AI Summary
5 min readErica Barris, co-host of Planet Money, was in a hotel room near Los Angeles, nervously rehearsing a pitch. She was about to step into a room with two representatives from a major big-box retailer—the kind of company that decides which products get seen by millions of shoppers. The product she was pitching was Sell Me a Sasquatch, a board game inspired by a Nobel Prize-winning economics paper, created in partnership with the game company Exploding Kittens. The stakes were unusually high: this was the Planet Money team’s first chance to follow a product all the way from concept to the shelves of the country’s biggest stores. The episode traces that journey, from the closed-door pitch meeting to the frantic final hours before the game files were shipped to a factory in China.
Inside the Line Review
The meeting Erica walked into was part of a process called a “line review.” Twice a year, retail buyers for big-box stores evaluate their entire product category—board games, in this case—to decide what to keep, what to cut, and what to add for the upcoming season. Exploding Kittens had prepared 13 prototype games to pitch. Erica’s job was to stand up in front of the buyers and explain why the Planet Money game deserved a spot on their shelves.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Setup: The Mission to Get Inside Big Box** - Erica Barris nervously heads to Exploding Kittens headquarters in LA because two representatives from a major big box retailer are coming to evaluate new games.
- 2 (06:00) **Why Big Box Still Matters** - 81% of U.S. retail spending still happens in physical stores, and Planet Money has never gotten inside this system before.
- 3 (07:24) **Pitch Prep: The Line Review Process** - Six hours before the meeting, Erica arrives at Exploding Kittens to prepare for what's called a "line review."
- 4 (13:33) **The Pitch: What the Buyers Actually Cared About** - After the meeting, Erica calls Kenny to debrief, and the buyers' concerns were not what she expected.
- 5 (18:02) **Inside the Buyer's Mind: Former Target Buyer Matt Adleman** - The team interviews a former big box buyer to understand what the people on the other side of the table are really thinking.
- 6 (21:25) **The Long Wait and the Big News** - After months of silence, Exploding Kittens calls with an update.
- 7 (27:24) **The 24-Hour Mad Dash to Finalize the Game** - One month later, the team is summoned to Exploding Kittens for a frantic finalization session.
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Show Notes
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This episode of Planet Money was produced by Emma Peaslee. It was edited by Marianne McCune. It was fact checked by Sierra Juarez. It was engineered by Robert Rodriguez and Jimmy Keeley. Planet Money’s executive producer is Alex Goldmark.
Music: NPR Source Audio - "Silly Sevens," "Adventure Time," and "Virtual Machine"
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