A Conversation with Emily Friedberg of Each Peach Market
On the surface, Washington D.C. is known for politics, a city of marble and museums. Most people who visit don’t make it outside of the downtown mall, near the Smithsonian and Lincoln Memorial, neglecting a treasure trove of unique neighborhoods, each with their own independent shops and vibrant culture.
Our first DC feature is Each Peach Market. Each Peach Market was founded in 2013 by Emily Friedberg and Jeanlouise Conaway, two friends who met in Washington DC while working together on USAID projects. Small shops are quite popular right now - there seems to be this Tik Tok element that’s honing in on shoppy shops (term coined by Emily Sundberg) as a lifestyle choice. Far from it. These shops are really tough to run. Everything from merchandising to displays, pricing, taxes. insurance, employee management, and everything else is the ultimate responsibility of the founders. What makes Emily and Jeanlouise so cool is that they’ve been running their shop for 11 years and are still engaged and committed to continuing to build and grow. Running a shop that has wine tastings and a rotating selection of local fruits and vegetables from nearby farms takes a ton of energy. I am not referring to energy in a sort of amorphous vibes sense (though that too), I mean literal, physical, effort over time. Unlike a lot of corporate jobs, there aren’t any days when you can phone it in. Anything that doesn’t get done one day has to be done the next. It’s hard, really hard. Emily and Jeanlouise have a great team they work with, and they have deliberately chosen to have more rather than less employees. Rather than trying constantly to cut costs and optimize, optimize, optimize, their team (and thus them) has a bit more balance and a bit more time to do really engage with their customers and their products. What I am approaching in a rather circuitous way is this sense that they aren’t purely profit focused. They get asked all the time if they would open another shop up in a fancy new hyper-expensive building and they consistently say no. They know what they’re working on and working towards, and they approach their work in a way that mirrors their values. In my opinion that’s worth celebrating.
We had the chance to catch up with Emily at the shop, hear about how they got started, and what keeps them going today.
Photo Credit: Jen Chase
Why did you open Each Peach Market?
I was moving back to DC after working in consulting in California. Jeanlouise was working as a baker in Ohio. Throughout the years, we talked about opening a small corner grocer that carried local, fresh food, at reasonable prices, that would inspire people to cook.
Ironically, right before opening Each Peach Market, Mark Furstenberg, the owner of the local bakery Breadfurst, wrote an article in the Washington Post about the lack of high-quality food and markets in DC. Soon after that article was published, Each Peach Market opened up and even got a mention in the response by the Washington City Paper. We’ve been around since 2013 and are still a part of the Mount Pleasant community. We’ve seen other shops come and go, but we're glad to be a cornerstone in this community.
Talk to us about the process of opening Each Peach Market.
Even though we did our research and had plenty of conversations, we still didn't fully know what we were getting ourselves into, but does any entrepreneur?!
In regards to choosing the right location, we had a lot of people telling us a lot of different things about analyzing foot traffic and density to find the best spot.
We also had support from some other incredible shop owners like Sam from Bi-Rite, a well known grocery store in San Francisco. Sam was willing to share his financials, and this really helped us understand the costs of owning and operating a successful store.
Also, the owner of Zingerman’s, a well-known deli in Ann Arbor, Michigan, was incredibly helpful. He told us the 10 products that we should carry right off the bat.
What's the best piece of advice you received about running a store?
Launch a minimal viable product. That means get open as quickly as possible and start churning cash since you can’t survive without it. We didn’t take outside funding and have been self-funded since day one. We quickly got the store up and running and have been growing ever since!
Photo Credit Jen Chase
Now that you've owned a shop for over 10 years, what advice would you give to future shop owners?
Grocery store margins are razor thin, you need to diligently manage your inventory and waste. For example, we sell a lot of fresh produce and highly perishable products, so we strategically created a prepared foods department to reduce potential product waste in a cost effective, creative, and tasty way!
You should also search for multiple revenue streams and ways to engage with customers. We do catering, gift boxes, grocery and sandwich delivery, cheese classes and subscriptions. The cheese classes really allow us to showcase the store while the catering & delivery allow us to expand beyond our brick-and-mortar.
Why the name Each Peach?
Well, it’s named after the children’s fairy tale book “Each Peach Pear Plumb.” We previously had a café called Pear Plum two doors down that served local coffee, pastries and breakfast, but unfortunately, that shut down during the pandemic. We have a bit of a fairytale theme going (See our Goldilock’s Coffee Blend) so if we ever expand we will likely keep it in that vein.
What's your favorite item in the store?
My personal go-to snack is the Kolsvart Swedish Fish, but I have a few other items I love like our coffee, which we produced with local D.C. roaster Small Planes. We also have amazing artisanal bread from local bakeries like A Baked Joint.
Anything coming up that you're excited about?
We’re about to launch a private label Summer White Wine with Loew Vineyards!