I actually grew up with two parents who both started their own businesses. So I think that was always sort of this theme sort of pulsing in me that was ready for the moment to come out.

Amy Loewenberg: 4:33

Well, you also had some built in resources there because people who jump in and just open a store without any sort of, you know, back knowledge of it. Usually, it's a pretty eye opening experience for them.

Kayli Kunkel: 4:44

So yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And the city offers really good resources for aspiring business owners to they took a lot of courses on finances and cash flow and pricing and things like that. Yeah.

Amy Loewenberg: 4:56

Not to mention what became even that much more omnipresent for us. during a pandemic, so if you weren't aware of where they were before, it certainly was a lot easier to locate these resources now, which, you know, yeah, absolutely grateful for, you know, I'm going over your website, and I've been in your store before and I talked with you, I know that you are a zero waste business. So I want to know what the difference is between living sustainably, living sustainably and a zero waste lifestyle and, and honestly, is zero waste lifestyle even attainable? Like do we need to be zero waster? Or could we just be like maybe 50%? Or?

Kayli Kunkel: 5:35

No, that's a great question. Yeah, I don't think that it's zero waste or blast. I think any, any place on the spectrum of sustainability that one lands is is a great noble place to be. I wouldn't say there's a huge difference. But I think the Zero Waste community is really around assessing all of the areas that we consume, and, you know, throw things away. And yeah, just being really, really purposeful and intentional about all those choices within within our ability, right? I think there's, there's access questions with sustainability, like, can I afford these swaps? Can Do I have access to a place to compost my food scraps in my neighborhood? So I think Zero Waste is, is a great goal to set. And that's why we kind of name our store around that. But it's not necessarily this bar that you must meet to be part of our community.

Amy Loewenberg: 6:26

I mean, yeah, I would think that any nuance to our practices that moves towards that side of the spectrum is a benefit.

Unknown: 6:35

Totally, yeah. And, you know, we try to practice what we preach, and there's not a lot of precedent for that as a business. So, you know, we do sell things, which makes us a zero waste store that are sustainable, which means you know, the packaging is readily recyclable, refillable, and reusable, or biodegradable, or home compostable, or made of, you know, natural materials. So there's not a ton of concern about, you know, the, the way that it breaks down and back to the earth. But we also try to be a zero waste business behind the scenes. So how we operate as a retail store. So we've we've reached some great places, which took a while, right? So when we're getting our items in from our makers, you know, what is the packaging look like? We want to keep glass items safe. But how do we do that without bubble wrap, and things that are plastic. So we've we've done a lot of working with those businesses to make the items that we get into the store already, you know, sustainable. And then we do a lot of sort of packrat activities where we're, you know, we're keeping things that we receive, and using our community resources to figure out, you know, where's there a need for this? How can we repurpose this, and upcycle this? So yeah, making those choices within the business has also been an interesting journey. And we have the advantage of having this refill station in our store. So if we need things like dish soap or cleaner, thankfully, we can easily just refill it right there.

Amy Loewenberg: 7:57

Well, that you're definitely going to go into a little bit more depth. So like what we can do on a personal level, and what we can do on a professional level. You shared a bit there. But let's jump back to your real Fillory. Because you just mentioned that I you introduced that to me. I think I had seen them in some other stores. But I wasn't really aware what they were. And you basically educated me on that. So why don't you expand on the Fillory and then like, a little bit more than on the criteria that you look for and the brands that you bring into your store?

Kayli Kunkel: 8:30

Sure. So a refectory is basically what it sounds like. So it's a it's a place to bring your own containers of any type and refill with everyday products. So we have both options for things like shampoos and body washes, as well as cleaning products like dish soap, laundry detergent. And we also are growing an increasing amount of inventory around like facial products like toners and oils and things like that would usually come in a very small bottle. And we also with our new store, we're able to expand into bulk foods. So we have both grains. We have flour, spices, teas, Houstonians. Yeah, so the new store has got a lot of bulk food too, which is an area that a lot of folks in our community were asking us for help on how to reduce waste in in grocery shopping.

Amy Loewenberg: 9:20

Well, I only saw your very petite beautifully curated merchandise, gorgeous smelling like environment that just draws you in off the street store. I can only imagine what your new location is now. So

Unknown: 9:35

yeah, yeah, we've got a lot more room to play, which is great. And we also have a couple fun addition. So we have a few sort of permanent pop ups in our store from other women owned businesses. So we have a vintage like curated vintage home guns by bells and whistles. Rachel Bellman, who founded that sort of micro brand is on earth in the team and also has this talent. So I said please take up this corner of the store to do that. This awesome work. We also have Lilo goods, which is Michelle Perez, and she curates really awesome vintage clothing out of Philly. And so we've got some good options there. You know, vintage is very sustainable. Yeah. And then we also have a bakery in our shop, which is, yeah, which is owned by my friend Danielle. And her brand is eat well with Danielle. And she started making cookies and baked goods as a quarantine hobby, which turned into this amazing business in my neighborhood. So I asked her to sort of be a permanent bakery inside of our store. So that's also kind of a fun moment in there, too.

Amy Loewenberg: 10:37

That is a super fun moment. I love how you've evolved in a short period of time. Thank you. So on your site, you write that Earth and me includes Community Education and Care in your mission of sustainability, accessibility, and intersectional, environmentalism. What is intersectional environmentalism?

Kayli Kunkel: 10:59

That's a great question. So intersectionalism is a term coined by Kimberly Crenshaw. And it basically talks about the intersections of different identities and issues. So for example, you know, environmentalism is something that we are aware of, but also racism is something that we are aware of in our world. So there are intersections between environmental injustice and racial injustice, where people who are marginalized are more likely to experience climate disasters, things like pour water, as was the case in Flint, you know, we hear, we hear stories like that, but it is part of a larger trend. So for us, you know, we do our best to highlight these issues, I understand that I'm, you know, white, white woman. And so we try to pass the mic and offer our platform to as many people as we possibly can, both in our community, but also in the wider you no mission of intersectional environmentalism,

Amy Loewenberg: 11:51

you certainly provide a lot of incredible resources for your community, you're helping to drive the consciousness of empathy driven humans into this type of conversation. You have a community climate library, plant propagation program, handle recycling program, you're involved in local funding and vendor impact, as we just talked about environmental and social justice issues, always to support your messaging and beliefs. So can you just tell us just a little bit about each of these I just mentioned, and is there anything else that you would want to share?

Kayli Kunkel: 12:25

Yeah, so we have some really fun programs in the store that were kind of created organically through this great community support that we have. And we love to listen and learn from, you know, our neighbors and our friends about what they want to see in our in our space. And thankfully, we're lucky enough to have a bigger space and the ability to have these things happen. So with our community kind of library, actually, my first team member, she's no longer with us, she got this really awesome TV job. But her name is Sydney, and she had this great idea in our original store to do some education. And we thought it would be really cool to do a bookshelf with a bunch of free books around climate and zero waste, and you know, environmental justice. So we spend some time researching different books from diverse authors. And we went and bought made an initial person purchase of a bunch of books, and we offer them in our store, free of charge, just think of it as your little library, take a book, give it to a friend, bring it back. Now we have a really cool system where folks are bringing in books that we've never seen and heard of. So that's that's been really, really fun and educational. We also have a plant propagation wall. So I originally started to sell plant cuttings, which if you're not familiar, it's basically you take this mother plant that you've gotten a big pot, it's doing well. So you take a small cutting off of that and root in water. It's a very eco friendly way to grow your plant collection, because you already have the plant right there. You can share it with friends. You know how to take care of it already. So I was originally,

Amy Loewenberg: 13:58

I mean, I'm trying to take care of my plants I'm doing Yeah.

Unknown: 14:04

Airplanes maybe have a lot less loving attention than they did like the peak of quarantine. Me too. Yeah. But um, so I started selling those. But then folks were reaching out to me and saying, Hey, I've got a lot of these cuttings. I want to share them, like, Would you like to sell them or just have them in store? And I said yes. But then I realized why would I sell these if everyone's just being so generous with gifting them. So we made it a free program. So basically, we've got this wall with tiny jars and a bunch of different plant clippings. And you can come and take one or you can leave one it's not a quid pro quo. It's just you know, as as as your muscle moved, so it's really fun to see, like both the joy on someone's face when they find a plant, like it's free. It's really for me, but also the joy of just seeing new and exotic plant species pop up on the wall that folks are just kind enough to donate And then the nice with the new space. Thank you. Yeah, with the new space, we also have the community garden, which was a big pull for me of making the big schlep over to this bigger store. So the garden, we basically created it into a garden, it was originally just sort of a lot that was a little sad. So we cleaned up all the trash, we were advised by a local group, the Astoria urban ecology Alliance, around which native species to keep in the garden. So we kept some of the native plants that were already there as sort of a decorative, an educational moment. And, yeah, we outfitted it to have various events. So we've got a bunch of events that are free for the community, some events which are will be, you know, donation based or a sliding scale model to to come in, enjoy. We've hosted some local artists, their, their performances, we've done some sessions around plant medicine, we did a fire cider making workshop, which was really fun, and kind of spooky, spooky way to start the following season. So there's there's a lot of cool opportunities in our store to have, you know, moments of community and connection and everything has grown organically from just community feedback. So we're always open to those ideas.

Amy Loewenberg: 16:12

Oh, I love it. I love it. Um, is this lot right next to your store?

Kayli Kunkel: 16:18

It's actually in our backyard.

Amy Loewenberg: 16:20

Well, that just sounds amazing. And it also sounds like everything that you've grown and developed to this point has been like community fueled, your growth is is definitely based on the kindness of community.

Unknown: 16:36

Yeah, absolutely, yes. And even the choice to open the physical store in where in the neighborhood that I did, it was based on that. So I was doing pop ups prior to opening the physical brick and mortar store. And no matter where I did took the pop ups in different neighborhoods, the folks in the story community were the ones to come out and support me, even people that I barely knew at the time. So it's been very community driven.

Amy Loewenberg: 17:03

I love it, I love it. Well, I'm definitely being more informed allows us to move into areas where we are, you know, dreaming of living in, it's definitely getting easier to see that more people are starting their journey towards sustainability. One of the most difficult things about trying to be more sustainable as knowing where to start. Because, you know, more importantly, like, where to shop. And, and but like, like most impactful social changes, there are those of us who can embrace it by utilizing the people in the resources that are making these efforts easier for us to implement in our lives, both personally and professionally. Unfortunately, there are also those who can hear it and eco friendly language but not actually practice what they preach. I read that this is called greenwashing, which is providing misleading marketing messages that convey products is environmentally friendly. Coming out of being a VP of Marketing, as you said before, a director of marketing, this is probably something that must just chap your high. So the big question is, you know, sustainability is not a one size fits all. And we need to take measures to verify which brands and businesses are actually making a difference for our planet. And you talked a little bit about this before, but like, can you share like an eco friendly checklist that we can think about before making purchases from any brand? Claiming to be a sustainable business?

Kayli Kunkel: 18:34

Yeah, yeah, it's a really great point you raise. It's really it's really tricky, right? For a consumer. Yeah, we want to make a difference, but is, you know, bombarded with all these confusing messages, like, Yeah, I think, one existing food, for example, like, what is organic versus natural versus free range versus this or that? Yeah, it's really hard to parse through it all. And the, the truth of the matter is, we don't have really good regulatory systems around what a lot of those terms actually mean. So I would I would suggest, you know, my wheelhouse is more around consumer goods a little bit less around the food. I do have some thoughts to share about that. But I think my, my real, my real help here is consumer goods. So I would say that just start you know, when you when you see a brand selling you something that they're calling eco friendly, you want to look for them to elaborate on that a little bit. So does that mean that the item has you know, natural ingredients? When I mean natural, I mean, you know, things that are actually on the earth like essential oils or herbs or, you know, things like that not necessarily, you know, synthetics. So that would be one question I would ask is what what do they actually mean by that? Do they have elaborations sustainable packaging sustainable ingredients? Or, you know, the other side is does it help you Make a more sustainable swap. So beeswax wraps, for example. So you know, a lot of us are used to using plastic or aluminum foil, that a beeswax wrap is a piece of cloth with, you know, beeswax on it and some oils and natural oil. And that helps you cover your dishes in a way that you're kind of repeating, repeating use of that one item instead of throwing something away. So you want it you want to dig in a little bit. I would say you really want to look at the packaging as well. So if something is eco friendly, you know, I've seen packs of metal straws, which are a great alternative to plastic straws, but they're wrapped in a plastic container. Oh yeah, I was just gonna say I bet there's probably a lot of contradiction going on. Oh, yeah, you gotta we gotta wonder right? I mean, yeah, it really makes you question the, the integrity of the, the item and the person who produced

Amy Loewenberg: 20:51

it. Yeah, I mean, it makes it makes you think of who you're buying from, like, if this story is important to you, versus the story and the ethos of the company that you're working for don't align, then you know, where you fall on that spectrum is maybe a little questionable.

Unknown: 21:11

Yeah, absolutely. And I to that point, I like to look at all of the products that that brand offers. So if they only have a couple options that are quote, unquote, eco friendly, but everything else is more conventional or wrapped in plastic or kind of unnecessary packaging. That really makes me question their motives. And you know, it's still a good thing to choose the environmentally conscious option, especially if that's the one that's available and affordable to you. But you got to wonder what their impact is behind the scenes if they're only prioritizing this in some cases. That makes sense.

Amy Loewenberg: 21:43

Yeah, makes perfect sense. So you say sustainability quality and affordability shouldn't be mutually exclusive. You actually said that earlier in our podcast. So how does one live sustainably as we enter into 2022?

Unknown: 21:57

Yeah, great question, I would say one of the best places to start is with composting. So composting is a really good way to divert all of your food waste, from you know, vegetable scraps, to pasta, to breads, and things like that into a circular system where it then becomes usable compost, which is great for plants and gardens. So, and also, you know, it also alleviates a lot of the wastes that food produces and also a lot of the harmful gases that are produced in that breakdown process. So composting is a really big and easy one, I would say that in my home, when we started composting last year, we do it religiously now. And we only take out our garbage like once every couple weeks, and it's a very small hand. So that made a huge difference. So that's a really big one. There's a lot of resources available. If you do a quick Google search around composting, especially for New York City. Besides that, I would say focus on you know, one area, if you're kind of new to sustainability, or the idea of refilling something I would either choose to start with, you know, either a beauty regime, or sorry, a beauty regimen. Or maybe it's your kitchen, maybe it's your dish soap and your sponge. Maybe it's your bathroom, and it's your hand soap in your shampoo. So I would pick an area to start and then tap into this community that we have, you know, reach out to us at Or can we come into the store, we're more than happy to teach you what we know, even if it's not around, like our products that we have available. And yeah, start following some good accounts on Instagram. I think intersectional environmentalist is a great one that I've been following. Try to follow some zero wasters. If you look up like hashtag zero waste, you'll find some really great ones. I'm a big fan of zero waste Japan, which has a lot of interesting approaches to a low waste lifestyle that come out of Japanese tradition. Yeah, I think those are all good places to start. But just start small, don't get overwhelmed. I don't think the quote unquote zero waste lifestyle is something you need to set as your impossible bar, whether you're, you know, making a couple steps or you're fully fully embracing it. I think it's all very valid.

Amy Loewenberg: 24:14

Yeah, I'm a pretty methodic person, I think I have to kind of jump in at like maybe 10. And I'll do something like that. And then I'll just growing on it. Once I see that it's easy and not scary and very achievable, then then I can start gaining a little bit of speed there. I'll definitely I will definitely look up what hash tag DID YOU SAY THAT WAS? Zero waste? Zero Waste. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. It makes sense to just see who else is following them and then just do you're excluding that way. Something that you said that kind of just clarified something for me or just had me suddenly think about this in a very different manner. may sound a little silly or Fundamental but you said a circular system. And and suddenly it just kind of like opened up for me like everything that I look at and do if I think of on some sort of circular spectrum, I'll be able to draw my lines very quickly if there's like a gap there somewhere, or if it's a, you know, a workable formula.

Kayli Kunkel: 25:20

Yeah, absolutely. I think thinking of everything that you take into your life as something that you then are responsible for where it ends up in this world. And I don't just mean, you know, the garbage bag on the curb for trash pickup day. I mean, genuinely, what where does it go down the road? Yeah, I think we can get easily fooled into thinking like, oh, I'll just donate this or I'll you know, and that's not necessarily the right answer. It starts with consumption, right? What am I taking in? And then doing some research, like, what happens to textile waste? Or what happens to food waste? And just being a little curious about that? That's great. And I'm here, I'm a huge advocate of developing an appetite for like, thrifted and vintage times because you know, those things have their good quality one because they've been in rotation for how many decades? And they're still around? Yeah. Yeah, they're physically still here. They're not threadbare. Yeah. So that's, that's a huge one. And also, it's, I love the people that curate, Rachel and Michelle that curate the vintage finds in our shop, because they love the stories of the items that they bring in. And there's such an energy to each item. For example, Michelle was telling me she went to this estate sale for an older woman who passed and she knew this whole woman's life story. So she had this fabulous life of like working in, like the Peace Corps, and then she traveled and collected these like worldly possessions and her whole life is very interesting. So for her to say, this is you know, Joanne's dress or whoever whoever that person was, is actually a really beautiful kind of a little spooky, but also kind of a beautiful special thing.

Amy Loewenberg: 27:00

No, it's beautiful. It keeps Joanne's spirit alive you know, it's just it's kind of beautiful. Really. Um, I think it would be remiss of us not to dive into your store a little bit more before we go because your store is just I mean let's let's talk about some of your products not that we haven't talked about you and your your burritos but just you know, I was there for a pop up event that you were doing you featured a I believe women owned businesses. You had you know, little Anna, who we love like you know bags by Anna, who is repurposing fabrics and making these clutches she actually was a an exhibitor at New York now on the digital market, I believe, and dynamic young woman in her own right. But you also have and celebrate local artisans. I know you have a huge Astoria fan and fan base. So share a little bit about the incredible products that you have in your store.

Kayli Kunkel: 28:03

Yeah, we've kind of we've got a wide variety of things. So we have some really amazing skincare products. When you first walk into the store, we have a big shelf to the right, that's all kind of skincare and personal care. So you can find things from like really special bath bombs to body butters, lots of wonderful facial oils, toners moisturizers, which you know, you look at the ingredients and it's all like very recognizable small lists of things. And you also can see the branding of each item which is very special. And we try to have a little cards around the teach you about the maker themselves, which is very nice. And a lot of them are local as well to Queens or to New York City. And we also have in the middle of the store have a big sort of display table or a few tables rather now that have really special gift items. So we have some ceramics we have some recycled glass and pictures and glasses. We have some beautiful textiles which organic cotton, lots of greeting cards which are all made with 100% recycled paper. Really special designs for lots of different occasions and completely unpackage she's grabbed the garden filled out

Unknown: 29:17

and then we've got towards the back we've got some really great household cleaning items. So we have a bunch of wooden brushes, many things made out of sizzle and LUFA some natural plant based materials, you know that biodegrade back at the end of their life. Lots of cleaning products with very natural ingredients and refillable bottles and then we have a lot of interesting refills as well. So we have we carry pods by the brand drops, which is a very well known, highly regarded eco friendly brand for things like dish detergent, laundry detergent, oxy booster, things like that. And then you'll see the food recall section as well. which has, you know, these really beautiful big sort of apothecary jars full of like teas and spices. And it's a really special feeling when you walk up and you see that and I wanted it to feel sort of like your kitchen counter. So you can pull down the jar, or we can help you and bring your little bottle and fill it up. And then we weigh it. And it's it's a very sort of person to person process. And the whole the whole process of buying an item in store comes with a lot of questions like What do you recommend? What's in this? Who makes us and what is good for and our team is very happy to be answering those types of questions do

Amy Loewenberg: 30:32

well, I would like to say the first time I was in there, the team was you and your dog. So it sounds like you've expanded just a little bit. Yeah, we definitely have a larger team now, which is great.

Kayli Kunkel: 30:46

So we have currently four part time team members and the addition of myself. In addition to myself. And everybody's really great. Everyone brings very unique backgrounds and interests and skills and but everybody has really great energy and just a love for the community.

Amy Loewenberg: 31:05

That's what makes it dynamic. Honestly, I just I cannot wait to get back out there and see what you've done. You've been on my mind since the day I met you. I'm glad that we finally were able to make this happen. Have I left anything out? Is there anything that you'd like to share, but definitely let us know how people can connect with you and earthen knee?

Kayli Kunkel: 31:25

Yeah, please give us a follow. We're mostly on Instagram. So our Instagram handle is Earth and me dot NYC. And that's a really good central place for us to connect with our audience. We share a lot of events, a lot of environmental tips, some behind the scenes stuff, when we're restocking or working with our partners, you'll get to meet the team that way. So it's a really great place for us to, to kind of share updates and news events, and also receive feedback. We put out a lot of polls as well on there. So like what do you want to see for spices? What do you want to see for know personal care products. And we do read that and we do respond to that. We also have our website, it's Earth and me CO CO and you can see our products, as you know as good as we've done at that moment at updating the website. So I really recommend people come into the store. If they can, if they can make it we're open every day 11 to seven, but we're closed on Mondays. And even after hours. We're getting some events through the through the month of November. So please check those out on our Instagram. We'll be sharing what we're what we're bringing your way. Well, it sounds incredibly exciting. I look forward to walking with you in the aisles of New York now is our own duty wellness and sustainability offerings grow within our exhibitors, which is absolutely a focus of ours. Yeah, thank you. I really enjoyed my first experience. Earlier this year, I was able to connect with a lot of really amazing businesses that we're doing some really special sustainable things. So I'm looking forward to being back.

Amy Loewenberg: 33:07

Well, you are invited back. And I'm glad that we could introduce you to the world of trade shows via New York now.So with that, I say thank you so much, and we will see you soon.

Kayli Kunkel: 33:21

Awesome. Thank

Amy Loewenberg: 33:22

you. Thank you so much for joining us today. I hope you enjoyed our conversation as much as I did. As we should all be making smarter choices for the benefit of our planet and the human race. Kaylee and earth in me offers us ethical and environmentally friendly products, local artisan made goods, educational programs, and a community strong store all wrapped up in a zero waste bow. Please look them up and follow Earth in me and if you're in Astoria, make it a point to stop by. And don't forget New York now is now an online 365 sourcing and connection platform. Make sure to sign up and sign in and definitely connect with me when you do. Thank you so much again, and I'll talk with you soon.

Dondrill Glover: 34:06

Thank you for listening to the New York now podcast. Make sure to tune in weekly for engaging and insightful conversations. Touching on the most relevant topics facing our community today is your gmail.com to learn more about our market and how you can join in the conversation